Inside the once-controversial trend that took over true crime TV

When "The Thin Blue Line" was released in 1988, members of the motion picture academy's documentary committee were so put off by the film's distinctive style - particularly director Errol Morris' then-remarkable use of subjective reenactments, inspired by "Rashomon" - that they walked out of an official screening.

And though the landmark film, which investigates the 1976 murder of a Dallas police officer, ultimately led to the exoneration of a wrongfully convicted man on death row, it was controversial enough that it failed to receive an Academy Award nomination.

Once anathema, the brand of highly stylized re-creation Morris pioneered is now ubiquitous, particularly on the small screen. As long-form true crime docuseries have surged in popularity over the last half-decade, so has the use of impressionistic re-creations providing a fragmented look at the past rather than a literal