Very few crime dramas survive any more unless they have spectacular crimes.
When I was growing up, the grotesque was rare and generally remarked upon. An alien emerging from someones stomach was horrifying back then, even if by today’s standards the SE were almost laughable.
Very few people rooted for the criminals, or so I suppose. But rooting for the criminal is the essence of most horror franchises any more, and they are very popular. Hannibal Lector, the cannibal psychistrist (there is some symbology), became a hero.
Is it really asking too much to see connections between all this and, not the rate of violence, but the QUALITY of it, in our modern world?