(CNN)Serial killers will be all over TV this weekend, which isn’t particularly unusual these days. Yet the latest mini-wave devoted to the most sordid murderers — including the return of Netflix’s “Mindhunter” — underscores the tension between feeding fascination with the topic and inadvertently glamorizing it.

The summer has already produced a robust discussion over “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” director Quentin Tarantino’s film that draws much of its sizzle from the heinous crimes associated with Charles Manson 50 years ago.