Stream It Or Skip It: ‘TikTok Star Murders’ on Peacock, A Documentary Chronicling the Murder of Ana Abulaban At The Hands of Husband TikToker

It’s old news that true crime is en vogue for Hollywood, but the latest strain of the genre hones in on how social media, online fame, and its rise of influencer culture have created an environment for dark deeds. Does the story of Ana Abulaban’s murder at the hands of her influencer husband Ali make for compelling true crime TV?

TIKTOK STAR MURDERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The title, which feels like the beginning of a salacious headline, says it all: the documentary follows a popular TikTok star @jinnkid (real name, Ali Abulaban) whose rise to online fame led to him murdering his wife Ana Abulaban and friend Rayburn Cardenas Barron.

What Will It Remind You Of?: The intersection between TikTok and true crime has been popular with streaming services as of late, and this documentary covers the familiar ground of the downsides of overnight social media stardom and fame as the Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult Netflix docuseries.

Performance Worth Watching: With how much recording that Ali did — of both his skits and real conversations between him and Ana — his descent into jealousy and madness ironically got him exactly what he was after all along: to be the star of his story.

Memorable Dialogue: “Success on TikTok is a numbers game, and Ali becomes obsessed with it,” Rolling Stone journalist and talking head Andrea Marks explains. “It’s his path to fame and ultimately that path reveals the dark underbelly of social media.”

Sex and Skin: There is a lot of explicit content in this one, but nothing of sexual nature.

Our Take: There is something morbidly compelling about true crime — Americans love a soapy story with criminal underpinnings and psychological distress. It’s even better when the person is someone in the public eye. The newest wave of true crime has centered on the Internet’s fame monsters: influencers. In TikTok Star Murders, Ana and Ali Abulaban’s story takes center stage and chronicles Ali’s descent into jealousy and ultimately murder by way of the quest for fame and hard drug use.

The Peacock documentary itself is a pretty straightforward telling of the story. It starts with Ali’s beginnings as a Muslim kid growing up in Virginia with a flair for performing. He joins the military and meets his future wife Ana, who is Filipino, while stationed in Japan, and turns to impersonations and short skits on social media as a way to feed his acting desire. As the follower count increases, so do the expectations, and suddenly Ali is the type of influencer who snorts cocaine on his Live feed. He begins to pick fights with Ana, which are recorded for no other apparent reason other than to feed his ego, and through these harrowing snippets we can see the amount of verbal abuse and berating she endures. In one, Ana calls Ali’s mom for help; her mother-in-law tells her to leave him. In another, Ali speaks to cops who arrive on a domestic abuse complaint and paints Ana as a helpless immigrant who owes her entire life to Ali.

There are quite a few mentions of Ali’s infatuation with violent characters (like Tony Montana from Scarface), which a psychologist talking head deems a red flag. I wanted this film to dive into it further and drive more meaningful connections into who Ali was before and after his fame — especially as he blamed media (both social and not) for warping his thinking and actions.

This seems to be the biggest disappointment of the entire documentary: TikTok Star Murders is compelling, but often forgets to fill in the most interesting details of the story. What exact expectations did he find himself under when it came to posting for his fans? Why was his mom so willingly on Ana’s side? How did their respective cultures play into the way they showed up in the relationship? How did their childhoods influence their reactions?

It’s hard to grade whether Ana’s story is worth telling, because it absolutely is. But does TikTok Star Murders work as a documentary? I’d venture to say yes, as far as depicting male infatuation with violence and the consequences that could stem from idolizing a character like Tony Montana. But I do wish the filmmaker had wanted to dive a little deeper into what made Ali who he was and what could drive him to such a jealous and terrible outcome.

Our Call: STREAM IT. For true crime ‘heads, this story shows the perils of unchecked thirst for stardom and the pitfalls of a chronically online life.

Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, ELLE.com, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.