The Staircase

I wont go over the whole story here as many other have already done so. Yes, this is a tragic story and has some interesting twists. Yes, I feel that justice was not well served for this whole investigation and trial. However, this 13 episode series could have easily been edited down to 6 or 7 episodes. There is SO much fluff. There are SO many scenes that drag on or rehash the same info. The characters are just not that interesting to hear them go on and on. They even have drawn out scenes of cars parking or driving away or people walking...nothing going on. No drama. No storytelling. No point. It makes a slow story feel a LOT slower.

If you want to watch a police documentary don't watch this one because the mystery is still here (even though there are certain theories going around on the internet, I'll let you look by yourself).

This documentary is about a broken justice system that doesn't allow the defendant the fair ability to defend themselves. The State is the prosecution so why would they handle themselves all the evidence? It needs an unbiased third party to handle such evidence. Politics come into play in all aspect of society and it's just sad that it also colors the justice system, which should be politic-free and unbiased, always.

If you think "I'm not into true crime documentaries, I'll pass" please do yourself a favour - don't think of it as a "crime doc".

This case has been one of the biggest and most controversial cases in recent times and if you have no idea of who Michael Peterson is you will be gripped by all the episodes.

Having previously watched the released episodes before Netflix premiered the series, adding 3 more, I had already formed an opinion and thought that 3 episodes would not make a huge difference. I was wrong. If the twists, turns, anger, love and incredible, mind-bending insider views weren't already enough, every single episode added had an incredible emotional charge to them.

This is not your usual "true crime" documentary. Yes, we have seen how the genre has expanded to showing the BTS footage, how Making A Murderer caught the attention of the whole world but trying not no spoil it... I would say MAM leaves a lot unsaid or "to be presumed" by the viewer. While The Staircase focuses on Michael Peterson and can easily be argued as "biased", I don't see how this particular case would have been fairly presented without that "bias". Meaning, all that is revealed (until the very last minutes of the last episode) will make you understand why Michael Peterson had the opportunity to be presented the way he is in this documentary.

If Making a Murderer did come up with several issues and questions were raised, they were just that - opening lines for possibilities that never got solved or resolved (most of them are still open for dispute).

But The Staircase is filled with facts and presentations of evidence that will for sure make everyone rethink about the whole justice system.

If you are familiar with the Owl Theory and don't understand why this wasn't discussed I would guess that it was a good effort to keep the bias to a minimum - not attempting to offer a solution, the viewer is left with what I believe to be the main core information. The flaws of a system are exposed - the flaws that everyone knows about but no one seems keen on solving... It is very disturbing (even for someone who is a fan of the true crime genre) to hear and clearly understand from the words and actions of the players involved in a murder case what *exactly* can go wrong - and why.

This was a brilliant, gripping series I watched in only 2 days because the revelations never end. I was not expecting to know much more about the case I was already familiar with but I was wrong.

I hope this documentary finds its way out of the true crime genre because even though it starts from a murder charge, everything else comes down to empathy, emotions, social and family relationships and a whole lot about how we, as a society, can be easily swayed from our very core beliefs.

You will laugh, you will cry, you will yell at the screen. No matter how you *personally* welcome what the director presents you, the raw honesty and the human emotions will affect you - from everyone involved in this tragedy.

I would say this is probably the best true crime doc I've seen, easily. And from someone who watches trials and live streams of these cases, I had never learned so much about the humanity (or lack thereof) and emotions going on in these procedures.

Don't read spoilers, don't read about the case if you have the chance to avoid it. This goes way beyond what is presented in any website you might read about it.

There's much (apparent) simplicity on the way the images are presented but they do serve a higher purpose - for the viewer to be able to live every situation as if it was happening to them.

Congratulations on the marvellous completion of 13 episodes and I truly hope every documentary lover will watch this, not only true-crime genre fans...

Reading all these reviews after I finished watching the show what I realized is that most people don't realize what the criminal justice system should be all about. It's not about deciding if Peterson is innocent or not. It is also not about what your common sense tells you about what happened. Any person who is charged with something is "not guilty" unless proven "guilty" beyond reasonable doubts. And in this particular case it was prosecutors burden to prove that. The only thing which is begging us to give attention in this series is the broken criminal justice system and the fact that the DA will go any length to put someone behind the bars. This guy had some money so he could fight against it whether he killed his wife or not. But think about this possibility: you're poor and your wife died by an accident and they think you murdered her. So they will do whatever is there to do to put you away for good. And you cannot do anything about it because you are poor. The justice system is biased and rigged against the poor. Whether we think OJ or Peterson killed their wives doesn't mean anything. The prosecutors have to prove beyond reasonable doubts that they are guilty without masterminding the evidence and/or bringing prejudicial matters as evidence. The judge was not wise enough to stop that in Petersons case which he should have stopped. It's not like we can execute some innocent people for the sake of executing a lot of guilty people. If you are not proven guilty then you are not guilty and that's the bottom line. Just because something goes along smoothly according to our common sense doesn't make them right. You have to produce evidence what matters. I agree what David said in one episode, "the absence of evidence is not same as evidence of absence". No one knows if he killed his wife except himself until you can prove otherwise by the evidence of presence. If the prosecutors went for the DNA in her clothing straight forward maybe they would have better case against him rather than fabricating with the evidence. True they could have brought some more perspectives from the prosecutors side. It would have been really interesting to see their reaction after the Deaver things came out. But overall it's an average crime documentary with not very high quality. I'll put a 8 star and encourage you to watch it if you have some time to spare.

What happened the night of December 9, 2001 will never be known. Did Michael Peterson, an established author and mayor, kill his wife Kathleen Peterson or have the past twenty years of his life been an endless tragedy? At the conclusion of this docuseries, I still do not know if he killed his wife or not.

This series is shot over many years with most of the episodes filmed in 2002-2003. For some strange reason, it seems that there is a vendetta to charge Michael Peterson with first degree manslaughter. The prosecution is convinced that he has killed his wife, but there is not really any proof that he did so.

I will not share the evidence that the prosecution has, but all of it is very slim and circumstantial. I was left with the feeling that everyone involved with the prosecution were complete morons and did not seem to listen to any form of logic.

It's their ineptitude that causes a hearing later on to address Michael Peterson's trial. Several pieces of information are brought to light that demonstrate the police's desire to blame Michael Peterson for the death of his wife (none of which I will disclose).

I do want to add that I thought Michael Peterson was a very odd individual. His tone of voice was strange and he always seemed to be pretending to be someone he is not. His choice of attorney, David Rudolf, was not the best selection as well. He allowed those on the witness stand to try to persuade the jury of Michael Peterson's guilt rather than the standard yes or no questions that a defense attorney typically employs. After the trial concludes, it feels like a different series.

This series was interesting as it morphed with the later episodes. It stopped focusing on the trial and instead became a story about Michael Peterson's family. It humanized the story and, as a viewer, I sought closure for Michael Peterson and his family. However, the episodes that were about his family felt too slow and it bothered me.

The Staircase is a daunting thirteen episodes and it is just too long. The pacing is a little uneven, but it is still fascinating. I just think that it can easily be ten episodes and the pacing would probably be better as well.

It is still an amazing docuseries and I highly recommend it. Just be aware of how long it is and that it can be somewhat boring at times. Thank you for reading this review.