Making a Murderer

After watching this I will never set foot in the State of Wisconsin. What was done to this man was a fate worse than death. I am normally a supporter of the police but not in WI.

I've been binge watching this and I'm halfway thru season 2 and all I can say is I'm thoroughly disgusted with the cops, prosecutors, judges, jurors all of them. All one needs to do is watch the very 1st time Brendan's so-called confession tape was aired in the series! That CHILD had NO CLUE what the interrogators were talking about nor what they wanted him to say. This boy was, no IS so innocent, that when they started their LEADING questions regarding "what happened around her head area"...after a long bout of silence he responds quote: "I CUT HER HAIR?". That is how innocent and non-violent Brendan is. That the first thing he could think of ON HIS OWN was a freaking HAIRCUT!!! Those interrogators were SO frustrated by his obvious lack of knowledge of what happened to the poor woman that they announced for all of us to see THAT THEY TOLD HIM she was shot in the head. Haircut to a Bullet in the Brain. Despicable. Wisconsin is full of corrupt cops, prosecutors, state attorneys, forensic analysts, and judges...in at least TWO COUNTIES. SHAME ON YOU!

Making a Murderer documents the true story of Steven Avery, sent to prison under questionable circumstances, exonerated on DNA evidence 18 years later, and accused of murder shortly thereafter under equally questionable circumstances.

MaM, ten hours long, is gripping throughout. The story is revealed chronologically, paced so perfectly to leave the viewer gasping at regular intervals, yet never feeling manipulated. But make no mistake: the filmmakers do have an opinion. And by the end of MaM, it is an opinion you will share.

The comparisons to gems like Paradise Lost and The Jinx are inevitable. Up until now, Paradise Lost represented the pinnacle of the genre; MaM tells its story similarly, yet surpasses PL. Where The Jinx, an otherwise excellent documentary, left me with a bad taste, feeling that the truth played second fiddle to its filmmakers' ambitions, MaM never focuses on its creators. The drama is narrated only by the players, the argument made convincingly by historical footage, media and police manipulation made plain not by rhetoric, but by the simple evidence provided by context.

Avery's story, as presented in MaM, is a horrifying story that leaves one infuriated at law enforcement, politicians, and news media. Not generally one for righteous indignation, this was the first series I've ever watched from which I had to take regular breaks out of sheer rage. Avery's story is not a pleasant or uplifting one. But it is as well-told as any I've seen.

It's hard to put into words how moving this documentary series was. The view of this work from 30,000 feet is perhaps that it is a beautiful but tragic depiction of the powerful versus the powerless in the context of the American criminal justice system, and a haunting reminder of what human beings are capable of when we believe the ends justify the means. The view on the ground - from a very intimate front row seat in Steven Avery's hometown of Manitowoc, WI - is that one man likely endured not one, but two of the most egregious injustices imaginable.

One thing that sets this series apart from previous shows in this genre (like NPR's Serial) is that the producers never once make an appearance on camera, nor does the viewer ever hear their voices, at least not in a literal sense. Instead, they rely on interviews, court proceedings, news clips, and telephone and video recordings to tell the story, often against the backdrop of the Avery's family compound. In a simple and clean way, the series is beautifully shot. And the story itself... unbelievable. But even the most reasonable, even skeptical viewer will have to grapple with the theories put forward. Theories that would seem a reach at best if it weren't for the overwhelming hard evidence unfolding, on film, right before your eyes.

I started out by saying that it was hard to describe how moving this documentary was, and I actually found myself transitioning through the same emotional states (albeit to a much lesser degree) that the key figures seemed to experience: from shock and disbelief to anger and ultimately to a sense of despair.

To me, what separates television and film that constitutes true "art" from that which is merely entertaining, is that it reveals something perhaps not so obvious but nonetheless true about human nature or the human experience. This easily surpasses that standard, but what makes it particularly chilling is that this is not a carefully constructed fictional plot designed to pull our heart strings. This actually happened. And it happened to real a person. To a real family.

I should have been in bed 5 hours ago but I can't stop watching the new chapter of the Avery Saga. The miscarriage of justice is frighteningly insurmountable. Being a screenwriter, if this were a movie I was going to write, I would never have been able to use this plot. I wouldn't have believed an audience would accept such a series of ludacris events like the mishandling and planting of evidence, unethical prosecutorial actions and the total and complete lack of ability to self examine their actions, due to fear. Fear because they've fully committed to their guilty story and if found innocent, how bad they'll look.