Soupçons

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.

A good story kinda ruined by Netflix. Drags on for what seems like an eternity & i lost interest. I just ended up asking a friend how it ended.

I found this to be a very captivating documentary. I didn't find it to be too long like other reviewers mentioned but I will agree that it is somewhat biased. I've never seen a doc that goes into as much detail as this one did. If you enjoy watching lawyers argue and try to prove their points to a jury then you will definitely enjoy this.

I went through a similar ordeal with law enforcement and the assistant DA that wanted to win a promotion to DA. My son was accused of a crime that he did not do and they had zero evidence and and he had never had any brush with the legal system but they wanted a good case that would make headlines. I had always trusted the law enforcement system and believed you are innocent until proven guilty but it the opposite. You are guilty and we had to spend $247,000 on legal costs before he was found not guilty by a jury of 12. The state wasted so much money and we are still paying off those we borrowed money from and he was also on 3rd party for a whole year. It was over four years ago now but I still suffer from depression and anxiety from this horrible, unbelievable failure of our legal system. I will never trust it again nor will any of my family. I don't even care whether Michael Peterson is guilty or innocent. Just the lies and misconduct of the procsecution team was glaring and oh so familar. They , too, did not care if he was guilty or innocent: they just wanted to win. Instead, everybody lost. The hundreds of thousands of dollars the state spent could have been spent on public "pretenders" for those pitiful prisoners that came into court chained together and their only choice was a plea bargain, which always meant guilty

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.