Du mariage au crime: Drame familial en Amérique

An FBI agent who trained others to detect lies. His daughter, a model who lied for a living. And yet again, she lied, this time claiming her husband abused her. How do you verify such a claim? By trusting the liars.

I was genuinely disturbed by how convincingly she played the victim. Having known people like this in real life, those who lie so thoroughly they start to believe it themselves, this hit especially hard. It's a chilling reminder of how dangerous manipulation can be.

Surprisingly solid work from Netflix, especially given their recent track record with documentaries. And thank God it wasn't dragged out into three unnecessary episodes.

Two very opposing versions of a married life and two kids forever damaged by what ultimately happened. The brutality of the death speaks volumes. Not self-defence. It was murder as the baseball bat blows kept going even when he was incapacitated. Molly Martens is clearly guilty and is likely a sociopath, assisted by her ex FBI doting father who deserves an oscar for his nonsense testimonies that do not make any sense. The Martens are evidently dangerous and manipulative. The courts have said so. I hope the kids are able to move on now from from the Martens poison they had to endure. What do I hope for the Martens? Nothing but relentless and swift karma. The documentary was excellent. It did portray both sides, but it showed that any bit of ambiguity (not in this case) or lack of corroboration as to how a violent event occurred could cause people to query matters. Then, instead, you have to look at the graphic crime scene evidence. Not for the faint hearted and not some attempt but somebody to subdued anyone that may have been, in any way, aggressive. This was a brutal and sustained assault in someone who could not defend themselves. If such alleged aggressor is no longer a threat, it stops there. To keep going...that's murder. No two ways about it. Full stop.

It's great that the children even though it took some time after all those years for them to come forward until what really happened. And that the father was not physically abusive to the mother at all. She seems to have no answer to any of those comments the kids had brought to light. She still speaks like her and her father who deserves to be where he's at too he should have actually gotten more and her also it was a total Massacre. See and that old scallywag of a father ambushed him and didn't allow any exit for him while they were beating him with a baseball bat and a large brick. But yet they try and justify that as they were in fear. It just goes to show you how some narcissistic ignorant people think that what they can lie about that they believe a jury is too stupid to see through it. To my opinion the father and the daughter should have been in prison forever. They might come up as upstanding citizens but let's get this straight they're dirty scumbag felons. Only in my heart do I wish that they could read this. And know that most Americans virtually all that had seen this story do not believe their side. They just need to stay in jail and think about every day how they beat that man to death. Sad really sad human beings almost makes you wish you weren't human when you have trash like that still existing.

I noted that Molly was consistently calling Jack and Sarah, "my kids", causing me to scream at the TV screen, "they weren't YOUR kids!". Molly's intention is obvious in this statement. She was going to do whatever was necessary to get Sarah and Jack, even manipulating her father to be the co-executioner.

I'm still not sure of the involvement of Molly's mother. She's mentioned briefly and I kept waiting for something else to be revealed but nothing mentioned of any consequence.

It breaks your heart to watch these kids being emotionally tortured over so many years and I only hope they can find some peace in their true home in Ireland.

In A Deadly American Marriage, the crime is the spark, but the real spectacle is Molly. A woman so determined to become a mother that she adopted not just children, but also narrative - and manipulation - as extensions of motherhood. The production follows the traditional true crime formula: reenactments with dramatic music, tearful witnesses, furrowed-brow prosecutors, and that kind of editing that feels a little too edited. But while the format may be familiar, the content gains weight from something rarer: the defendants are present. Flesh, bone, and rehearsed answers. And that alone made me watch with a different level of attention.

And what a character Molly is. A sort of Amy Dunne without the literary gloss, but with a camera rolling and a microphone at the ready. If in Gone Girl fiction was the weapon, here it's home videos and secretly recorded audio - where the truth isn't revealed, it's assembled. Molly records everything. Shapes everything. And in the end, her version survives not because it's convincing, but because it's the only one with a soundtrack. It's unsettling to realize how much she controlled the narrative with meticulous calm. The documentary doesn't truly confront her - and perhaps that's both its flaw and its greatest strength. Because the discomfort comes precisely from what isn't said to her.

The direction tries to be impartial, but it's not blind. The camera knows where to focus - and the enigma lives in her eyes. There's an inevitable fascination with a woman who talks about miscarriage with the same coldness with which she denies ruining someone's life. There's no doubt the marriage was tense. But self-defense bleeds too much to support any thesis. The crime scene speaks, and it speaks loudly. She, however, walks away almost clean, accompanied by her father - a former FBI agent and both literal and emotional accomplice. A man so ready to protect her he seems more like a reputation bodyguard than a parent. Their relationship is unsettling, shrouded in a kind of protection that feels more like narrative armor.

But what truly breaks the heart are the children - orphaned of a father, kidnapped from stability, and used as pawns on an emotional chessboard. Deceived kids, forced to spin 360° on a carousel of versions and accusations. And even with so many testimonies, what weighs most is what was never said to them. It's hard not to feel pity. It's hard not to feel outraged. The narrative focuses on them at moments, but always circles back to the involuntary protagonist who never relinquishes the spotlight. They are the real victims. And in this legal drama, the courtroom is just the backdrop for a custody battle - not only for the children, but for the truth itself.

In the end, it's not so much about the crime, but about who gets the privilege of telling the story. And Molly, with all the spotlights and improvised scripts, didn't just tell it - she directed it. A deadly American marriage - or perhaps, a toxic motherhood disguised as eternal love.