Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal

After watching multiple documentaries, special news reports, etc. On the lives of the Murdaughs, a southern institution of a family, I was very pleased to find this docuseries actually gives more screen time to Mallory Beach, the REAL victim, and not to the insane, evil murdaugh family and their conspiracies. (Although the audience is given information that I've never heard before on the specifics of their swift and direct interruption of the investigation.... facts provided unbiased from the kids on the boat and their parents, who must finally feel unthreatened to speak openly.)

This was more of a tribute to Mallory, a testament to her as a person, as well as recognizing the pain all of the kids endured, versus a shockumentary on how unabashedly despicable the Murdaugh clan ruled over the innocent community for a century.

Yes, there is focus on the other deaths and events involving the murdaughs specifically, but FINALLY the audience gets to know the reality and loss of this teenager, as a human being.

That is what is missing in so many true crime documentaries. The focus is on the perpetrator, rarely on the victims.

I feel like a lot of the bad reviews on here are by people who know the Murdaughs which is making me giggle. How sad.

Anyway my thoughts on the documentary: I watched this after seeing the outcome of the trial. I knew a little bit about the boat incident but I like how in depth they went into it. It broke my heart. It also broke my heart seeing Paul's ex talk about her experience with him as I had a similar experience with my first serious boyfriend.

They made me feel terrified and like I was actually at the boat scene. I liked that they went into detail about the Murdaughs. The police not wanting to comment on anything is solely due to the fact they let this family get away with so much crap over the years, it's disgusting.

I had no idea about the other deaths of Stephen and Gloria so that was interesting to hear about, I feel like a bit longer could have been spent on stephen's because his was a definite murder.

Very happy with the outcome of the murder trial. Reminds me of John List a bit.

The story is interesting. Powerful people above the law getting away with literally murder.

The execution by Netflix is worrying... the first two minutes of the 3 part doc is basically a trailer telling you everything which is going to happen over the next 3 hours. Could basically turn off then.

The final part of episode 2 (presumably to make you watch episode 3) is disgraceful. Literally just starts telling you about another case without any storytelling.

I'm starting to wonder if documentaries are dead and slowly just becoming fiction. Netflix are to blame for this, throwing out low quality docs month after month, with only one gem every year.

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023) is a series that I recently watched on Netflix. The storyline follows a group of privileged kids with money, drugs, boats and planes in South Carolina that one day takes their carefree lifestyle too far leading to the death of a young lady. One of the kid's fathers is the town lawyer from a family with a history or privilege and living life above the law and comes in to hide the murder. The misdeeds of father's past come to the surface and he takes things a bit too far for the cover up.

This movie is codirected by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, who also worked together on The Pharmacist. Growing up in Maine I could relate to just about every aspect of this picture. This docuseries perfectly depicts small town white America and the lifestyles, relationships and how authority works...until someone gets too comfortable and gets over their skis. The interviews with the people involved was fascinating and their raw emotions and depiction of the events were fascinating. I did feel there was a lack of accountability on display from both the victims, families and towns people, but if this doesn't perfectly depict the problems within our society nothing does.

Overall, both the big picture and actual storyline of this series is fascinating, eye opening but not surprising. I would score this series an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

I was surprised at how well this was done. If is far superior to the trashy, cheap, sensational treatments it has gotten on Dateline NBC, 20 20, 48 Hours and many many other news outlets.

This show doesn't focus on Alex Murdaugh, it focuses on the situations and victims he caused.

You hear from the kids on the boat, their patents, law enforcement, private detectives, jailhouse recordings and others.

This is one documentary Netflix did right. It doesn't seem padded or overlong like many of their shows.

Please keep it up Netflix.

This is far more compelling than focusing on Murdoch himself.