Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal

The original 3 part of the true-crime docuseries investigates the Murdaughs, the most powerful family over the past 100 years in Low County, South Carolina. The family last name led the office of prosecution for 87 years. They became a formidable force through their connections with local law enforcement, political leaders, and the owners of the local banks and businesses. Whilst holding public office of prosecution, their family members have also established a law firm with partners that provided them with almost an iron grip over all the surrounding communities.

On February 24th, 2020, Paul (19 years old) the youngest son of Alex Murdaugh, was piloting a speed boat whilst under the influence of Alcohol. One of the passengers, Mallory Beach (19 years old) was killed in the accident when the boat hit one of the pillars of the bridge at about 2:30 pm.

Paul's father Alex and his grandfather immediately entangled themselves in the event to cover up Paul's involvement in the accident. They blamed Mallory Beach's boyfriend and warned police that he was the one who was piloting the boat.

However, the event brought national attention and brought the Murdaugh dynasty under the microscope. What happened next was an unbelievable set of events that finally started to crumble the dynasty.

Although the details of the events have long been in the news, however, the documentary brings up the personal perspective of the people and the unfortunate lives that were destroyed. It's a well-done true crime documentary.

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.

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.