The Staircase

This series was rather good but a bit drawn out. They could have honestly cut an episode or two from this limited series and it would haver been a much leaner and tighter affair.

I knew nothing about this case despite the now well known documentary which I learned about through this series and watched on Netflix after completing this show but I will watch anything with Toni Collette and Juliette Binoche in it and both are excellent here.

The fact that this is based on a true story makes it even more incredible given the outcome about how Kathleen Petersen (Toni Collette) actually died makes for some fascinating, if uneven, viewing.

Watched four episodes and am done. Too slow and just boring. I really love Toni Collette and Colin Firth, but it's all over the place. I'm just sick of the entire family. I watched the docu-drama on Netflix years ago. Bad situation. He probably did it.

I didn't care for Michael Peterson at all during the actual documentary and didn't care for him in the HBO version but I think Colin Firth's portrayal of him is uncanny! I don't see how any woman could have been attracted to him. I do feel sorry for the people in his life, being so exposed the way they are, particularly given that they weren't given much of a choice to be in the original documentary. It's fairly evident to me that all MP really cared about was/is himself and perhaps he wasn't aware of how the media attention/social media would impact those he allegedly cares about. To me, there was way too much blood for a fall and I tend to think of him as a guilty man.

We enjoyed the mini-series, however it could be hard to follow in places. Why? We've noticed a trend in productions, they just can't be linear, they just have to jump back and forth in time. A little is okay and sometimes you need to do that to flush out the details of the movie, but most movies have so much of it, it feels like the show is just jumping around constantly. And this was no exception. Before her death, just before her death, after her death, the original trial, the 2017 statement, back to the 2011 retrial, then 2017, then just before her death. We were getting sea-sick. I just wish they wouldn't do this in movies all the time, it is so hard on the viewer.

After three episodes, this is shaping up to be a fabulous story, it is true, yet ambiguous enough to carry tension and suspense. The cast is magnificent with strong headliners and a depth unusually strong for TV.

The pacing is good, though the heavy use of short and long scene non-linearity is haphazardly delineated, with occasional timestamps, but no stylistic changes making frequent rewinding necessary. Cinematography is generally well done, but there are some sporadic gimmicky techniques which detract by being more showy than necessary.

Colin Firth has brilliant range as novelist Michael Peterson, the husband in the frame for his wife, Kathleen's, probable murder. Not surprisingly there are fine performances too numerous to mention from a cast of this stature.

A persuasive story very well told, episode four cannot drop quickly enough!