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.

"I can't tell" was what Tom Martens told the 911 operator when they asked him if Jason Corbett was still breathing. Later, he and his daughter, Molly, Jason's wife, can be heard attempting or feigning an attempt to perform CPR on Corbett's unresponsive body. Checking for signs of breathing precedes CPR. "I can't tell" implies either he didn't care to check whether Corbett was still breathing or he already knew that Corbett was dead.

Very rarely in true crime documentaries do we get to see an even portrayal of both sides of the story. No one involved had "declined to comment" and it felt very much like witnessing a live trial where cases of the defense and prosecution are being presented as we the audience watch on like a member of the jury. In this sense, this documentary succeeds in allowing you to form your own opinion about the truth surrounding the death of Jason Corbett - was he the victim or the aggressor who was killed in self-defense?

A few things stood out to me. Tom's coldness and detachment when discussing the death of his son-in-law, and his smirk that was captured at the police station. Molly's unwavering focus on herself and her image as the mother of Jack and Sarah, speaking of them as if she was their birth mother, as well as the abject absence of any remorse or horror towards her husband's death, even if he was abusive according to her. After all, she admitted to striking him in the head with a brick.

Jack and Sarah were more reliable narrators, especially when they each expressed sadness and guilt over their initial statements to the authorities at the tender ages at 9 and 7 respectively, that portrayed their father as having a temper and abusive towards Molly; these statements were later retracted when they concluded that they had been groomed by Molly. The defense attorneys homed in on medical notes that indicated Jason reporting "getting angry for no reason", while ignoring the bigger picture that Jason had hypothyroidism and hadn't been taking his medication for seven months. Symptoms of hypothyroidism include weight gain, fatigue, depression and irritability.

DARVO is Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender; Molly gave a masterclass of this here. A real victim of coercive control wouldn't dare to risk their abuser finding a recording device, let alone plant several at various locations in the home and in the car. Molly saying "I was the mother to the Jack and Sarah that existed in another lifetime" also informed me that she never truly cared for the children. She only saw them as extensions of herself as she basked in title of Mother and wanted them so that she could continue her charade. But Jason would not allow her to be their adoptive mother and wanted to return to Ireland with Jack and Sarah. That was the motive.

After his wife dies, Jason Corbett falls for his American au pair, Molly Martens. The couple marries and moves to the States with his kids, Jack and Sarah. A disturbing 999 call alerts the police to the tragedy of Jason's death; he'd been brutally killed. Molly claims self-defence, along with her father, Thomas.

This is one of those jaw-dropping, real-life true crimes. A decade on, it still shocks me. What a miscarriage of justice. The overturning of the decision was a joke.

It almost made me vomit listening to Thomas and Molly Martens; just vile. What was done to Jason was simply an act of evil; what was done to those children was sick. Hopefully, his murderers are haunted by sleepless nights.

I didn't believe a single word that came out of Molly's mouth, her body language truly told the story of someone who was lying. She's clearly her father's daughter. He made me feel so uncomfortable.

Not enough was made of the lies she told, didn't she tell her friends a pack of lies about her relationship towards Jason and the kids.

One criticism: why on earth were these two creatures given such a platform? Honestly, it's truly sickening. Crocodile tears galore, she deserves an Oscar for her performance.

Some things have changed for the better, but one thing that hasn't is the ability of a perpetrator to play the victim card.

It warms the heart to know that Jack and Sarah turned out to be such impressive human beings. I wish those two very well.

8/10.

This was a difficult watch and I feel so much for Jack and Sarah. They should feel some comfort knowing they did all they could to restore their Father's reputation and they did him proud. Quite early on, the one thing that became apparent to me was that Molly was only interested in having those children. Alarm bells are ringing, and this movie adequately supported the evidence of a manipulative, messed up girl masquerading as a stable mother figure.

In terms of the arguments about asthma death, I am an asthmatic, and I have woken in the middle of the night gasping, thinking I might die. To say it is scary is an understatement.

This is a tragic story, even more so because manipulators do not suddenly stop manipulating. It wouldn't surprise me if someone else falls victim to Molly.

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.