Filmed over a 10-year period, Making a Murderer is an unprecedented real-life thriller about Steven Avery, a DNA exoneree who, while in the midst of exposing corruption in local law enforcement, finds himself the prime suspect in a grisly new crime. Set in America's heartland, the series takes viewers inside a high-stakes criminal case where reputation is everything and things are never as they appear.
All 10 episode are on Netflix today. After the first episode this seems good.
But 4 hours later and I'm on to ep 5! It's pulled me in with some strong eps/twists.
Ep 1-4 chat:
Spoiler:
Seems like Steven's lawyers could have a much easier life for them and increase the chances of getting their client off if they just represented Brendan also?
What is the "false imprisonment" charge that keeps getting mentioned? Who was falsely imprisoned?
I heard about this, but didn't think I'd give it a shot, at least not for awhile. But that trailer.... I had no idea it was actually about this. This is as effecting a trailer I've seen since Dear Zachary.
Into court room stuff and this is really great TV, the access all areas is just like The Staircase (which, since finishing I have been wishing it would be possible to watch again for the first time over and over).
I binge watched the whole series last night. I just had to find out the ending. I would hope to see more discussion on this forum as people finish watching the series. It is amazing how the justice system with all its checks and balances in place, can be used effectively to convict a man with very few physical evidences against him.
I watched the first ep at like 5 AM my time yesterday. And then bingewatched the rest of it in one single go. I can't even say that for any of their original drama series (which I like, to be clear). Was a really excellent watch.
My god. It just won't stop. There is a new huge revelation every 30 seconds. This is just insane!!
I just started ep5 and might end up finishing it tonight. And I'm on 4 hours sleep from the night before and up since 7am. I'm wide the **** awake now.
Just got done watching all 10. I did 6 Sunday, 4 Monday.
One thing that was great throughout was the media questions to the attorneys, they seemed to have a strong grasp on the case, asking the right questions and reading between the lines. It would have been interesting to hear some personal opinion from them too.
Some of them were smoking hot too, I'd let a few of those ladies give me an up close and personal grilling.
The shorter lawyer looks like the one from the staircase:
Spoiler:
I am guessing everyone believes that neither Brandon nor Steven should be found guilty on the evidence shown in the doc?
I may be a sucker, since I believed Michael Peterson, but I absolutely believe Steven in this case too, that he didn't do it.
No fingerprints in the car or on the key, no other DNA on the key. No blood anywhere except in her car, which doesn't seem to make much sense. "Hiding" the car in his yard. And that's without going down the alley of the county sheriffs framing him.
Amazing how dumb Brandon is. The defence often mention his below average IQ, yet the prosecution could turn to the jury and say, "statistics suggest half of you sitting in this jury have a below average IQ" and suddenly that might not be such a factor.
Amazing when the brother of Theresa says how the video taped confession from Brandon is so conclusive, when he hadn't even seen it himself.
I think he did it in my opinion after finishing the series. I don't know about the Brandon dude but I think he saw something but made the other stuff up. He was obviously a deranged guy with all the crazy letters he was writing in prison about killing his wife. I just don't get how someone could of planted the car there and buried the body without any of the family members noticing if he did get setup on the murder. Awesome doc though.
I think you could get a lot past that family. That moment in one of the last few eps, where Brandon's defense team investigator is talking about how the family are basically boarderline ******ed and a bunch of inbred criminals they don't even flinch. Not even sure they knew they were being spoken about.
Watched the first episode and thought it was good although I was surprised to see there are 10 episodes. It's a pretty significant investment of time... is there enough here to justify the length of the series? Trying to decide if I should continue to plough through tomorrow night or just hit Google and read up on the case.
I think it could've been done in 8 or so. But it could've even gone to 20 episodes. There is so much more to this story then we saw. Namely the other side altogether.
These 10 were so damn engrossing that I would've loved for it to have kept going.
I will say that I felt similarly after finishing the first ep; Okay, wait, this was super good, but how can there be 10 episodes?
But as said, I straight binged it all in one go. It really is that good, and there really is much to cover. If I had to define a lull, it would maybe be episode 3, but episode 4 to 8 especially are super riveting and once you get to the second trial you will be happy that there are so many episodes.
Re: my own feelings on the trial(s)
Spoiler:
I would've voted to acquit both of them. That is not to say I believe wholeheartedly that they are both innocent, but I believe very strongly that there is reasonable doubt.
For Brandon Dassey, however, I do somewhat strongly believe that he is innocent.
What annoys me, besides all the MENTIONED evidence, in the case of Steven, is that we never got to hear talk about motive. I also would've loved to hear if Steven offered to take a polygraph like Brandon did. I accept that a polygraph is most often inadmissible evidence, but this is mostly because of the potential for false positives, not the other way around, so just for my own curiosity I would've loved to see and hear about the results for Steven (and Brandon who, we learned, did tell his lawyer he wanted one). One of my close family members had to go through years of emotional turmoil and bullying from other family members, until they finally took a (very friggin' expensive) polygraph test to prove that they had been truthful the entire time, so I have personal experience of how relieving it can be for the person to be able to "prove" themselves, and I would've loved to potentially see that here.
To say that Steven is deranged, as an earlier poster said, because of his letters to his ex-wife is a bit much. He's in a highly stressful situation and it's still words. The amount of people that I know that have said that in real life to their spouses is high and I wouldn't go so far as to call them deranged or suggest that they are capable of committing murder because of it. Bad, terrible people sure, but not deranged.
It was quite surprising how many of the family members of each side were able to be there what seemed to be throughout for both trials. Do they not have jobs to go to?
Interesting website, some sloppy grammar mistakes!
Quote:
The jury was not allowed to hear testimony from the Manitowoc County Coroner, Deb Kakatsch. This would have demonstrated the alteration and obfuscation of the crime scene by investigators. The coroner was not informed of the situation by investigators and discovered the crime from television reports. When she contacted lead investigator, Mark Wiegert, she was put off.
She started to mobilize resources, however. These resources included experts from other counties. Wiegert continued to avoid her assistance. Eventually, the Manitowoc County Executive and Corporation Counsel ordered her off the case.
They got a bones expert but I wonder what difference the coroner could have made...
The whole thing is insane enough that I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if the final shot was a VO saying "But what if they all knew Teresa Halbach was still alive" and show her in a cabin somewhere.