by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
I can’t imagine watching a crime that I was a part of play out in a dramatization. Between a documentary, news special edition, interview special, or retrospective similar to America’s Most Wanted, a lot of true crime stories inevitably end up on either in a movie or a TV show. To have a miniseries or TV show about the incident, though, and have it play out with professional performers and some parts potentially embellished for entertainment purposes is something else entirely. At the core of these miniseries should be the victims and their families. This feels like constantly reopening a wound that just won’t close ever. It happens constantly around the anniversary of the crime, or during higher-than-normal media coverage. True crime media, particularly about violent crimes like sexual assault or murder, are especially hard. With violent crimes, there are much higher stakes, in addition to much more national attention. When I first watched American Crime Story: The People Vs. O.J. Simpson,I couldn’t help but feel for the victim’s families watching the series. Lost in the shuffle of the trial of the 1990s were two young victims that were brutally killed, and their case still remains “unsolved.”
I got similar feelings about The Staircase, especially after reading up more on the details of the case.
The Staircase, created by Antonio Campos, based off of the real life event, and based on the documentary from Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, is about the murder of Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette). Her husband Michael Peterson (Colin Firth) is the prime suspect. The miniseries chronicles the investigation, trial, and fallout of the crime. The Staircase is currently streaming on HBO Max.
These types of miniseries make me a little uneasy. This is a true crime event where people’s lives are forever altered due to the nature of what happens. It feels a little like a reality TV event where the family is an open book. We see the fallout not just for Michael, but his kids and surrounding community too. I can’t imagine someone involved in this case being very comfortable with what is being presented on screen. I recently read about how the Petersons reacted to the series, and they’re not very happy with what happened. True crime series are inevitably going to be for entertainment purposes, so not everything will be 100% accurate. Just like Sean Parker not wanting to be involved in The Social Network or Pamela Anderson being unhappy about Pam and Tommy, it’s important to remember this series is for entertainment purposes, and things need to be taken with a bit of a grain of salt.
With that being said, this case is absolutely fascinating to investigate. For anyone who loves true crime, this should be right up their alley. There are so many moving parts to the case, starting with the investigation to figure out what happened. Everything from the murder weapon, to the motive, to the blood spatter is all very interesting to look at. The motive is especially something that comes up because it also involves the outing of Michael as bisexual. It’s hard to imagine that this would remotely be okay doing, outing someone like this. It’s hard to watch sometimes, and it just shows how different things like bisexuality and any LGBTQAI+ issues were during the early 2000s. We see both sides of the investigation, and watching Michael’s lawyer, David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg), make his case to Michael and his team was great. The part I found the most interesting was the autopsy and how it relates to the case. The autopsy matters a lot due to the wounds and how it relates to the cause of death. Some aspects line up with the initial cause of death, but it didn’t fit perfectly. It’s fascinating how the trial itself played out as well. The witnesses, the discoveries, and the chess match between the prosecution and defense are all so good to watch. I really liked watching the trial unfold, and I afterwards watched clips from the documentary to see how they lined up.
The performances were generally really good. Firth and Collette both do fine jobs with their portrayals. The dynamics with the family are generally really good too. The Petersons have five kids that were greatly affected by this tragedy. Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger), Margaret (Sophie Turner), Martha (Odessa Young), Clayton (Dane DeHaan), and Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge) all have different reactions and parts to play with the investigation. Young is the standout for the kids, as she struggles a lot with what happens, but also grows personally. Each of the kids has a good relationship with one another as well, so it’s good to see how their different relationships evolve. If I had to pick a standout for performances overall, I’d have to pick Sophie (Juliette Binoche), who works on the documentary with Jean-Xavier (Vincent Vermignon). Sophie is vital to Michael’s post-trial defense, as well as helping Michael after the fallout of the verdict. She goes through the wringer to help him, and what happens to her at the end is devastating. Binoche does a great job with her performance.
The biggest issue I have with this is how necessary it was to make this miniseries. We have a true crime story that was made into a documentary (which I watched on Netflix after this was released) that now turns into a miniseries. Whereas, I was hoping the miniseries would have more to say about how the justice system doesn’t always work out the way we hope, or how the LGBTQAI+ community was poorly treated in the early 2000s, or something even about Michael himself; all we get is just a generic true crime miniseries that just tells a story, but has no additional message it wants to bring to the table. The Staircase feels a little empty calories at times, as it simply recreates the events, without giving us any conclusions either way regarding whether Michael is guilty or innocent. Because of this, I’m torn overall about how to take in the information, since the documentary and subsequent clips from the actual trial itself paint a better picture of the events versus the miniseries.
The Staircase will appeal to those who love true crime, those who love the performers, and those who are interested in the case. I found this an okay retread that ultimately was unnecessary when the documentary does such a great job of laying elements of the case out already. If the case is of interest to you, I’d recommend trotting to Netflix and watching the original documentary instead of the miniseries.
Score: 6/10
You can follow Mike Hilty on Twitter and Letterboxd