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10th Jun 2018

People are absolutely raving about Netflix’s brand new true crime documentary

'An astonishing piece of work.' Check it out

Paul Moore

‘An astonishing piece of work.’ Check it out

We’re starting to think that the people at Netflix really don’t want us to see the sun. Why else would they release their latest true crime epic on a weekend that has such glorious weather?

Anyway, plenty of people have decided to stay at home and binge watch The Staircase. Truth be told,  they’ve not been disappointed.

As stated previously, the early reviews for the 13-episode series were incredibly promising – The Guardian hailed Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s documentary series as ‘an astonishing piece of work’ – and viewers have supported those reviews because people are absolutely gripped by the story of the Peterson film.

What separates The Staircase from other crime documentaries though is the level of intricate detail that the filmmakers portray.

In terms of its aesthetic approach, it’s almost like David Fincher’s wonderful film Zodiac because the amount of meticulous backstory and research that’s conducted is extremely impressive.

If you’re interested by the inner workings of a crime case then this is for you because we see – in quite graphic detail it should be said – the murder scene, how detectives/lawyers painstakingly build their case, and how the legal system operates.

Ok, what’s it about?

On December 9th, 2001, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase and her husband, Michael, was instantly regarded as the main suspect.

The documentary chronicles Michael’s battle to clear his name.

Without giving too much away, it’s also interesting to see how certain lawyers will latch onto a certain personality characteristic – in this case it’s Michael’s sexuality – and try to switch the whole focus onto that.

In recent years, we’ve been treated to some fantastic documentaries and it appears that The Staircase is right up there with the best of them.

In fact, some people are calling it the best true crime documentary that they’ve ever seen.

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