Its impossible to fathom how a combination of human nature and the
justice system that keeps our streets clear day-in and day-out, could
do much more harm on a person's life then good. That's at least what
I thought to myself when I pressed play to watch Netflix's new and
acclaimed documentary series.
“Making A Murderer” is a Netflix original documentary series
written and directed by Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi and is about
Wisconsin's most notorious homicide case that sent citizens Steven
Avery and Brendon Dassey (a teenager) to prison for life. This series
has been getting a huge amount of critical acclaim. This new series
currently stands at a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and has an
audiences rating of 4.7 out of 5. Now, I plan to do a spoiler review
of this series sometime in the future because there is so much here
to talk about. But for this review I plan to state only what is
necessary to know going in so that each turn can be seen as a
surprise.
Back in the 1980s, a man named Steven Avery was found guilty of
raping a women and spent 18 years of his life in prison. Years later,
while Steven was still in prison, DNA evidence was released that
proved him innocent of this crime so naturally he was released. But
Steven was unsatisfied with the way the state had treated him during
his trial so he sues Manitowoc county for 36 million dollars. Then
three days before before the initial hearing, a women named Teresa
Halbach goes missing and is suspected to be dead. Several days later,
Halbach's burnt remains were discovered on Avery's property so now he
is the prime suspect and faces life in prison (all of this was in the
first two episodes so believe me nothing of importance was spoiled).
The rest of the series is basically how the investigation and trial
were carried out.
Every single moment of this series was astonishing. Everything. Every
single moment. Right from the grisly details of Halbach's murder to
the measures in which the state was determined to prove Avery guilty.
But what is even more astonishing is that the evidence that was
presented in the show, points to the fact that Avery was innocent of
this crime, but the state didn't care. It was the Sheriff’s
department that found a large majority of the incriminating evidence.
The very same department that Avery was suing several weeks prior.
Yet almost all of the evidence that they found was admitted to be
valid and was used in the trial. EVERYTHING THE SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT
FOUND SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN VALIDATED BECAUSE OF THE CONFLICT OF
INTEREST!! ITS FREAKING INSANE!!
And yes, this series does contain many conspiracy theories that point
the finger at the cops. And yes, this series is very one-sided. But
when the evidence is studied, it actually suggests the cops
(possibly) knew who the real killer was but framed Steven Avery
instead. Did they in actuality? Who knows. Maybe Avery really is
guilty and the documentarians' thesis is false. But there it
definitely more than enough room for reasonable doubt still in the
air ten years after the trial took place.
Whats wrong with this series? It doesn't present that many opposing
arguments to maintain an unbiased view of the situation Avery was in.
The documentary was clearly made by people who firmly believed Avery
was (and still is) innocent.
Whats right with this series? Everything else. All of the footage in
the series was one hundred percent relevant and was very convincing.
The documentary also does a great job at getting you to want to know
more about Avery's case so you can form your own opinions about it
(something very few 10-hour documentaries have been able to do).
If you believe in conspiracy theories then this series is definitely
for you. But it you don't, then you'll walk out angry and the
filmmakers for even contemplating something like this could ever have
taken place. But either way this series is definitely worth watching
whether you believe what it is saying or not.
Believe me, this program is captivating from moment one and
definitely accomplishes what it set out to do so the series did its
job and did it well. I can't wait to start doing more research about
this case so I can form my own opinion on it.
[For television programs I give letter grades instead of using
numbers.]
Grade:
A
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