US: Making a Murderer (Netflix)

[johnyccc]

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.

Trailer:

Has anyone else seen this? It's...fascinating. But disturbing.

I'm interested to see what others make of this case.

Spoiler

I think although the documentary is inevitably biased, there seems an awful lot of evidence that the local PD acted in an unprofessional way. Probably a criminal way too. There has to be consequences for that surely? As for Steven, I am unsure. I would not be surprised if he did do it but I am not convinced the state proved this. And as for Brendan...he just seems to have so little idea what is going on, it's almost impossible to judge (although if I had to, I think he sounds the most honest when "confessing" to his mother over the phone. That and the original statement by his female cousin makes me lean slightly to him being guilty too).

It's well worth a watch but as I said, it is quite dark, depressing and unsettling.

I found the most heart breaking part of it watching his parents shuffle around on their aging limbs, a look of total despair on their faces..

 

[Stovepipes]

Funnily enough I'm just watching the first episode now. Looks interesting but does it really need to be 10 episodes long, I assumed it was a different case for each episode.

When it started I thought this was going to be presented as the real life version of Rectify, cause that's what it really reminded me of.

 

[ChroniC]

I watched the first 2 eps and gave up. Seems like they could have wrapped the story up much quicker and I lost interest.

 

[R3X]

Totally agree with above, they could have spent 25 years making it but they should have just wrapped up the whole thing in bulletin points within an 1 hour documentary.

I flicked through it but non the wiser or patience to take on 10 hours of debate and interviews with cat and dog every 5 minutes.

Not like anyone needs to to be reminded the criminal justice is flawed and corrupted yet will not admit its mistakes or understand that.

 

[KIA]

Spoiler

And as for Brendan...he just seems to have so little idea what is going on, it's almost impossible to judge (although if I had to, I think he sounds the most honest when "confessing" to his mother over the phone..

Spoiler

After he was fed information by the detectives and told to confess to his mother?

Great series. Perfect binge watching. I really appreciate in-depth murder docu series.

Similar:

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)
West of Memphis (2012)
Death on the Staircase

 

[johnyccc]

Spoiler

Oh I absolutely agree that the detectives acted in a shocking way. Their conduct and Brendans condition makes it very hard to judge anything he says and I remain far from convinced. But like I said, when listening to that phone call it seemed to ring a little truer to me. Just a gut feeling I guess. Not something that should be sending people to jail

 

[hudson86]

Watched Episode 1 , wow. A lot of parrallels with the fictional series Rectify which really grabbed my attention. Hooked so far

 

[Tunney]

Just finished binging on the entire thing. Incredibly gripping and utterly tragic.

Spoiler

I was really expecting a happy ending but nope.

Based on what was shown in the documentary (which is probably not the whole story), it's just beyond belief that Brendan's appeals were dismissed. Entire case built on a retracted statement and a phone conversion. No physical evidence at all.

I agree with Steve's 2006 lawyer - part of me hopes he did. Otherwise, a man has spent 21 years in jail for crimes he hasn't committed and there's still a killer on the loose.

Either way, glad to hear that the Innocence Project have started looking at his case again

 

[MookJong]

Started this on Saturday and finished it yesterday, complete binge watch couldn't do anything but know what happened.

Spoiler

What on earth were the Jury thinking when it came to Brenden. I mean these people need to be asked to explain their rational because from the evidence given there is no way on earth you could be beyond reasonable doubt, just no way.

As shocking as the prosecutors are they are doing their job, the Jury is what angers me more than anything.

The subedit for this show is a very good read at the moment.

 

[Tunney]

Interesting follow-up from one of the local papers.

Spoiler

Still seems obvious, from what I've seen, that something dodgy happened though. Whether that's cops 'making sure' that someone guilty was found guilty of outright framing, I'm not sure.

 

[timmeh]

Watched a couple of episodes on Friday night and was hooked. Woke up and put it back on and binged all day Saturday.

Thoughts below (contains spoilers)

Spoiler

There was a lot of evidence presented in the trial which was left out of the documentary, for example:

- his non-blood DNA behind found under the hood of the RAV4
- Halbach had complained to her boss that she didn’t want to go out to Avery’s trailer anymore, because once when she came out, Avery was waiting for her wearing only a towel (this was excluded for being too inflammatory). Avery clearly had an obsession with Halbach.
- Avery called her 3 times on the day of her disappearance, two of the times he used *67 to hide his number
- The bullet found with Teresa's DNA on came from a gun which hung above his bed
- Teresa's camera and palm pilot were also found in the burn barrel (could have been planted I guess)

Also, according to Kratz, Avery had told another inmate of his intent to build a 'torture chamber' so he could rape, torture and kill young women when he was released and also said told them that the best way to get rid of a body was to burn it.

I can't believe that the police had absolutely no repercussions for his previous 18yr sentence and for obviously planting so much of the evidence. If they didn't plant the key then they should be fired for being so completely useless at looking for evidence. What happened to Lenk when it was clearly proved (and admitted by him?) that he lied under oath about the time he arrived at the Avery's yard? What about when Coburn called dispatch and wanted to get info about the license plate and it was proven that he was stood next to the car before it had even been found, did anything come of that?

Brendan's original lawyer and his investigator made me want to punch the TV. That poor kid didn't stand a chance; it's a pity he couldn't get a defense like Steven's.

Also, why weren't the brother and ex-boyfriend investigated some more after they deleted messages from her voicemail and accessed her phone records? Something was a bit fishy that the person searching the 40 acre yard walked straight to where the car was dumped and also was the only person in the entire search party to be given the camera.

Sorry for the scatterbrain post! I think I need to rewatch it. Part of me thinks he did it and part of me doesn't.

 

[ChroniC]

I take it back what I said about wrapping it up in a few episodes.
I have continued on and I am in shocks about some of the things that have happened.

Spoiler

Since I saw someone mention that his case is being looked at by the falsely accused people I am assuming he doesn't get off, but I am utterly austounded. The tampered blood evidence, the mentally handicapped nephew being bullied into statements, the fact the key was found in plain sight on the 3rd or 4th day by none other than the police officers who were being implicated for falsely imprisoning him to begin with, it's just incredible. How the jury find him guilty is beyond words, but that said I haven't seen the end.

 

[jsmoke]

Will watch 1st part tonight, read an article from 2006(google Steven Avery blood simple) which makes it out to be a clear cut case with Avery guilty so will be interesting to see how this docu challenges this. But shock horror as a poster above said about corrupt officers/officals. Whole family are a bunch of crooks though.

 

[dr_volki]

I don't usually get emotionally attached to a movie, docu,....
but with certain parts with this i'm certainly struggling with. Be it one-sided or not, certainly makes you think how messed up the whole system is.

edit: will hopefully finish the series tonight.

 

[csrogue]

I'll start watching this tonight, sounds in a similar vein to a podcast called Serial. Looked into a murder of a girl Hae Min Lee and showed some doubts on the evidence against Adnan Syed. Worth a listen if your into this sort of stuff.

 

[MookJong]

Serial series 2 has just started recently BTW. Not a murder this time but a US soldier who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and walked into the desert only to be captured by the Taliban. It investigates the varying stories around the incident.

 

[timmeh]

Spoiler

 

[Junglist]

Watching this but can't manage more than an episode or two at a time. Currently on EP5 but I unfortunately know how it will end because I ended up Googling it.

I've never found a show which has made me scream at the TV in pure frustration before.

 

[Pyr0m@nI@]{]

I thought this was a very entertaining if not slightly bias documentary
I binge watched the whole thing and just like JungalistE, found myself actually shouting at the TV in frustration in a few places.
The amount of corruption shown was unbelievable

 

[timmeh]

Spoiler

According to one of the jurors he was only convicted because they feared for their safety... Oh and they were trading votes too.

She said that the source went on to describe the other jurors trading votes, "and explicitly discussing 'if you vote guilty on this count, I'll vote not guilty on this count' "

Source (not sure about their credibility but they have an interesting article from Kratz too)

EDIT: Do I need to keep using spoiler tags?