Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

samba-97913 The story itself, with all its plot twists, rivals a good murder mystery, but I would've enjoyed reading about the case rather than watching the documentary. The technique seemed amateurish to me: long, too-close closeups, blurry shots brought into focus (instead of edited out), pointless scenes where nothing is happening.The rest of my criticism is admittedly unfair, but I'll say it anyway, because it definitely detracted from my enjoyment of the series. I found several of the people involved very hard to watch and listen to: Martha, who spoke in "up talk" (making every sentence sound like a question) and was so vapid; Caitlin with her "vocal fry" (hard to explain; just look it up); Michael, so dripping with self-pity that every time he opened his mouth, I couldn't help but think he was lying, his false bravado, his self-sacrificing-but not really; and the lawyer Rudolf who grinned and hammed for the camera and was overall so glib you'd think he'd forgotten his client's life was on the line.And then there was the scant treatment of family members who didn't defend Peterson, which makes the whole enterprise seem very biased. Why didn't we hear more about Caitlin's research that led her to doubt her dad?People who like documentaries more than I do will probably like this one.

cmstanley-08433 His son...................................... He Kill Kathleen Peterson

progers-18321 I watched" The Staircase" on Netflix, from beginning to the end . Early on in the investigation Mike Peterson stated "His wife Kathrine knew he was a homosexual but they didn't talk about it."In an interview near the end, Mike Peterson talks about his homosexuality and that he "Didn't Come Out to Katherine."

kitellis-98121 In 1980, a woman in Australia became the centre of a media storm when she claimed that her baby had been taken by a dingo. The Australian public, led by a vicious and frenzied media, agreed amongst themselves that she had killed the baby as part of some obscure religious cult - because the baby was wearing a black dress!There was no evidence, other than a missing baby and an odd-seeming couple. But everyone felt that the mother was cold and didn't display the proper signs of grief.So, based on nothing but assumptions and some very shoddy police work, she was sent to prison. After multiple unsuccessful appeals, in 1986 a crucial piece of evidence was discovered and the mother was released for a new trial. In 1988 she was fully exonerated. In 2012 a coroner finally ruled that the baby had been killed by a dingo. They made a film about it, starring Meryl Streep, but the baby was still dead and her parents had been cruelly tried by the media and imprisoned by an unjust and negligent judicial system.Ring any bells?The story of The Staircase is eerily similar. Based on little more than a localised predisposition to dislike and distrust anyone intellectual, bohemian, bisexual, or even mildly odd, the incompetent, corrupt, and immensely bigoted police department and prosecutors mounted a modern-day witch-hunt against a man who they felt must be guilty of murder, simply by virtue of being closeted and weird (as well as intellectual and bohemian, of course). The moronic, bigoted local media quickly jumped on the bandwagon, bringing with them a moronic and bigoted public.The sheer weight of reasonable doubt should have instantly exonerated the poor man, but the justice system proved, as usual, to be anything but, and the judge proved to be very nearly as useless and incompetent as everyone else involved. (Although he later admitted that this case had likely been a vast miscarriage of justice).The unprecedented access given to the documentary crew throughout the trial makes for an exceptionally in-depth viewer experience. In stark contrast with the standard available material from a murder trial, which is almost entirely provided by a biased and unreliable news media, in this case we get a rare opportunity to follow the story from the inside, with an exceptional close-up view of the accused murderer through every stage of mounting his defence.Having followed his case this closely, I find him innocent of all charges. Unfortunately I am in the minority. Seeing the way he was treated by the so-called judicial system, and how many reviewers of the documentary are still convinced of his guilt - despite a staggering lack of evidence that should at the very least raise "reasonable doubt" - I find myself wondering if we are all still living in 1980's Australia!