The Staircase (2022)

“The Staircase” is both a masterful moment for an assured filmmaker, and it's the jolt that the true crime storytelling industry needs. ... The ensemble work in this series is a veritable feast, of calibrated performances, framing and editing, scene after scene.

There’s a richness to The Staircase that’s partly due to Michael’s multifaceted and winding odyssey—before and after trial—and partly the result of Campos’ expert approach, which incorporates virtually every important aspect of this story, evokes dread, ambiguity and topsy-turviness via meticulous long-take tracking shots, and sharply delineates every one of its numerous principals and their hopelessly fraught dynamics.

Exceptionally good. Amid a river of true-crime dramatizations featuring big names side-eyeing their co-stars while contemplating murder, or their characters’ tragically misunderstood innocence, this one knows what it’s doing. It sets a tone, gets everybody in the same movie and focuses on character interaction in long, fluid takes, glance by glance, bizarre development by development.

As Michael Peterson, Colin Firth manages to make us think he’s guilty as hell one minute, and possibly innocent the next. Toni Collette is touching as Kathleen. And while many a series has caused eyes to glaze over when the plot shifts to younger characters, the dynamics among grown children in this extended family are consistently absorbing.

The Staircase, especially in the reenactment scenes I mentioned, is not easy viewing. But it steadily builds into something vital, a calmly observational dissection of known and unknown things.

It covers miles more ground, is not without ideas and marshals the power of HBO to gather stars, budget and screen time. And is good, if at times unavoidably problematic.

Firth and Collette are “good,” I guess, and so is the rest of the cast, from Michael Stuhlbarg as the defense attorney David Rudolf to Sophie Turner as Margaret Ratliff, but there is just nothing here to draw interest, much less sustain it, and good actors with no material are like jugglers having to pantomime the balls. Impressive, but only for about 10 seconds. In two words, this is dull fare.

The documentary was amazing. stop comparing between them. This is a good show.. especially for the people who don't know the story.. the way we see Kathleen's in different minds was a great idea to add. wonderful cast, and Antonio Campos made the story more mysterious.. love it

A much as I love true crime and yearn for more of it, this series was slow, littered with untruths/exaggerations, and poor casting choices for my taste. Colin Firth was the wrong man to play Michael Peterson, not because he did a bad job, but because he's Colin Firth. The heavily accented accent he has makes it very difficult for him to play an American, let alone one who illustrates such eccentric grammar and use of language as Peterson. Toni Collette for my money was also not a great choice for the role of Kathleen, again nothing to do with her work, it just didn't work for me. This series goes in a bunch of different directions both past, present and future from the day of Kathleens death which really gives a tunnel view opinion to everything outside of the particular night Kathleen dies. The director really wants to capture the family dynamic here, which is a brave ambition. At the end of the day unless you go through something like this yourself it becomes impossible to capture it from a personal perspective. My advice is to watch the 05 doc, it's not only more entertaining but educational alike.

Do Yourself a favour, and watch documentary, instead of this way too long, full of unimportant nonsense, woke show.

High production values but slow, with a family backstory that isn't well-drawn and remains confusing. I tuned in because of Firth and Collette, and quit after episode 3 because of a scene I can't erase from my head. (I'm not referring to anything bloody, which is explicit as well but not surprising in a murder story like this.) What were these two distinguished actors thinking?

Awful. Just awful. How Colin Firth and Toni Colette agreed to be part of this is perplexing. I watched Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's 2005 award-winning eight-part documentary before watching this. And it was a far better watch than this mess. They honestly shouldn't have bothered.