Critic Reviews

Watching this show not only makes the case for revisiting the documentary too; it demands a tandem viewing, with each successfully complementing the other in its existence.

“The Staircase” is exceptionally smart television, an examination of truth, guilt and self-delusion that crackles with ideas and great performances.

“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.

This story really has it all, and Campos clearly gets all of it. His obsession with the case pays off as he turns it into high drama, and high art.

In its painterly flourishes, and its willingness to poke at the moroseness of true crime stories from time to time, The Staircase proves gripping television.

This series is more concerned with asking questions than with making statements. It follows the evidence where it leads: What’s refreshing is that that evidence is less about guilt or innocence in a case on which the court has ruled, but about the strangeness and unknowability of the human heart.

A beautifully done miniseries, and revelatory, too, as it expands the North Carolina case into something more philosophically provocative than its sensationalistic origins might have suggested.

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.

Colin Firth burns with intensity in this nail-biting true-crime series that keeps you guessing if a bisexual novelist, politician, former marine and frequent liar pushed his wife (Toni Collette) to her death down the family staircase or whether she fell by accident.