Netflix Original Series: "Making a Murderer"

[grad_devil]

I'm surprised nobody's started a thread regarding the newly released Netflix hit "Making a Murderer".

"Making a Murderer" is a 10 episode documentary (filmed over 10 years) that follows the life of Steven Avery, a man who was wrongly convicted of a crime in the 80s and served 18 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence. Shortly after his release, he was tried for the murder of Teresa Halbach, but claimed his local sheriff's department - the same one who spearheaded the first investigation - is framing him due to his pending $36MM civil lawsuit against the county, former sheriff, and former DA.

It's a gripping documentary (with no narration - odd, right?) that's been in the headlines for weeks. If you liked "Serial", you'll "like" "Making a Murderer". I only use quotations on "like" because, well, it will make you angry.

Obviously there's more to the story - and the case - than was presented in the 10 hours, but I'm curious if anyone else has been hooked by the documentary yet?

[Oh, and could a mod add the 'i' in "Netflix" in the thread title? Annoying - sorry!]

[luburch]

Tried to watch it last weekend. Felt to drug-out to me. Instead of ten hours it could have been five.

Instead I went online to read about the case. Seems the documentary conveniently left out a lot of pieces.

[grad_devil]

Seems the documentary conveniently left out a lot of pieces.

They did, but I feel like they addressed why they left out certain pieces, and defense attorney Dean Strang had a field day with some of the "evidence" that DA Kratz said was vital. It seems that some of the "evidence" isn't as indisputable as Kratz claims.

There's also news that one juror reached out to the filmmakers after the release, stating they felt pressured into finding Avery guilty. Interesting.

The filmmakers in interviews talk about how they were documenting the prcoess in the Steven Avery case, and actually asked everyone involved to speak with them, contrary to what Kratz has said publicly. That guy just seems slimy, no?

On a separate note, Dean Strang has quite the following, as evidenced by the SexyDeanStrang twitter parody (recently suspended), that had me cracking up daily.

[swood1000]

They did, but I feel like they addressed why they left out certain pieces, and defense attorney Dean Strang had a field day with some of the "evidence" that DA Kratz said was vital. It seems that some of the "evidence" isn't as indisputable as Kratz claims.

There's also news that one juror reached out to the filmmakers after the release, stating they felt pressured into finding Avery guilty. Interesting.

The filmmakers in interviews talk about how they were documenting the prcoess in the Steven Avery case, and actually asked everyone involved to speak with them, contrary to what Kratz has said publicly. That guy just seems slimy, no?

On a separate note, Dean Strang has quite the following, as evidenced by the SexyDeanStrang twitter parody (recently suspended), that had me cracking up daily.

I was looking forward to watching it until I heard the strong complaints being made that Netflix had left things out of their presentation in order to make viewers sympathetic to the defendant. Where did they address why they left that stuff out? Here's a story in which the prosecutor in that case gives nine things that were left out, which he says show that Steven Avery is guilty (or at least not sympathetic).

[InSpades]

Tried to watch it last weekend. Felt to drug-out to me. Instead of ten hours it could have been five.

Instead I went online to read about the case. Seems the documentary conveniently left out a lot of pieces.

The pace really got to me as well. It seemed like most episodes you were watching 65 minutes to get 5 minutes or interesting stuff. Obviously everything can't be a bombshell but... it just moved too slow for me. I got to the end of episode 8 and I'm not sure I want to finish. The last few episodes I watched while doing something else (so I probably missed a bunch, since it's hard to tell when something interesting happens because there's no narration).

It was interesting though. I found it fascinating in a lot of ways... partly because the intra-family dynamics and the town in general.

[dahntaysdawg]

I'm surprised nobody's started a thread regarding the newly released Netflix hit "Making a Murderer".

"Making a Murderer" is a 10 episode documentary (filmed over 10 years) that follows the life of Steven Avery, a man who was wrongly convicted of a crime in the 80s and served 18 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence. Shortly after his release, he was tried for the murder of Teresa Halbach, but claimed his local sheriff's department - the same one who spearheaded the first investigation - is framing him due to his pending $36MM civil lawsuit against the county, former sheriff, and former DA.

It's a gripping documentary (with no narration - odd, right?) that's been in the headlines for weeks. If you liked "Serial", you'll "like" "Making a Murderer". I only use quotations on "like" because, well, it will make you angry.

Obviously there's more to the story - and the case - than was presented in the 10 hours, but I'm curious if anyone else has been hooked by the documentary yet?

[Oh, and could a mod add the 'i' in "Netflix" in the thread title? Annoying - sorry!]

I loved it! I agree with the pace as far as the first episode, but by the end of episode 2 I was hooked and ended up watching the rest within 24 hours.

I ended up going back and forth in my opionion of whether or not he was guilty. I felt that if I was a juror I would've had a very hard time voting him guilty 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. I agree with the original poster that the indisputable evidence referenced by Kratz was not that big. I did have a hard time figuring out why Mr. Avery made so many calls the day of, even using the *67 feature for 2 of them. That part was not mentioned in the documentary.

One of the greater true crime stories that I've ever seen, and like I said once you get into the trial preparation it really takes off. If something ever happens to me I've instructed my family to place an immediate call to Dean Strang and Jerry Buting.

[BD80]

... If something ever happens to me I've instructed my family to place an immediate call to Dean Strang and Jerry Buting.

These are the guys whose supposedly innocent client is sitting in jail as a convicted murderer?

You want to be a celebrity?

[dahntaysdawg]

These are the guys whose supposedly innocent client is sitting in jail as a convicted murderer?

You want to be a celebrity?

The end result is that yes he's in prison, but if you actually watched then you would see the amount of effort and strategy they put into his defense. That's what I'm talking about.

And I don't want to BE a celebrity, I already am.

[Reilly]

Excellent, thought-provoking series (makes one think how our system should be/might be structured). Good snowy-day viewing.