The Staircase

I may have been to much hype but I will say it. The Staircase is an outstanding series. I didn't watch the documentary but I know about the crime due to news. Colin Firth's performance was outstanding, he manages to make us he's guilty one minute and possibly innocent next. Fantastic actor. Also Toni Collette was fantastic, one of my favs in all time. Her creepy fall scene at episode2 was probably one of the scariest scenes I've ever watched and i'm literally a junkie. My rating may up or down..

Besides a few errors where the dialog becomes a little too expository (the french filmmakers) it's a gripping tale, even if you're familiar with the docu. What makes it work in addition to the doc, is that it effectively dramatizes a focus on the rest of the family, building a framework in which the events happened, done through masterful acting. Showing 3 possible death-scenarios was a fantastic choice and eerie as hell: that alone makes it easily transcend re-enactment territory for me

I try not to dip my toe too often into true crime as it makes me sad and queasy but it was worth it for this excellently orchestrated project. Performances are off the charts good all round (the subtle transformation of Martha is played sensationally well by Odessa Young.) The hook is multiple perspectives, it's been done, but rarely with these kind of time jumps, it's a feat alone that it stays thrilling and coherent throughout. Distracting cocacola placements tho, gonna have to dock points.

I have not yet seen the documentary, so this is my first deep dive into the case. It started out exceptionally strong, with really nice performances by the leads. I understand why they made this, wanting to show what happened after the documentary, but those parts dragged so much that I was completely over this by the end. Tough to rate overall because you can't realistically just watch the first half.

It starts ok, gets lost too rapidly in a few episodes and then just ends on two borefests.

A fucking barn owl?! 'How can we deal with stories that threaten our own? Some of us go toward the threat, we search and question and dig. Some of us rationalize. Some of us simply don't engage and bury the thread deep inside. And some of us seem not to be threatened at all'. A very meta completely bonkers true story (esp Binoche's character) about storytelling, the unknowability of truth and the grappling with the questions every day. Spectacular editing.

Excellent, with a fantastic performance from Firth and Collette, the rest of the cast did not disappoint. Some unnecessary story lines.

As much as I enjoy Colin Firth and Toni Collette, there were a lot of pointless, prolonged episodes. This could have easily been a 3-part show. The constant jumps from 2001, 2011 and 2017 were annoying. And the last fault of the series, which I admit is out of their reach, is the fact that we will never know with an absolute certainty what happened to Kathleen. But that's true crime for you. But solely the fact that 3 hours had passed before the 911 call, pretty much cements it for me.

This "mini"-series' running time is only an hour less than Peter Jackson's entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. This was not at all worth the time investment and should have been 2 hours, not more than 8.