The Staircase

The Staircase, an American true crime miniseries made for HBO Max by Antonio Campos, aired for the first time May 5, 2022, on HBO Max. Inspired and based on the true crime series by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade also called The Staircase. The original aired back in 2004.  Based on the true story of Michael and Kathleen Peterson.

The Staircase follows an investigation and the life of a writer that murdered his wife Kathleen Peterson by bludgeoning her to death. They found her dead in their home laying at the bottom of their staircase back in the year 2001. Michael Peterson, a crime novelist, is believed to have bludgeoned his wife Kathleen Peterson to death.

The Staircase shows a montage of happy moments along with absolutely miserable moments between Michael and Kathleen. Scenes of them laughing together, then scenes of them absolutely tearing each other apart. It shows the life of Michael and Kathleen before she ended up dead and how she said there were going to be better days ahead of them. Well cut to a later scene, Michael is telling 911 that his wife fell down the stairs and had an accident. In the series, you also see the forensic aspect of Kathleen’s murder. It shows the forensic specialist doing his job and people saying what crime they think happened.

This series is not all based on the present time. The Staircase strives to show what their life was like before Kathleen passed away. And then show what the investigation was like and the behind-the-scenes of the trial. After the series aired it actually received really positive reviews. Most critics stated that this series did a really great job at making every episode intriguing. They did state that is wasn’t as heart-pounding as they thought it would be. But nonetheless, it told a good story and didn’t use boring filler.