The Staircase is an American true crime miniseries, originally made for HBO Max, is now available on ITVX. We think it’s worth watching for two reasons: the performance by Colin Firth, and the case itself.
Firth plays Michael Peterson, a novelist and political candidate in Durham, USA, and although his American accent wavers at times, he’s highly watchable throughout. The case, meanwhile, is a genuine one: Peterson was accused of murdering his wife Kathleen (Toni Collette) in December 2001, convicted in 2003, released in 2011 pending a retrial, and in 2017 entered an Alford plea to reduce the charge to manslaughter while still maintaining his innocence.
That may sound like a spoiler, but the real substance of the series lies elsewhere: exploring the role the French documentary team played in exposing the American justice system, examining the impact of the case on Peterson’s extended family, and ultimately leaving the audience to decide for themselves whether he was innocent. Since the family is still alive, the production doesn’t point fingers instead, it lays out alternative scenarios and lets us weigh them up.
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Peterson is an author whose income has dried up, living off his wife’s successful career. There’s tension in the household too, since Kathleen is supporting his two sons, Clayton and Todd, from his first marriage, as well as their two adopted daughters, Margaret and Martha, from a family in Germany, and her own daughter, Caitlin, from an earlier marriage. When Kathleen is found bleeding to death at the bottom of a staircase, the question becomes unavoidable: did she fall, did Peterson bludgeon her, or was she attacked by someone else? The investigation, and the revelations that surface about Peterson’s past, divide the family and force them to take sides across the ensuing court cases. David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg) represents Peterson throughout the trial, while his brother Bill (Tim Guinee) works to raise the money to fund the legal fees. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who actually made the real-life documentary on the case, is played by Vincent Vermignon, with the wonderful Juliette Binoche as his editor Sophie, and Frank Keys as documentary producer Denis.
What fascinates us the most is the access the documentary crew had to the family and the US court system while the investigation and trial were still unfolding, and the debates that play out over how the footage should be edited to support Peterson’s innocence, or not. We’re left to wonder whether the documentary itself influenced the outcome of the case. The miniseries’ own producers, cinematographer and editors play the same game with us, acting out alternative versions of what happened when Kathleen left Michael by their pool to head inside and climb the stairs. Evidence surfaces through time jumps between early 2001, before the death, and 2017, after his release, which keeps you guessing and piecing the real timeline together for yourself. It makes you feel like one of the detectives, gathering the facts and trying to make sense of them.
At eight episodes of around an hour each, it may move too slowly for some, but the gradual reveals, shifting relationships and pull to work out the truth keep you engaged through a binge that satisfies without ever quite delighting.