Making A Murderer
Written & Directed by Moira Demos & Laura Ricciardi
Featuring Steven Avery, Laura Ricciardi, Danielle Ricciardi, Laura Nirider
Netflix
Netflix Release: December 18th, 2015

“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer” – Sir William Blackstone (1765)

The foundation of our legal system in the USA is that you are innocent until proven guilty. Even more so, it is the duty of the prosecution to prove innocence whereas the defense just needs to show reasonable doubt. There’s a scene in the 1994 classic, The Shawshank Redemption where Tommy (Gil Bellows); a new inmate to the prison relates a story where another inmate from his previous prison confessed to the murders that Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is locked away for. When he brings this to the warden’s attention, he is unceremoniously shot in the yard for “trying to escape.” This is a gut-wrenching scene in a near-perfect film. You meet this character and you get your hopes up that he will be the key to Andy’s freedom. And then, he’s dead and Andy’s reaction gets him sent to solitary confinement. If you stretch this one scene into a 10-part documentary series, you’d have Netflix’s Making a Murderer. Unfortunately, unlike Shawshank, this is a true story with real people facing almost unreal circumstances. The story has captured the zeitgeist of America, and has generated a new wave of activism. It’s also the most rage inducing binge-fest on TV.

Spoilers below.