Kathleen Peterson was discovered unconscious at the bottom of a staircase in her home on an unremarkable street in the historical district of Forest Hills, Durham, California. The year is 2001 and Christmas is only fifteen days away. At that time, she was forty-eight years old and declared dead on arrival; however, her family members including her husband denied claims that it was a murder but insisted it was an accident. Her husband was Michael Peterson, an American writer who became famous after writing his novels during the Vietnam War when he served as United States DOD.
When the autopsy report comes out questions arise about Kathleen’s death and her husband becomes the prime suspect for possible homicide. As far as Peterson’s arrest is concerned there are several sensationalized incidents especially related to his personal life coming out into public domain. Lying about his military service and career among other things relating to himself while having secrets that could have threatened their marriage like being bi-sexual and involved in a gay relationship secretly. He pleads guilty in court and receives a life sentence without parole.
This would be resurrected sixteen years later from its original trial after Peterson’s case had died down: 2011 saw him placed under house arrest instead of going to jail; then in 2017 he takes up the Alford Plea which tries to mitigate his sentencing by admitting guilt but not culpability. Netflix’s addition of a thirteen-part documentary series called The Staircase on its platform has precipitated renewed interest specifically regarding his case. It began filming fourteen years ago as events unfolded and disappeared around Michael Peterson.
In 2022, HBO Max’s dramatization of The Staircase adds to numerous other new true crime shows now available across online platforms. Taking new directions towards more feminised approaches to true crime such as Inventing Anna or The Dropout among others has made this aspect gain public recognition; however, The Staircase leans more into the framework of previous true crime shows: its central character Michael Peterson is male, head of the family and writing on places he has seen through American military nexus. However, one recognizably familiar face in American TV and entertainment lore stands out; except that this time around Peterson is the prime suspect.
The show was created by Antonio Campos who also made After School and The Devil All the Time movies. While Campos began thinking about it as early as 2008 following his viewing of The Staircase documentary series, it wasn’t until 2019 that this labor of love found a home. Harrison Ford was once attached to this project not only as an executive producer but also an actor; however, he did not go forward with it due to issues that were undisclosed. HBO Max commissioned it as an eight-episode limited series for their streaming platform with the first three episodes being released many years later in May, 2022.
The protagonist in The Staircase, Colin Firth plays Michael Peterson, the author who first calls 911 to report that his wife had fallen off the stairs. In an intense opening scene of the series, a black screen with a voice-over immediately lets you know that something went wrong. His wife has fallen down the steps, Peterson screams in desperation and then camera pans on crime scene. On getting home from school, the son finds out that their home is messed up and his father is throwing himself over her bleeding dead body.
“She was drunk,” he tells them later as they order him not to touch anything else at all in this house; now it is a crime scene. Blood splattered on Kathleen’s (Toni Collette) body stretches across the ceiling and walls. The Staircase does not try to sugar coat how brutal this murder was. Rather, it quickly engages questions such as could she have accidentally fallen down the stairs? Moreover, Peterson’s performance feels very rehearsed only deepening further doubts about what really transpired here.
Most of episode one switches between past and present offering an extreme contrast of life for this family before everything fell apart catastrophically. Occasionally there are timestamps which provide context but instead of following a linear narrative track flow serendipitously bouncing here or there. It is hesitant slow burn dragging through its initial episodes before picking up pace by leading into climax of narrative by final episode where viewer may notice changing attention from DA’s office investigation to Petersons’ dwelling place characterized by eerie tone even during peaceful moments.
Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette playing Kathleen Peterson offered striking performances in this case too: First’s character was particularly obscure while his thoughts probably would never be fully grasped either way; nonetheless opposite can be said for Tony Collette whose character begins as corpse but comes alive when story crosses back over from present tense into past making her more than just another dead woman to obsess over. In 2017, as Peterson walks out of court a free man Kathleen is a ghost story he will always be haunted by.
Despite the fact that women are usually victims of most crimes, true crime is a popular genre among female audiences. The Staircase does not challenge that there wouldn’t be any violence against women; it is Kathleen’s death which sparks this story. Similarly, Inventing Anna or Under the Banner of Heaven use the same technique. It does not matter if the protagonist is a woman, such as in the case of Inventing Anna, a lot of the consequences of her actions impact women as well. The Staircase is no different in this regard.
Once you press play on this show, it is evident that the cast is filled with seasoned actors. Michael Stuhlbarg, Dane DeHaan, Sophie Turner, and Patrick Schwarzenegger all appear in it. The tension rises when the family starts to have internal conflicts as they keep their secrets while others come to light. This story is not only about Peterson who is accused of murder by the media but also about his children and other family members who have to deal with what happened even during their mourning.
The Staircase doesn’t provide additional insight or any nuggets of information about the case for fans of the original documentary series. It’s just a dramatization stripped out of anything that can make alive the process carried out almost 11 years ago. What makes it strong lies in how its storyline reflects those well-known by viewers from other TV series and real-life events. After watching one clear shot through them – graphic crime scene pictures – a viewer would understand that this is not like every other story told many times.
And possibly, this is what The Staircase tries to demonstrate; there are more things worth knowing about true crimes than truths themselves. In films such as In Cold Blood or Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, viewers are shown “the humanity” behind murderers by camera angles speaking volumes in silence. Yet sometimes as regards Michael Peterson’s situation something different emerges which adds up to an indeterminate nature of what could happen after a likely crime was committed.
Apart from small instances where someone might feel uncomfortable seeing Collette’s body on the staircase for too long, there are no surprises for those who already watched the documentary. In certain respects one can see where ideas came from because some moments remind one of phone recordings or tape recorders used then . As these elements come together and reach climax , they form part of a television program that cannot be produced otherwise . Although a documentary film cannot make Kathleen a fictional character in the story, it’s a TV series that can perceive her as a living and breathing person.
In other true crime movies, the families of victims are used as a signal for the act itself. The mother who cries, siblings who grieve, and a father who wonders what he can do. This is not what happens in The Staircase at all—real-life is much messier than just portraying an entire ruined family with one swift stroke. Regardless of whether Michael Peterson is guilty or not, this story ends in tragedy. A family lost their mother, sister, and cousin.
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