Making a Murderer landed on Netflix in December 2015 and immediately became a cultural phenomenon. The ten-part first season, filmed over ten years by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, follows the case of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. It didn’t just popularize true crime as a streaming genre. It fundamentally changed how audiences engage with criminal cases.
The reaction was intense and immediate. Petitions were signed, Reddit threads exploded, and the case was re-examined by millions of armchair investigators. Whether that level of public involvement is healthy or not is a separate conversation, but the show’s ability to provoke it speaks to how effectively it tells its story.
The Power of Patient, Unflinching Documentation
The first season’s greatest strength is its extraordinary access and patience. Ricciardi and Demos spent a decade embedded in this story, and that commitment shows in every frame. The footage of police interrogations, courtroom proceedings, and family interactions has a raw, unmediated quality that scripted dramas can only dream of replicating.
The interrogation scenes involving Brendan Dassey are among the most disturbing and compelling sequences in documentary history. Watching a teenager with clear intellectual limitations being guided toward a confession raises profound questions about how the justice system treats vulnerable people. These scenes don’t need commentary or dramatic scoring. The footage speaks for itself.
The Avery family is presented with empathy and complexity. They’re not idealized or sanitized, but you understand their world, their frustrations, and the weight of what they’re going through. The legal proceedings are dense with detail but never boring, largely because the filmmakers understand that the real drama lies in the small moments: a lawyer’s reaction, a family member’s sigh, the body language of jurors.
Defense attorneys Dean Strang and Jerry Buting emerge as compelling figures in their own right. Their dedication to the case and their articulate explanations of legal principles give the show its intellectual backbone.
Where Making a Murderer Loses Its Balance
The most substantial criticism is that the series presents a one-sided narrative. Important evidence against Avery is minimized or omitted entirely, and the filmmakers’ sympathies are clear from the start. This isn’t inherently disqualifying for a documentary, but it does undermine the show’s implicit claim to be a comprehensive examination of the case.
The second season, released in 2018, is widely considered a significant step down. Without the decade of accumulated footage that gave Season 1 its depth, Part 2 relies heavily on post-conviction attorney Kathleen Zellner’s investigation. While Zellner is a fascinating figure, the pacing suffers, and the season often feels like it’s stretching limited developments across too many episodes.
Some critics argue that the show contributed to a troubling trend of public trials by media, where complex legal cases get reduced to entertainment. The show’s influence on real people’s lives, from the Avery and Dassey families to the prosecution team and the victim’s family, raises ethical questions that the filmmakers don’t fully reckon with.
Documentary as Catalyst for Change
Making a Murderer’s lasting significance isn’t just as entertainment but as a demonstration of documentary filmmaking’s power to shape public discourse. Whether you believe Avery is innocent or guilty, the series exposes systemic issues in criminal justice that transcend any single case. The questions it raises about police conduct, prosecutorial power, and the treatment of disadvantaged defendants resonate far beyond Manitowoc County.
Should You Watch Making a Murderer?
If you have any interest in true crime, legal systems, or documentary filmmaking, the first season is essential viewing. It’s one of the most important documentaries of the 2010s, and its influence on the streaming landscape is undeniable. The second season is optional but worthwhile for those invested in the case. Just go in understanding that you’re getting one perspective on a complicated story, and do your own reading afterward.
The Verdict on Making a Murderer
Making a Murderer’s first season is a landmark in documentary television, a work of patient, meticulous storytelling that turned a local criminal case into a national conversation. The second season diminishes the overall package, and the filmmakers’ editorial choices are worth questioning. But the core achievement remains: this is true crime storytelling at its most powerful and its most troubling, a series that forces you to grapple with what justice really means in America.