‘The Staircase’ Opened With A Debate [Podcast]

On December 9, 2001, police were called to a large home in Durham, North Carolina. A hysterical man had called 911 several times, demanding medical assistance for his wife, Kathleen Peterson; he explained that she had fallen down the stairs and there was blood everywhere.

What followed is one of the most bizarre and sensational true crime stories in modern history.

24 years after the district attorney, the defence, and a rapt public debated if Michael Peterson killed his wife or if her death was an accident, Murder Made Fiction is revisiting the case.

While Jenn and I tackle the 2004 documentary series by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade over on Patreon, we’re using the Main Feed to discuss Antonio Campos‘ HBO’s 2022 limited series, starring Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen. Rounding out the all-star cast is Olivia DeYonge as Kathleen’s biological daughter, Caitlin, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Dane DeHaan as Michael’s biological sons, Todd and Clayton, as well as Odessa Young and Sophie Turner as Martha and Margaret Ratliff, the Petersons’ adopted daughters.

In episodes 1 & 2, the Peterson family is introduced across multiple timelines. After the discovery of Kathleen’s body in 2001, we flash back to see her at work at Nortel, fretting about downsizing while Michael runs for political office.

There are also events in 2002-2003 as Michael hires expensive defence lawyer David Rudolph (Michael Stuhlbarg) to represent him in court against DA Hardin (Cullen Moss) and prosecutor Freda Black (Parker Posey). The latter pair weaponize Michael’s sexuality history after discovering a bombshell about his orientation and question the reality of his so-called perfect marriage.

Finally, in a bizarre framing device, there are a few brief scenes in 2017 as Michael dates a new woman (Juliette Binoche) and flees from a convenience store after seeing a familiar face: blood splatter analyst Duane Deaver.

It’s a busy first few episodes, though they do a good job of humanizing Kathleen as a real person, not simply the victim from the grisly autopsy photographs. There’s also an amusing additional meta level when filmmaker Lestrade (played by Vincent Vermignon) arrives in episode 2 to begin filming Michael and his family.

Finally, there’s one extremely memorable horror set-piece in this pair of episodes: a graphic and prolonged recreation of Kathleen’s death. It’s presented as a fall, but seeing Collette flail about in a tight stairwell, slipping in her own blood and coughing it on the walls, proves surprisingly upsetting.

We’ll see if that experience carries over into episodes 3-4 next week!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Check out the Patreon feed where Jenn and I have ~120 hours of content, including episode by episode coverage of the aforementioned documentary series The Staircase (2004), as well as all three seasons of Monster (Ed Gein, Dahmer, The Menendez Brothers) among many other shows.