HBO’s The Staircase shows the limits of the True-Crime Industrial Complex

polygon.com:

On paper,The Staircase is wholly unnecessary. The 2001 death of North Carolina business executive Kathleen Peterson and subsequent trial of her husband Michael has been covered in obsessive detail, both in the Peabody Award-winning docuseries that givesThe Staircase its name and a flurry of copycat documentaries (shoutout to the ID channel). So what’s the point of wrapping those same events in a new package and selling them — again?

The typical line for true-crime projects trying to sidestep accusations of exploitation is that it’s about “honoring the victims,” or at least exploring their psychology. Campos’ 2016 filmChristine accomplished this admirably, dramatizing the troubled emotions and thwarted ambitions that led to Florida news anchor Christine Chubbuck’s on-air death in 1974. The same can’t really be said for the five episodes of The Staircase made available for review: Sure, you’ve got Toni Collette as Kathleen, building on her fearless reputation with dinner-table scenes that can’t help but evoke her famous “I am your mother!” monologue fromHereditary. But in terms of illuminating what made either Peterson tick, Campos’ version ofThe Staircase is no more forthcoming than Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s original.

The fictionalized Staircase is more about the meta-narrative surrounding the case than the case itself (or, by extension, the people involved). Campos’ version of the story has secured a fantastic, high-profile cast that also features Colin Firth as Michael Peterson, as well as Juliette Binoche, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sophie Turner, and Parker Posey in supporting roles. But early on in this eight-episode series, the casting gives The Staircase the air of a prestige reenactment. Combined with