The Southland Times

More Murderer, more bingeing

- James Croot james.croot@stuff.co.nz

The series that began the Kiwi obsession with Netflix is back. Almost three years after the first season gripped and divided viewers around the globe, a second 10-episode instalment of Making a Murderer is available for streaming from today.

For those living under a rock during the summer of 2015-16, the documentar­y series explores the story of Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man who served 18 years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder.

After being fully exonerated by DNA evidence in 2003, he attempted to sue Manitowoc County for wrongful conviction, only to be arrested with his nephew Brendan Dassey two years later for the alleged murder of young photograph­er Teresa Halbach.

Avery believed that arrest and subsequent conviction was a frame-up, claiming that the evidence was tampered with by County officials.

Following his and Dassey’s decade-long fight for justice, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos’ tale attempted to investigat­e and pick apart the case against them, as well as how this case highlighte­d the inadequaci­es of the American legal system.

Critics, as well as viewers, were blown away by the result, and the series took home four Emmy Awards in 2016.

Writing for New York Magazine, Margaret Lyons said the series was ‘‘as engrossing as they come, impactful and devastatin­g, and it left me with a hollowed-out despondenc­e generally treatable only with alcohol and ranting’’. It was a sentiment echoed by The Atlantic’s Lenika Cruz.

‘‘What it lacks in terms of sensationa­lism and gloss, it makes up for by possessing that very quality every Netflix show aspires to have: bingeabili­ty. The series begins slowly, but after grasping enough names and faces, you start feeling a sense of total immersion.’’

But, of course, not everyone was happy with the case being revisited. Halbach’s family and friends were horrified at having to relive their nightmare ‘‘in the name of entertainm­ent’’, while those portrayed in a poor light (for example, the original prosecutin­g district attorney Ken Kratz) dismissed the show as a ‘‘conspiracy movie’’.

In returning to their story, Ricciardi and Demos look at the headlines, tweets, speaking tours and general conversati­ons the original series generated when the story made it to the White House (Barack Obama’s office was forced to respond to a 500,000-signature petition to pardon Avery by saying that ‘‘the President cannot pardon a state criminal offence’’).

Avery and Dassey’s family and friends also reveal the pile of correspond­ence they received, most of which supports their quest for freedom, or at least another day in court.

Despite all of that though, both of them are still incarcerat­ed. Dassey did have his conviction overturned by a federal judge in November 2016, but an appeal reversed that. Avery, meanwhile, has waited for more than a year for a Wisconsin Supreme Court judge to respond to his claim that two of his constituti­onal rights were

‘‘Once we uncover one lie, I know there will be a whole lot more.’’ Lawyer Kathleen Zellner

violated during his arrest and prosecutio­n.

He also has a new high-profile lawyer – one who seems destined to be the new season’s breakout star. Kathleen Zellner has a reputation for helping those who believe they were wrongfully convicted earn their freedom.

Tough, meticulous and uncompromi­sing, she tells the film-makers that she only takes on cases where she’s convinced the person is innocent.

‘‘If you lie to me and you’re guilty, I’ll do a better job than the prosecutio­n,’’ she warns.

Driven as much by the desire to know what actually happened in the case as taking apart the state’s case, she spends the first episode disproving the blood evidence in Halbach’s Rav 4 vehicle. ‘‘And once we uncover one lie, I know there will be a whole lot more.’’

Eminently quotable, Zellner ends the opening hour with a statement that she believes there has been an enormous effort spent on convicting Avery.

‘‘This is a case of gross, extreme, egregious prosecutor­ial misconduct,’’ she fumes, setting up audiences for another round of long nights of compelling binge-watching and intense postviewin­g debates.

 ??  ?? Making a Murderer returns to the story of the conviction of Steven Avery.
Making a Murderer returns to the story of the conviction of Steven Avery.
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