NO spoilers ahead.
If you’ve been on Twitter in the last few weeks, you may have noticed that people are pretty fanatical about a new docu-series, Making A Murderer. The compelling crime documentary has triggered celebrities to tweet their outrage, calls for police reform and even a petition to the President of the United States.
If you’re not 8 episodes deep yet and have no idea what everyone is banging on about, we’ve got the lowdown for you here…
Who is watching?
Basically everyone. Except you if you’re on this page questioning what the fuss is all about.
Mindy Kaling, Christine Teigen, Emmy Rossum and Morena Baccarin have all been tweeting about the programme while Ricky Gervais has even called for it to receive a Nobel Prize.
What is it even about?
Billed as ‘the most compelling American crime story you’ve never heard of’, Making a Murderer chronicles the trial of Steven Avery after he is accused of murdering Teresa Halbach, a photographer for Auto Trader who visited Avery’s auto salvage yard on the day of her death.
Okay…but why are people so riled up about it?
It’s a bit of a long story, but Steven was convicted and then later exonerated from a brutal sexual assault charge after spending 18 years in prison. His release from this sentence triggered a major criminal justice reform and he later filed a $36million wrongful incarceration lawsuit that threatened to expose corruption within the Manitowoc county police department. If all this wasn’t enough in the midst of the publicly drawn out civil case, Steven became the prime suspect in a grisly murder case.
Making a Murderer chronicles and unpacks the murder case as well as examining Steven Avery, the Manitowoc County police department and the Wisconsin justice department through interviews with the defendant, his family, his team of lawyers and the media surrounding the case. When Steven’s nephew, Brendan Dassey makes a questionable confession to being involved in the murder, the documentary looks at how his case could affect Steven’s chances of being proved innocent.
Why is everyone so obsessed?
It’s pretty gripping stuff and a bit of a real life whodunit story. The case questions whether the police department have been conspiring against Steven and tampering with evidence in an attempt to convict him of a crime he may or may not have committed…
How have people reacted?
With outrage. A petition directed to President Obama calling for the pardon of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey has already garnered 249,736 signees. A formal petition to the White House has also already received 18,000 signatures.
The District Attorney, Ken Kratz has come under fire following the programme's release and watchers have been updating his firm's Yelp! listing with negative reviews. While Yelp! has been doing it's best to remove the reviews, some have made it through the net...
While outrage has been the overwhelming emotion, people have also warmed to the subjects in the documentary. Namely two of the media reporters from the programme who have been labeled 'certified babes' by many on Twitter. Avery's mother, Dolores has also garnered a bit of a fan following thanks to her sweet way and her unwavering support of her son.
What does this mean for Steven Avery?
Well unfortunately, the petition to Obama doesn’t seem like it’ll be doing any good to Steven as he doesn’t have the authority to pardon someone unless they’ve been incarcerated because of a federal case but the Innocence Project are now looking into Steven and his nephew’s cases.
Anonymous have also taken it upon themselves to look into the case as well and have claimed to have some damning evidence which could put the Manitowoc county police department in the firing line again. The evidence has yet to be released…
And finally, did he do it?
Who knows. Who knows...