Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s 2004 docuseries The Staircase begins with the mysterious death of Kathleen Peterson, followed by the protracted legal battles of her husband, Michael, in Durham, North Carolina. Despite maintaining his innocence, the author was convicted of Kathleen’s murder in 2003 and sent to prison for eight years before prosecutorial misconduct opened the door for a new trial. Told almost entirely from Michael’s point of view, de Lestrade’s lauded documentary tells a much more sympathetic version of his story than what played out in local media.
Nearly two decades later, Campos posits a reason for this one-sided depiction. His 2022 fictionalized retelling, The Staircase, reveals that Michael (Colin Firth) would go on to have a romantic relationship with Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche), the woman responsible for editing de Lestrade’s film. Episodes 3 and 4 present a much more villainous version of the husband and father, causing us to question everything we previously believed.
In the latest episode of Bloody FM’s Murder Made Fiction podcast, Jenn and Joe unpack these episodes while reckoning with Campos’ damning revelation. Can documentary filmmaking ever be entirely accurate? Do we need to like Michael to have an opinion on his guilt? Do we find the crime version of Kathleen’s (Toni Collette) death plausible, and what are the ripple effects for the rest of her family? They’ll answer these questions and more as they reach the halfway point of this surprising series.
And if you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and Joe have ~120 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of the original docuseries The Staircase.