Some history: In 2001, in the city of Durham, N.C., Michael Peterson, a writer and sometime political candidate, either did or did not kill his wife, Kathleen, who either fell down a flight or stairs or was beaten to death at its foot. A French television crew, under the direction of Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, arrived soon after Peterson was accused of murder and produced an eight-episode docuseries detailing the trial from preparation to verdict — “The Staircase,” a Peabody Award-winning early model for the twist-and-turn true-crime documentaries and podcasts that have come to clutter the cultural landscape; subsequent episodes were added, updating the story with new developments through 2017. (The 13-episode complete set is available on Netflix.)
Still, as to guilt or innocence, things remain less than perfectly clear. For the armchair judge, it is not so much a matter of who you believe — there being improbabilities and weirdnesses in both the prosecution and defense — as who you don’t. And though you may form an opinion, you can never really know; indeed, it may be this very inconclusiveness that has kept the case alive in the public imagination. The only thing people like more than a mystery may be a mystery they can’t solve.
This history has now been converted into an HBO Max miniseries, also titled “The Staircase,” with Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen. Created by Antonio Campos (“The Devil All the Time”), who also directs several episodes, and Maggie Cohn (“American Crime Story”), it’s not the first such adaptation — a 2007 Lifetime movie, “The Staircase Murders,” preceded it, to little acclaim — but it covers miles more ground, is not without ideas and marshals the power of HBO to gather stars, budget and screen time. And is good, if at times unavoidably problematic. (Five of eight episodes have been made available for review; the original trial ends halfway through the series.)
