I feel like all these shows are being forced to elongate their episodes, or they just have directors that refuse to be reigned in. I thought the HBO doc was already too long — the dramatization being 8 episodes is ridiculous. 

I do appreciate its focus on the owl theory, which I still believe to this day is the only logical explanation for everything that happened that day. Overall, I still would prefer watching the documentary to a dramatization, though. 

First things first, this series should have been 5-6 episodes tops, not the 8 that it totaled. While it is, undoubtedly, a sprawling story to tell, it was a lot of filler on their odd family dynamics instead of all, uh, killer.

Speaking of: the series in no way gave an easy answer about whether or not Michael Peterson killed his wife Kathleen (I mean he did, sorry owl enthusiasts). While I personally felt like most of the series erred on the side of innocence, the last twenty minutes of the finale placed all the big doubts and questions back in play again.

I think if you've had your mind made up about Peterson since the OG docuseries The Staircase like I have (guiiiiiiillllltyyyyy) the miniseries probably didn't sway you in a new direction. I'd be curious to know what newcomers to this story took away from all this. 

While I found the documentary, ultimately, more captivating, I was utterly blown away by Colin Firth's performance (he sounds so much like him its scary) and it gave Kathleen a voice and screen time (played by Toni Collette) that, obviously, couldn't be done otherwise. 

What were your thoughts on The Staircase finale and the series as a whole? 

Thoughts on The Staircase finale? 

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