5/5 Suspenseful and Dramatic
  by Cary B. Barad (Baltimore, MD)
Since I don't care much for Court TV types of television, my expectations for this film were quite low. In fact, I couldn't tell--at first--if this film was truly a documentary or one played by actors. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the superlative true-to-life drama and mounting suspense coupled with an extended treatment of the family and the lawyer-client relationship. The only downside from a viewing perspective was the inclusion of extensive forensic evidence which I found to be too technical and hard to follow. Hence, I'm glad I wasn't on that jury. Nonetheless, one could easily argue --and rightfully so--that it was essential to the case. In a nutshell--this is a must see for those who appreciate quality films. Leaves you with much food for thought.

5/5 I think it comes down to perspective...
  by robb0117 (Seattle, WA)
I just finished watching "The Staircase" last night. It is a very impressive, highly addictive document that will instantly have its hooks in you from episode 1. There are a couple of key things I feel are worth mentioning that I picked up from some of the negative reviews. The main compliant is "The Staircase" is presented in a way that makes it look like Michael Peterson is actually innocent and NC wrongly locked him up. I went into this film knowing that Michael Peterson was already found guilty and based on what I have read, do believe he committed the murder. However, watching this film, I can easily see why people can walk away feeling he was wrongly convicted. There were even a couple of times I had a reasonable doubt!

The main thing to keep in mind is 80% of the film is shot from the defense's perspective. Most of the footage is taken from the Peterson house, interviews with the kids, his brothers, ex-wife. You candidly are exposed to the defense team and how they set up their strategy to defend Peterson, even after all the bizarre instances are exposed over the course of the investigation and trial. A majority of what you are watching over 6 hours is a family that really wants to believe their father did not murder their mother, and a defense team that is trying their hardness to get a murderer off even though all fingers seem to point right at him.

In the bonus features, the director points out that after a couple months, the prosecution did not want the film crew to have 'all-access' pass to their case and refused to let them film, unlike the Peterson family/ defense which was an open book. The initial intent was to have a balanced story, but it didn't turn out that way. So in the end "The Staircase" is not really pure documentary of the murder and trial of Kathleen Peterson. It is more a documentary on Michael Peterson and his family after the murder of their wife/ mother, and how a high-end murder defense team defends their client. Absolutely fascinating. But not a balanced criminal/ judicial documentary.

5/5 If Michael Peterson isn't guilty, then I'm not a Bay Area Boy!
  by JB (Redwood City, CA)
I purchased this DVD about 7 months ago and I must have watched all eight episodes at least ten times.

By the time I had watched it the second time, I was convinced Michael Peterson was guilty; even before I found a great Website on the internet called [...] hosted by a fella named Vance Holmes. Vance has spent a great deal of time researching the entire trial, the victims, and Mr. Peterson himself and clearly points out all the discrepancies in this DVD.

If you visit his Website first, you will be all the more drawn to purchasing this 8-chapter set. Just to KNOW this Peterson guy is GUILTY beyound a resonable doubt, then to watch him snake his way through the trial with his mock tears, and his innapropriate humour at times makes you realize this guy is the most self-centered, narcissistic sociopath that ever walked the streets of Durham, North Carolina.

Not only did he murder his second wife, Kathleen, but it seems pretty obvious he may have murdered his first wife's best friend in Germany when she too was found bloody, and at the bottom of a long staircase. Top this all off with the fact that Michael is Bi-Sexual and had been carrying on multiple affairs with both women and MEN during BOTH his marraiges, and you will walk away thoroughly convinced he belongs in that Prison they interview him in on the last disc's "Special Features" addition vinnette.

Still playing the pitiful role as the persecuted victim, this incredibly insensitve egotist is lucky he didn't meet "Old Sparky" instead of getting off with a life sentence with no parole.

This documentary is a must see for true crime buffs, and a fascinating study in how Peterson's own family and friends can be so blindly decieved by a master Sociopath who cares nothing about anyone but himself. Jean Xavier de Lestrade, "The Staircase" Director should throw his Oscar for "Murder on a Sunday Afternoon" into the Seine River for presenting Peterson as the "innocent victim of a prejudiced court and community" and go back to making commercials in Paris for French Laundries and skinny brown Turkish cigarettes.

Although Lestrade simply closes his featurette interviews on this DVD with comments like "we just don't know what happened," the REST of us are pretty convinced Peterson should have got the "Chair" for murdering not one, but TWO women for who knows what reason but his own. Sociopaths don't always need a reason to kill someone......just a convenient dimly lit Staircase and a trusting soul as his next victim standing before him on those steps.

5/5 Great documentary.
  by Edward Walters (Las Vegas, NV)
Great insite into a trial and what goes on behind the scenes. A wonderful human drama.

2/5 Superbly made, but terribly flawed
  by M. Liske (Australia)
Like many others who have written their reviews, I found this a compelling and addictive documentary. However, I would urge everyone to please dig deeper and look into the mountain of evidence that was used to convict Peterson - most of which was left on the cutting room floor and was deliberately left out of this documentary.

You have to ask yourself why the film maker, Lestrade, would deliberately try to manipulate the audience into believing that the American justice system put an innocent man in jail for a murder he didn't commit. Instead, the American justice system got it right and poor Kathleen Peterson can rest in peace while her sociopathic husband serves a life sentence for her murder. This documentary failed to show the real reasons why the jury convicted Peterson and that makes this a documentary that is more fiction than fact.