On an unassuming street in the historic district of Forest Hills, Durham, California, Kathleen Peterson is found unconscious at the foot of her home’s staircase. The year is 2001, and it is only fifteen days before Christmas. She is forty-eight years old and is announced dead on arrival, but her family, and her husband, insist that it was an accident and not a murder. Her husband is the American novelist Michael Peterson, best known for his works based on his time in Vietnam, where he worked with the US Department of Defense.
As the autopsy report comes out, suspicion arises about the circumstances of Kathleen’s death, and her husband is arrested as the prime suspect in a potential homicide case. With Peterson’s arrest comes a series of sensationalized events, especially asdetails from his private lifecome to light. Peterson lied about the circumstances around his military service and career, while he also harbored a secret that could have torn apart his marriage: he was bisexual and amid an affair. Peterson is declared guilty in court and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Sixteen years later, after the initial court case, Peterson’s case has renewed itself. In 2011, Peterson was allowed the opportunity to be placed under house arrest instead of serving time in prison. Then in 2017,he used the Alford Pleato try and lessen his sentencing. Interest in his case specifically began to rise in the public interest when Netflix added thethirteen-part documentaryseriesThe Staircaseon the streaming platform. Filmed over fourteen years, it tracks the Michael Peterson case as new developments emerged and disappeared.
A Murder on a Staircase
Now, in 2022,HBO Max’sdramatized version ofThe Staircaseadds to the plethora of new true crime shows seen across platforms. Whilepopular shows likeInventing AnnaandThe Dropouthave taken to shifting towards the feminine side of true crime,The Staircaseleads more into the territory of past true crime shows: its central figure, Michael Peterson, is a male figure, head of household, and a writer writing about countries he has seen through the American military complex. He is a familiar figure in the overarching mythos of American television and entertainment, except Peterson is now the prime suspect.
The show was developed by Antonio Campos, the director of movies likeAfterschoolandThe Devil All the Time. He was inspired by the documentary seriesThe Staircasein 2008, but this passion project did not find a home until 2019. Harrison Ford was once attached to the project as an executive producer and as an actor, but he ended up dropping out due to unspecified reasons. HBO Max ordered the series to run as an eight-episode limited series for their streaming platform, and the first three episodes were released years later in May 2022.
Colin Firthstars inThe Staircaseas Michael Peterson, the novelist who initially calls 911 to report that his wife had fallen down the stairs. In the series’ dramatic opening scene, a black scene with a voiceover immediately establishes that something has gone wrong. Peterson’s frantic voice exclaims that his wife has fallen down the steps, then the camera moves its gaze to the crime scene. The soncomes home to find the house in disarray, his father in shock and throwing his body over his bloody wife’s corpse.
“She was drunk,” he claims later, defying the police’s orders to stop tampering with the house and corpse, now a crime scene. Kathleen’s (Toni Collette) body sprawls across the floor, the walls and torso splattered with blood.The Staircasedoes not bother to hide the brutality of this crime. It instead lingers immediately on questions about how this could have possibly been a fall down the stairs. Peterson’s act feels rehearsed, casting further suspicion on what went on here.
The bulk of the first episode shifts between past and present, offering a stark juxtaposition of the family’s life before the tragedy tore everything apart. Sparsely placed timestamps provide a sense of placement every so often, but, instead, the show follows a nonlinear trajectory that bounces as it sees fit. It is a tentative slow burn, dragging a bit in the first episodes then picks up its pace as the story escalates. As the viewer’s gaze shifts from the ongoing investigation with the DA’s office to the Peterson family, it provides an ominous nature even in moments of solace.
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Colin Firth Delivers One of His Best Roles
Colin Firth and Toni Collette mustered striking performances as Michael and Kathleen Peterson. Firth’s Peterson is difficult to get a read on, and it seems like one may never be able to understand the extent of what he is thinking. On the other hand, Collette’s Kathleen is introduced as a dead body, but when the story weaves past and present, she can come to life vibrantly, showing that she is more than a dead woman to be obsessed over. As Peterson walks free in 2017, Kathleen is a ghost story that he will never be able to walk away from during his lifetime.
True crime is a genre that appeals to alargely female demographicdespite most crimes being against women.The Staircasedoes not defy the expectations that there will not be violence against women—Kathleen’s death is the spark that creates this story. Shows likeInventing AnnaorUnder the Banner of Heavenalso follow this formulaic method. It does not matter if the protagonist is a woman, such as in the case ofInventing Anna, a lot of the consequences of her actions impact women as well.The Staircaseis not an exception to this rule of thumb.
This show’s cast is full of veteran actors, which comes as no surprise once pressing play. Michael Stuhlbarg, Dane DeHaan, Sophie Turner, and Patrick Schwarzenegger star. As the family begins to internally implode, the actors elevate the tension as more secrets rise to the surface. This is a story that does not affect just the suspect, Peterson when it comes to the media and increasing attention. His children and family members have to deal with the consequences of what occurred even during the grieving process.
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Finding Justice in Tragedy
For fans of the original documentary series,The Staircasefails to offer any new insights or tidbits of information about the case. It merely is a dramatization, something to bring the case to life almost eleven years after it originally happened. Its strengths lie in how it tells a story that viewers may already know from similar shows or by following the case.The Staircasedoes not feel like something that has been approached many times story-wise, and that is made clear when it shows the graphic crime scene and implications that the viewer may never seem to know what happened.
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And perhaps that is the point ofThe Staircase: there is something to learn about true crime outside of figuring out the truth. Often, in movies likeIn Cold Bloodor evenExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, the camera gazes on humanizing killers and exposing lessons on humanity. But in a case like Michael Peterson’s, a distinct brand of uncertainty ramps up the interest behind the potential crime’s consequences.
Outside of the graphic moments where the camera may linger a little too long on Collette’s body lying on the staircase, there are little nuggetsfor fans of the documentary. The inspiration becomes clearer at certain parts, whether replicating the phone calls, tape recorders, or specific moments. As viewers begin to ascend the metaphorical staircase to a moment of revelation, all of these components combined with the efforts that can only be done through television. While a documentary would be unable to make Kathleen come back to life as a character, a television show allows seeing her as a person that lives and breathes.
Other true crime movies use the victims’ families as a symbol, a crux of the act of crime itself. The weeping mother, the grieving siblings, and a father wondering what went wrong. This is not what is seen inThe Staircaseat all—in real life, things are much messier than a single sweep over a devastated family. Regardless of whether Michael Peterson is guilty or innocent, this story ends in tragedy. A family lost their mother, sister, and cousin.
The Staircaseis available to stream on HBO Max. The first three episodes released on August 07, 2025 and the following episodes will be released weekly.
