In December 2001, when the world began to recover from the tragedy of 9/11, the Petersons (Michael, a successful war writer, and his wife, Kathleen, an equally successful businesswoman) were spending a warm evening in their mansion’s backyard. At the end of the romantic dinner, Michael (Colin Firth) is left alone by the pool while Kathleen (played by Toni Collette) returns home to finish her work. While the author was enjoying the view of the starry sky, something terrible happened at home: Kathleen slipped down a narrow staircase and fell unsuccessfully, breaking her head. An injury that could have been taken care of by doctors if they were nearby, turned into the death of a woman – she bled alone for almost an hour, unable to shout at her husband. When Michael found his wife, it was too late.
After the initial shock of the terrible accident wore off, it turned out that Kathleen could not stand a fall from the stairs, but had wounds that remained after a series of blows, for example, with a blunt object. So, at the end of one of the terrible years in the history of America, Michael found himself at the beginning of his personal tragedy – he turned from a widow to the main suspect. And how many interesting things came to light in the subsequent investigation!
The series begins with an epigraph quoting the words of Pontius Pilate: “Really? What is the truth? It is a search for an answer to this question that will be devoted to all eight parts of the project. The Ladder isn’t the first show to try to figure out a high-profile crime: in 2004 they made their own movie about what happened, French documentaries in parallel with the investigation. The dock is called The Ladder, and years later it became one of the most watched streams, switching from French Canal+ to American Netflix.
Despite the seemingly elaborate format of a documentary series, the story needed artistic reflection. What’s more, the writers have a chance to come back: yes, in reality, Michael Peterson was convicted and served time in prison, but he himself did not plead guilty during these almost 20 years. Moreover, numerous errors of judgment were recorded during the trial, and the story turned into an urban legend, overgrown with various conspiracy theories, one more poignant than the other.
The real story behind the staircase, if you look closely, from the first minutes resembles a Greek tragedy. First, there is a large and complex family here, almost overflowing with Shakespearean passions. For Michael, marriage with Kathleen was in second place. The author lived with his first wife in Germany, where their son was born (in the show they are played by Patrick Schwarzenegger and Dane DeHaan). The family was close friends with neighbors raising the daughters (Sophie Turner and Odessa Young). When the father of a neighboring family died suddenly, Michael and his first wife supported the widow of a friend, but he died soon after. Allegedly from an aneurysm. But what Peterson is hiding from the public: the woman went into the bedroom after having dinner with him, in fact, he fell down the stairs, broke his head and bled to death. Michael was the last person to see her alive, as was his second wife.
After the tragedy, the Petersons adopted the daughters of the deceased, but later managed to divorce, and the writer entered into a new relationship with Kathleen, who had a child from his first marriage (Olivia DeJong). If you haven’t gotten into the pedigree details of their family yet, let’s recap: Michael and Kathleen became parents to five children and lived as one large family in North Carolina.
Second, there is a lot of deception here. A former Vietnam War veteran, Peterson made a living writing war novels based in part on memoirs of his service. In the late 90s, he tried to run for mayor of his hometown, but during the election campaign it became clear that the author was not the most reliable storyteller. He lied about being rewarded with the Purple Heart for being wounded in battle. Moreover, he embellished the story itself: the injury was received not by a grenade fragment that hit him on the battlefield, but after the war – during a car accident in Japan, where Peterson lived for some time.
Third: Michael Peterson lied not only about his past, but also about his present. The author was bisexual, had numerous sexual encounters with various men, and often led a double life.
According to the prosecution, all of the above worked against the protagonist: he witnessed the death of a girlfriend, whose death was oddly repeated with his second wife (and who, in theory, helped him fake Kathleen’s murder as an accident), he himself was caught in a massive hoax, and the probable cause of the murders was the woman’s It was Michael’s betrayals that he learned on that fateful evening.
According to the defense (a group of stubborn lawyers), all of the above does not show that the man is guilty unless proven otherwise in court. This is where the real “fun” starts. In the next series, the authors try to reconstruct all possible versions of the crime, carefully supplementing them with the collected evidence.
Chief director Antonio Campos (The Devil Is Always Here) is a longtime fan of Peterson’s story. So much so that he even managed to attend several hearings on the case. The narrative method she chooses is almost brutal for the audience: the scenes of Kathleen’s possible death are painful even on a physical level. Campos forces us to witness the tragedy and deprives us of the chance to look the other way. Close-ups and lengthy single-shot scenes add to this almost documentary believability (the four-minute segment featuring Kathleen’s son’s discovery is filmed in a cool, direct, and captivating way).
Campos deliberately tries to fully understand the paradox of history: it is surprising that the case, about which so much is known, has not really been fully resolved yet. Peterson insists on her innocence, conspiracy theorists articulate their own versions of the tragedy, and Kathleen’s children and relatives are split on two fronts: those who believe in Michael and those who believe Michael is a murderer.
In the vision of Campos, who co-wrote the screenplay, this story of crime and punishment has inexhaustible potential and goes far beyond the true crime genre. And against the background of similar series of investigations, it is distinguished by a contradictory element: the lack of a clear answer to the question, is Kathleen’s murder or death the result of a terrible accident?
Whatever the director’s answer, it is clear that life itself has found its answer in this particular case: sometimes in the judicial system, the most convincing party wins, not the one with the most facts. external sound.