Warning: this article contains minor spoilers for the first three episodes of Sky’s The Staircase.

In the world of true crime, there are a few standout cases that remain with us long after diving into them. The death of Kathleen Peterson is exactly one of those cases.

Back in 2001, novelist Michael Peterson rang the police to report that his wife Kathleen had had an “accident” in their home in Durham, North Carolina. He found her lying in a pool of her own blood, unconscious at the bottom of their staircase. In Michael’s eyes, it was a tragic accident likely induced by too much alcohol but the 35 cuts, bruises and lacerations point to anything but.

It’s a perplexing story – especially since Michael retains his innocence to this day – but is one that starts to unfold into a tale of family secrets, suspicion and whodunnits. It’s exactly why it’s the prime kind of fodder for Sky’s latest drama series The Staircase.

If you’ve watched the Netflix documentary of the same name, you’ll know just how fascinating the case is. Theories continue to whirl today and we’re no closer to figuring out what happened that night. This drama, though, really does throw us into the action and makes viewers feel like the sofa detectives many true crime fans – like us – think we are.  

Yes, the events and details of the death are harrowing but it’s truly transformed into something so eerie in this drama, it left us with goosebumps. Colin Firth plays Michael not only brilliantly, but in the charismatic – yet suitably socially awkward – way that Michael was in the documentary. We may have doubted just how seamless Firth’s performance would be when he was first announced as leading this cast but his role as the secretive – and not private – patriarch only highlights the mounting suspicion against him.

What’s special about this series is that, even if you have watched the fascinating Netflix documentary this drama’s based upon, you’ll still be left completely transfixed. You know that Kathleen’s (played by Toni Collette) death overarches this series but through flashbacks to the months preceding it, you can’t help but feel like you’re left to figure out the chaos for yourself.

Clues and red herrings swirl throughout the episodes – like the focus on Kathleen’s heavy drinking or the incessant scratching coming from the attic, which could point at the widely spoken about ‘owl theory’. 

Perhaps one of the most chilling scenes, though, comes when Kathleen’s death unfolds in the way Michael’s lawyers think at the end of episode 2 ‘Chiroptera’. There’s no real introduction to the scene and you’re left thinking it could very well be real. We see her cry for help, slipping on her own blood and falling repeatedly, which makes for a sequence that will leave you wincing and unknowingly holding your breath. 

Unexpected scenes like this (and Michael’s secret trips to sex video shops, for instance) along with little snippets of other suspicious events, make for a drama that’s easy-to-watch and terribly addictive. We immediately get a sense of the Peterson family and their all-too-perfect façade. Although we know they’re a blended family, without prior knowledge from the documentary, the series drip feeds us intel on the Petersons in a similarly secretive fashion to the people involved.

Two of the daughters not being biologically related to the Petersons, for example, and actually being the children of a neighbour in Germany who was found at the bottom of her staircase. Coincidental, right?

Similarly, we come to figure out the family dynamics rather than have them thrust upon us. We start to learn who the biological children of both Kathleen and Michael are, which isn’t deeply important but does lead to battlelines being drawn when deciphering whether Michael is being truthful. 

Where the first episode is chaotic, the next two episodes provide us with insight into how the case is being dealt with by the District Attorney, how Michael’s bisexuality brings his marriage into hyperfocus and how a past of lies – namely about winning the coveted military award of the Purple Heart – doesn’t exactly pave a smooth road for him fighting for his innocence. Add to that a new strategy of having the whole case filmed by French documentarians and we start to get insight into how the whole case is a lot more convoluted than we originally thought.

But it’s in amidst the relatable chaos of the series that this crime drama really comes into its own. It forces us to ask ourselves: what would you do if a beloved family member was accused of murder? Would you close ranks or hunt for your own answers? I guess we’ll just have to tune in for the next few weeks and see for ourselves.

The first four episodes of The Staircase are available to stream on Sky and NOW TV, with episodes being released weekly hereafter.  

Images: HBO Max