The Staircase is an enthralling crime drama with a stellar cast

Colin Firth and Toni Collette lead a great ensemble cast in this crime drama about a case that still divides 20 years later.

The murder case against Michael Peterson has enthralled true crime enthusiasts ever since his wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home.

She was covered in blood and had multiple injuries inconsistent with the tale Peterson told – that Kathleen had been drunk and must have fallen and died in a tragic accident.

The case piqued the interest of French filmmakers who covered the aftermath, the trial and the Peterson family’s fracture as guilt, suspicion and loyalties were tested.

The resulting documentary series, The Staircase from 2004, remains one of the best known international true crime titles, which was followed up again with a 2012 sequel film and a 2018 sequel series, charting new developments.

Given how extensively the case has already been covered, it begs the question of the splashy new drama series of the same name – what do you get out of this?

For one thing, an extraordinary cast led by Colin Firth as Peterson and Toni Collette as Kathleen, along with a stable of great supporting actors including Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Turner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Parker Posey, Odessa Young and Juliette Binoche.

Colin Firth and Toni Collette in The Staircase. Picture: HBO

The other thing, the main one, is that The Staircase, directed by filmmaker Antonio Campos (Christine, The Devil All the Time), is a masterfully composed and tonally strong drama that captures the same unsettling vibe which bewitched fans of the docuseries.

And if you’re not a documentary person, then the dramatisation is the perfect hook into this fascinating case which, 20 years later, still divides on whether or not Peterson was guilty.

The advantage of a dramatisation is that there isn’t that strict adherence to fidelity which means the chance to tell the story of the one person who didn’t previously feature heavily – Kathleen.

Collette grounds the woman whose thorny end drives everything in the story, but this time it’s not the memories and relationships of those who knew her. She is able to exist in her own right, in scenes by herself. She’s not just a body in the morgue or a series of grisly crime photos.

Campos, who also wrote many of the episodes, weaves the competing storylines and many characters of a complicated tapestry, giving time to the grief and anguish of people such as Kathleen’s sister Candace (DeWitt) or the ambitions of assistant DA Freda Black (Posey).

The family dynamics drive the real drama in The Staircase. Picture: HBO

It’s a puzzle with many pieces as revelations come out at an unrelenting pace, and it begs to be solved. The arrogant and inscrutable Peterson, portrayed with characteristic restraint by Firth, doesn’t make for a clear-cut villain.

But maybe the resolution is not the point (the finale was not provided to media). Rather The Staircase is a series about the texture of the case and the people embroiled in the worst moment of their lives.

It’s in the tension between the characters in this large family that drives the real drama. It’s in the moment Kathleen’s biological daughter Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge) switches sides, it’s in Michael’s sons’ (Dane DeHaan and Patrick Schwarzenegger) blind faith in their father’s innocence and it’s in the strategy sessions of the lawyers on opposite sides of the case.

The small moments make for a mesmerising whole.

The Staircase is streaming now on Binge with new episodes released on Thursdays

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Originally published as The Staircase is an enthralling crime drama with a stellar cast