Are you watching The Staircase on HBO Max?

[Anonymous]

Am not reading this thread yet. Just started episode one and can’t wait to tie all the pieces together, wow!

[Anonymous]

Just watched the documentary. Not going to watch the dramatized version. That woman died as a result of some interaction with another being, for sure. All that blood and the scalp lacerations? Either him, an intruder, or an owl (what a freak accident). After watching the documentary, there were so many sketchy people involved with the "investigation". The incompetent Dexter dude, the flat affect med examiner who just thinks everyone dies by homicide, and even the lawyer David, who never questioned the fact that NO DNA was ever obtained from the death scene. If that simple act had been carried out, I think we'd have big "Hoot"enanny!!

[Anonymous]

Is the main character Michael a narcissist or aspergers or both?
Only 1/3 the way through and it’s reminding me of my bipolar/ aspie ex boyfriend. But intent or lack thereof matters with this level of selfishness and carelessness or manipulation/intense need for a type A caretaker.

[Anonymous]

Very well done show this far

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, watched the HBO series -- after mistakenly watching the first episode of the Netflix doc and wondering when Toni Collette and Colin Firth were going to show up. LOL! Then I watched the Netflix doc. My thoughts:

Colin Firth is not likeable in the show but he has certain warmth that Mike Peterson lacks in the doc. I started to dislike Colin Firth when I saw how he treated his sons. The real Mike Peterson functioned very much on the surface and didn't seem authentic to me. I didn't like either one of them.

Despite the apparent character flaws of the real Mike Peterson, I don't think he did it - but if he did, there's not enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The most gripping part of the HBO series was the impact on the children. I was frustrated to find out later that some of what they went through was fabricated or not addressed in the doc, eg, Martha finding out her adoptive parents wanted to give her away and the competition between Todd and Clayton for their father's acceptance.

I also was annoyed that Sophie's relationship with Peterson is not addressed *at all* in the documentary. I wanted to know more about their relationship in real life. She said that she fell in love with him not through editing the documentary but afterwards when she started exchanging letters with him while he was in prison. But couldn't she see from the documentary footage that he was essentially a "surface" person (classic White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male - which I can say because that's my family background)? Those must have been some letters to make her fall in love with him after all that video evidence showing that he has difficulty expressing deep feelings.

And of course not knowing how Kathleen died will always bother me!

I didn't watch the documentary. Can you explain, is the story about Michael wanting to give Martha away and separate the sisters not in the documentary, or fabricated? If it's fabricated, that's pretty messed up. To me that was a huge part of the story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, watched the HBO series -- after mistakenly watching the first episode of the Netflix doc and wondering when Toni Collette and Colin Firth were going to show up. LOL! Then I watched the Netflix doc. My thoughts:

Colin Firth is not likeable in the show but he has certain warmth that Mike Peterson lacks in the doc. I started to dislike Colin Firth when I saw how he treated his sons. The real Mike Peterson functioned very much on the surface and didn't seem authentic to me. I didn't like either one of them.

Despite the apparent character flaws of the real Mike Peterson, I don't think he did it - but if he did, there's not enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The most gripping part of the HBO series was the impact on the children. I was frustrated to find out later that some of what they went through was fabricated or not addressed in the doc, eg, Martha finding out her adoptive parents wanted to give her away and the competition between Todd and Clayton for their father's acceptance.

I also was annoyed that Sophie's relationship with Peterson is not addressed *at all* in the documentary. I wanted to know more about their relationship in real life. She said that she fell in love with him not through editing the documentary but afterwards when she started exchanging letters with him while he was in prison. But couldn't she see from the documentary footage that he was essentially a "surface" person (classic White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male - which I can say because that's my family background)? Those must have been some letters to make her fall in love with him after all that video evidence showing that he has difficulty expressing deep feelings.

And of course not knowing how Kathleen died will always bother me!

I didn't watch the documentary. Can you explain, is the story about Michael wanting to give Martha away and separate the sisters not in the documentary, or fabricated? If it's fabricated, that's pretty messed up. To me that was a huge part of the story.

Okay I should say that I don't actually know it was fabricated but it's not in the documentary. I've done some googling and it hasn't come up. Do you think they would go so far as to make that up? That would seem pretty extreme. But I still haven't found any evidence either of it existing or anyone saying it was made up. So maybe I spoke too soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, watched the HBO series -- after mistakenly watching the first episode of the Netflix doc and wondering when Toni Collette and Colin Firth were going to show up. LOL! Then I watched the Netflix doc. My thoughts:

Colin Firth is not likeable in the show but he has certain warmth that Mike Peterson lacks in the doc. I started to dislike Colin Firth when I saw how he treated his sons. The real Mike Peterson functioned very much on the surface and didn't seem authentic to me. I didn't like either one of them.

Despite the apparent character flaws of the real Mike Peterson, I don't think he did it - but if he did, there's not enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The most gripping part of the HBO series was the impact on the children. I was frustrated to find out later that some of what they went through was fabricated or not addressed in the doc, eg, Martha finding out her adoptive parents wanted to give her away and the competition between Todd and Clayton for their father's acceptance.

I also was annoyed that Sophie's relationship with Peterson is not addressed *at all* in the documentary. I wanted to know more about their relationship in real life. She said that she fell in love with him not through editing the documentary but afterwards when she started exchanging letters with him while he was in prison. But couldn't she see from the documentary footage that he was essentially a "surface" person (classic White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male - which I can say because that's my family background)? Those must have been some letters to make her fall in love with him after all that video evidence showing that he has difficulty expressing deep feelings.

And of course not knowing how Kathleen died will always bother me!

I didn't watch the documentary. Can you explain, is the story about Michael wanting to give Martha away and separate the sisters not in the documentary, or fabricated? If it's fabricated, that's pretty messed up. To me that was a huge part of the story.

Okay I should say that I don't actually know it was fabricated but it's not in the documentary. I've done some googling and it hasn't come up. Do you think they would go so far as to make that up? That would seem pretty extreme. But I still haven't found any evidence either of it existing or anyone saying it was made up. So maybe I spoke too soon.

The documentary was controlled by him and the editor was biased- she fell in love with him. I wouldn’t assume the documentary is fair.

[Anonymous]

Sorry no. Sophie did not control the documentary or it's tone. That is a fiction of the show.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Okay, watched the HBO series -- after mistakenly watching the first episode of the Netflix doc and wondering when Toni Collette and Colin Firth were going to show up. LOL! Then I watched the Netflix doc. My thoughts:

Colin Firth is not likeable in the show but he has certain warmth that Mike Peterson lacks in the doc. I started to dislike Colin Firth when I saw how he treated his sons. The real Mike Peterson functioned very much on the surface and didn't seem authentic to me. I didn't like either one of them.

Despite the apparent character flaws of the real Mike Peterson, I don't think he did it - but if he did, there's not enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

The most gripping part of the HBO series was the impact on the children. I was frustrated to find out later that some of what they went through was fabricated or not addressed in the doc, eg, Martha finding out her adoptive parents wanted to give her away and the competition between Todd and Clayton for their father's acceptance.

I also was annoyed that Sophie's relationship with Peterson is not addressed *at all* in the documentary. I wanted to know more about their relationship in real life. She said that she fell in love with him not through editing the documentary but afterwards when she started exchanging letters with him while he was in prison. But couldn't she see from the documentary footage that he was essentially a "surface" person (classic White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male - which I can say because that's my family background)? Those must have been some letters to make her fall in love with him after all that video evidence showing that he has difficulty expressing deep feelings.

And of course not knowing how Kathleen died will always bother me!

I didn't watch the documentary. Can you explain, is the story about Michael wanting to give Martha away and separate the sisters not in the documentary, or fabricated? If it's fabricated, that's pretty messed up. To me that was a huge part of the story.

Okay I should say that I don't actually know it was fabricated but it's not in the documentary. I've done some googling and it hasn't come up. Do you think they would go so far as to make that up? That would seem pretty extreme. But I still haven't found any evidence either of it existing or anyone saying it was made up. So maybe I spoke too soon.

The documentary was controlled by him and the editor was biased- she fell in love with him. I wouldn’t assume the documentary is fair.

But the documentary doesn't mention Martha's predicament at all, so the question for me is whether the HBO version made it up. After all, they based the HBO version on the documentary which doesn't mention it - so that suggests the show runner of the fictional HBO version made it up. That would be a pretty harsh thing to do for a fictional account based on a real incident using the participants' real names. So was it made up or did they do some extra research and find out about it?

[Anonymous]

Is this the same one that was on Netflix?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Does anyone think the eldest son did it? Seems like MP could have been covering for someone.

Isn't Todd the oldest son? The first episode shows him coming home from a party to discover the scene, so not sure how he would've done it.

No the eldest son is the one who was troubled. He was intentionally kept away from trial and discovered the blow poke. It just seems odd that he was kept away for what seemed to be a minor offense in his youth. It is also implied that the sons were financially dependent on their parents and that Kathleen was tired of providing support, as she was the only person working. He also said in the doc that he envied their relationship. The interpretation was that this was because the relationship was perfect but perhaps this was an issue.

How was he troubled and what was the minor offense? I haven't read anything about that.

Details were not provided but something about spring break and jail time was mentioned. This is why he could not testify regarding the blow poke even though he found it. They could not risk his incident being brought up on cross.

They mentioned the details. It wasn't a minor offense he planted pipe bombs at his school so he could break in and make fake IDs. They found more bombs in his room and he went away for 4 years to federal prison.

He also beat his girlfriend/ fiancé/ future wife before that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven't watched the documentary so this question comes just from watching the HBO series. Also, spoilers (sort of?).

That video of Michael on the day that he made the Alford plea, when is asked point blank if he killed her and he says that Kathleen's death was an accident, are we supposed to take away from that that he's admitting guilt?

Also, I really really hope that the series over-dramatized how much Sophie idolized Michael b/c man... that was painful to watch.

The way Jean interviews him that final time and Michael either confesses to a previous lie OR demonstrates a lie based in redefining a common word totally inaccurately, leads one to know that when the next question of killing Kathleen’s in responded with “ it’s an accident”, the viewer knows that in Michael’s psychotic mind it was actually “it was an accident how I actually killed her.” When talking to such a sociopath narcissist they love to argue and win with semantics and riddles. You basically can’t talk with them, as everyone close to him found out. He doesn’t talk about things, he deflects or gets angry and stonewalls off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to say I adore Colin Firth, even when he is cold and a jerk a la Mr Darcy (or Mark Darcy), but I had no idea he could be so effective as a sociopath. Jesus. That scene in the restaurant where Kathleen (Toni Colette) just goes off on him about how exhausted she is and tired from work and sick of supporting the family including his adult sons and fed up with him just puttering around the house and everything and then he just blinks at her and says "you used to be fun." I was ready to push him down a staircase. They are both so incredible this whole time. And Juliette Binoche!

Gaslighting and deflection at its worst! Never takes responsibility. Never responds to the topic at hand. Always responds with a personal attack, off topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's guilty.

It was a crime of passion, he didn't intend to kill her, but she was going to leave him. She was done with him and his kids sucking her dry and maybe she did find out about his sexual encounters.

He's a user and a grifter.

Yup. Hope his adult kids realized that and that those do not change.

[Anonymous]

I know people local to Durham who say he was a creep and Kathleen was lovely and he had some kind of thing going on at the “gym” with guys for years.
Just watched the documentary and freaked me out when Patty in Germany said he’d come home from the gym late…
I don’t put it past him that he killed Patty with some kind of drug induced heart attack. He obviously couldn’t kill her on the staircase agin…