Durham, North Carolina, December 2001. Kathleen Peterson is found dead at the foot of a staircase in the home she shares with her husband Michael (Colin Firth) — a Vietnam veteran, crime novelist and political blogger. Michael calls 911, insisting she fell. The police suspect murder.
What follows is one of the most protracted and publicised criminal cases in American legal history: a first trial ending in Michael’s conviction for first-degree murder; years of appeals; the dramatic revelation of forensic misconduct by an FBI bloodstain analyst; a retrial; and finally, in 2017, an Alford plea to manslaughter — a procedure allowing a guilty plea while formally maintaining innocence.
The eight-episode HBO Max miniseries weaves together the full arc of the real case with a meta-fictional layer exploring the French documentary team filming Michael throughout (Juliette Binoche plays a character inspired by the original documentary’s director, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade). It also uncovers secrets in Michael’s past — questions about his sexuality, and a previous suspicious death — that the prosecution used to build their case.
It is a portrait of a man who may be guilty, may be innocent, and who — in Colin’s hands — is never quite either.