‘The Staircase’ Is a Fascinating Look at Guilt, Innocence and Image: TV Review

A war of words has broken out between the filmmakers who have brought audiences two different versions, nearly two decades apart, of the real-life mystery behind The Staircase.

Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade won critical acclaim for his 2005 documentary “The Staircase”, chronicling the trial of novelist Michael Peterson, accused of murdering his wife in 2001.

Patrick Schwarzenegger is proving he’s got the chops.

Patrick Schwarzenegger says his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is "obsessed" with Patrick's new crime-drama series "The Staircase." In an interview with Insider, Patrick shared that his dad has been supportive of his new role and claimed he didn’t turn to "The Terminator" star for any career advice. "A lot of sons go to their father for advice with anything. I definitely go to him like that, but I didn't go to him for this specific character," Patrick told the outlet.

Sasha Urban editorScrolling through Michael Stuhlbarg’s filmography on Wikipedia, you’ll notice that quite a few of his roles are written in blue font, with hyperlinks that lead to other Wikipedia pages. The real-life characters he’s taken on include former New York Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal in “The Post,” Golden Age-actor Edward G.

Sasha Urban editorAs the production designer of “The Staircase,” HBO Max’s adaptation of the seminal true-crime docuseries, Michael Shaw had immense challenges in front of him, chief among them the series’ namesake.The show, which premiered May 5, explores the confounding circumstances of the death of Kathleen Peterson (played by Toni Collette), whose body was found at the bottom of a narrow staircase in the back of the North Carolina home she shared with her novelist husband Michael (Colin Firth) and their five children. Although the original French documentary series captures the Peterson family and their house in great detail, when Shaw first signed on alongside set decorator Edward McLoughlin, he hadn’t seen the documentary — and didn’t plan to.

Katcy Stephan SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers through Episode 4 of “The Staircase,” which hit HBO Max on May 12.Despite her death being the catalyst for a highly publicized court case and miniseries, not much is publicly known about Kathleen Peterson’s life and personality. “The Staircase,” HBO Max’s true crime miniseries from Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn, seeks to change that by fleshing out Kathleen as a human being. “I just love that the show on the whole is a more balanced view of their family,” Toni Collette, who plays Kathleen Peterson in the series, tells Variety.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticDavid E. Kelley never went away, exactly, but his brand of high-middlebrow drama conveyed with alternating froth and gravity has been particularly thick on the ground of late.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticWhen it comes to “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” what’s old is new. Quite literally.Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, published in 2003, captured the imagination of a vast readership with its story of a marriage unmoored by a husband’s tendency to skip through time. The widespread swooning made a film adaptation, released in 2009 and starring Eric Bana as time traveler and Rachel McAdams as wife, a foregone conclusion.

Operation Mincemeat was a covert British plan during World War II designed to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. To do this, two members of British intelligence disguised the body of an already-deceased man named Glyndwr Michael as an officer of the Royal Marines, a fictitious man named William Martin.

The first three episodes of The Staircase are streaming now on HBO Max and fans have a lot of questions already.

Police responding to Michael Peterson‘s call that his wife had fallen down stairs encountered a truly gruesome scene when they arrived at the house.

Spoilers for “The Staircase” documentary and HBO Max series follow.In the early hours of Dec. 9, 2001, novelist Michael Peterson made a panicked, tearful 911 call: He had found his wife Kathleen unconscious and bloody at the bottom of a staircase in their Durham, North Carolina, house.

In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our revitalized TV and streaming podcast co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Rodrigo Perez dive into HBO Max’s new true-life murder series, “The Staircase.” Based on the much-buzzed-about documentary of the same name, the show follows the true story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home, and the 16-year judicial battle that followed.

Sasha Urban editorNowadays, it’s harder to not land on a scripted true crime series while scrolling through your chosen broadcaster. There’s “The Girl From Plainville,” “Inventing Anna,” “The Thing About Pam” — the list goes on, with nearly all of them based on podcasts, books or documentaries that at one point gripped the nation.But before any of those stories existed, there was “The Staircase,” a 13-part docuseries by French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (released in parts beginning in 2004 on the Sundance Channel before landing on Netflix in 2018) that followed the confounding case of Michael Peterson and his wife Kathleen’s 2001 death at the bottom of their home’s back staircase.

Sky Atlantic's new drama, The Staircase is set to air this week. The eight-part series explores the life of novelist, Michael Peterson and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen whose body was discovered at the bottom of the stairs of the family mansion.

Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as his wife Kathleen.And yes, it’s inspired by real events.It will premiere with a three-episode drop, with each episode being released weekly thereafter.The series is set in a North Carolina suburb 21 years ago when Michael finds his wife Kathleen’s dead body at the base of their staircase.Michael was accused of murdering his wife in December 2001. While he maintained that she had fallen down the staircase, authorities argued that her injuries were consistent with blunt force trauma caused by bludgeoning.The suspicious circumstances surrounding Kathleen’s death and the dramatic revelations that came to light during the trial remain a subject of fascination for true crime enthusiasts across the world.The case courted a wealth of media attention due to its many twists and turns.

Colin Firth is opening up about portraying Michael Peterson on the small screen for HBO Max’s The Staircase.

Michael Appler On Wednesday evening in New York City, Colin Firth and the cast of HBO’s “The Staircase” celebrated its premiere at the Museum of Modern Art.Created by Antonio Campos with showrunner Maggie Cohn, “The Staircase” marks HBO’s turn at the true crime story of Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead at the bottom of her staircase in 2001. The story of what followed and came before — her husband Michael Peterson’s indictment and trial, unearthed secrets, treatment by prosecutors and twisting family drama — was first the subject of a 2004 documentary miniseries, then republished and given new episodes by Netflix, and now fictionalized in HBO’s limited series led by Firth and Toni Collette. “I think about Truman Capote and ‘In Cold Blood,’ which was itself a first of its kind,” Parker Posey, who plays the prosecuting attorney Freda Black in the series, told Variety at the premiere.

, the captivating HBO Max true-crime series, explores the complicated lives of Michael Peterson, who is suspected of killing his wife, Kathleen, after she is found dead at the bottom of the stairs, and members of his large family, who are trying to cope with the unexpected death of their matriarch all the revelations that emerged in the investigation that followed. Inspired by the real-life story that was first captured in the Netflix docuseries of the same name and later lampooned in season 1 of NBC’s, the limited scripted series adapted by showrunners Maggie Cohn and creator Antonio Campos features an all-star cast, including Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen as well as Dane DeHaan, Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sophie Turner as their various kids. Additionally, Juliette Binoche, Michael Stuhlbarg, Parker Posey, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tim Guinee and Vincent Vermignon appear as extended family members and other people involved in the investigation. While Michael’s story may be familiar to some, especially given the attention that surrounded the many iterations of the docuseries and the scripted parody that followed, ET has put together a guide to the sprawling Peterson family, the various theories surrounding Kathleen’s death as well as the ins and outs of the HBO Max series. “While it feels like this story has kind of been told before, the reality is there's so much of the story that hasn’t been explored,” Campos said, with Firth adding that this version “messes with your expectations.” Michael’s immediate family is quite large – and quite layered – especially considering it’s a blended family made up of kids from previous marriages and the adoption of two daughters.

Colin Firth and Patrick Schwarzenegger were just two of the stars who stepped out for the premiere of their new series, The Staircase, held at Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday night (May 3) in New York City.