entertainment

Meshel Laurie speaks to the man who locked up Steven Avery.

Meshel Laurie’s excellent podcast series The Nitty Gritty Committee has joined the Mamamia Podcast Network. And for her first show, she’s got one of the most-talked-about newsmakers of the year so far.

I don’t know about you, but my social media lit up over the summer break with breathless posts about the Netflix documentary series, Making a Murderer.

It’s a binge-watchable, who-done-it masterpiece set in one of those poor, rural American communities that makes us feel so superior and smug.

It features a classic cast of barely-literate ratbags who all live in that great downtrodden American accommodation, the mobile home, and shifty-looking, small-town cops with Hitler hair cuts and axes to grind.

Steven Avery, before he became the internet's most sympathetic convicted killer. Image: Netflix.

Of course they’re all kind of related through marriages and other misdemeanours.

Once we get to court things really heat up, when we meet the slick, sympathetic defenders with hearts of gold, and a creepy prosecutor whose whiny, high-pitched voice evokes visions of vaudevillian villains. That prosecutor is a man by the name of Ken Kratz.

I had the chance to speak to Ken recently and I have to say, I found him much more likeable than I thought I would.

Listen to Meshel’s interview with Ken Kratz, here:

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Among other things, he helped to refocus my attention away from the beautifully filmed and produced documentary series, and towards a young woman called Teresa Halbach.

The fact that she was brutally murdered is one of the very few things we know for sure by the time we reach the end of the 10 hours of Making a Murderer.

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Teresa Halbach. The fact she was brutally murdered is one of the few things we know for sure.

As Ken reminded me when we spoke, those of us watching in our armchairs at home "You didn't have to have the meetings with [Teresa's family]... where I told them what happened to their little girl."

Kratz reminded me in no uncertain terms that this is a story about real people, palpable disadvantage, small town justice and terrible events, which I'm ashamed to admit, I needed. I was so caught up in the fascination and filth of it all, I forgot that.

Making A Murderer is a grotesquely beautiful piece, no doubt about it, but I believe it will come to be defined more by the information the film makers chose to leave out, than by that which they included.

Have a listen to my conversation with Ken Kratz and let me know what you thought.

Mx

Haven't seen Making a Murderer yet? Watch the trailer here:

What did you think after listening to Ken?