
I have a confession to make.
It turns out I’m extremely susceptible to well-crafted narratives presented through Netflix documentaries. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You see, when the first season of Making A Murderer dropped on Netflix in December 2015, I binged my way through it like most of the western world.
I quickly became obsessed with Steven Avery’s case.
I was absolutely appalled that this man from the other side of the world, who I’d never met before, had been wrongly convicted for a crime he didn’t commit – for the second time.
Watch the trailer for season two…
For about three days, I was stuck in a Manitowoc County bubble of conspiracy theories, police cover ups and planted evidence.
Then the news reports started surfacing.
I read about how Avery had thrown the family’s cat on a bonfire.
About the accusations of domestic violence from his previous partners.
And that many of the defence’s arguments about the planted evidence and police conspiracies had since been disproved.
Over the next few weeks, I came to the realisation that Avery was probably guilty and that I – along with millions of others – had been easily swayed by a very convincing narrative presented to me on a Netflix documentary.
From that point on I was very sceptical. And for the past three years I’ve stuck with the opinion that Avery was a guilty man, who happened to find himself in some unusual – and documentary-worthy – circumstances.