Make a Netflix Murderer: Season 2 Review

By Jesse Schedeen

Note: this is a no-spoiler report from Making a Murderer Season 2, which is now available in streaming on Netflix.

This is not often a real documentary about crime that turns into fodder on a national scale, but it is the power to make a murderer. This original Netflix series arrived in 2015 and exposed millions of viewers to the tragic story of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey, both serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. As with HBO, The Jinx and the Serial podcast, the film arrived at the right time to take advantage of the public's fascination with real crime and controversial murder trials.

However, most of the popularity of Making a Murderer lies in the fact that it has illuminated a story to which many viewers knew absolutely nothing. Three years later, each new development in the respective appeal process of Avery and Dassey made the headlines. The question is whether there is enough open ground to justify a second full season of the documentary. Unfortunately, Season 2 suggests that Making a Killer would have been better served, like Serial, and focusing entirely on a new case.

Screenwriters / directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos remain responsible for season 2, which is again divided into ten blocks of about an hour. Season 1 had a lot to do, exploring Avery 's wrongful conviction for sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985, his 2003 waiver, the 2005 Halbach affair, and various subsequent developments. Season 2 has relatively little material to work. These ten episodes are progressing in a linear fashion, picking up where Season 1 was stopping and covering new developments in the ongoing struggle to exonerate Avery and Dassey from 2016 to the summer of 2018. Without wishing to say moreover, all those who have followed this business in recent years knows that there will be no dramatic finale that will change the game.

Kathleen Zellner, a prominent defense lawyer who handles Avery's appeal and is quickly becoming one of the dominant personalities in these ten episodes, is now the focus of attention. Many installments are focused on his efforts to piece together the evidence of Halbach's murder and dig new holes in the state's original record. Instead of dramatic new twists, the documentary relies heavily on this investigative work and on recurring interviews with Zellner. Part of this medico-legal work is fascinating, but much of it is useless, it simply consists of completing the season with unnecessarily granular details.

Although Zellner leads a very public crusade, the series also focuses on post-conviction Dassey's advocates and their efforts to delegitimize his videotaped confessions. As in Season 1, it is here that Making a Murder tends to leave the strongest emotional impact. It's impossible not to look at the images of a teenager dating back to 2005 Dassey and not to have the feeling that he was exploited by the responsible detectives. And despite all that the documentary was criticized for presenting a biased and one-sided narrative in Season 1, it has and continues to make compelling arguments to justify a serious miscarriage of justice here. The roller coaster nature of Dassey's legal struggle over the last few years only feeds the drama of this part of the documentary.

But again, there is not a huge amount of new material to cover here. Season 2 lacks the novelty that has fueled the popularity of Season 1 and it also struggles to warrant such in-depth exploration of the events of the past three years. There is simply not enough meaningful content to justify ten hours of new content. A special follow-up, yes. A whole season, not really.

The presentation is as strong as ever in music and editing. Better, in some ways. As Ricciardi and Demos have noted, it is much easier to turn a project of this magnitude into reality with the support of Netflix from day one. These additional resources are sometimes apparent in the use of aerial shots and other more robust visual sources (echoing the famous series of crimes committed by Netflix, American Vandal). But that can only do a lot to create a story that seems much longer than it was in season 1.

The new season also misses its chance to explore the case from a different angle. From the beginning, season 2 gives the impression that Ricciardi and Demos are eager to answer some of the criticisms made during the first season. The season begins with a montage of clips covering the reaction at the beginning of season 1, including accusations of bias and the fact that filmmakers ignored a key element of the forensic evidence involving Avery. Whatever your opinion on season 1, it's hard to deny that the series had a very one-sided view of the case. Ricciardi and Demos were clearly convinced that Avery and Dassey were innocent and had been guided by a team of vengeful prosecutors, and that this underlying conviction had shaped the documentary.

Unfortunately, these warning signs of a more unbiased approach to the subject are not confirmed by the rest of the season. Even those early clips are quickly engulfed by the images of the beloved fans of the series and the new celebrity Making a Murderer provided to Avery and Dassey. There is an almost insignificant quality of self-awareness in the first episode that quickly becomes irritating. Between this and the fact that much of this episode is geared toward recapping season 1 events, it might be best to go directly to episode 2.

Even at this point, it is still a documentary presented from the point of view of one side. When he does not focus on Zellner's crusade or on the difficult battle facing Dassey's lawyers, the focus is usually on life in Avery's jail or his parents while They are struggling with economic hardships, health problems and the ongoing trauma of their son's trial. Although this material draws on the human side of this infamous judicial case, it is sometimes uncomfortable to watch it and be on the verge of exploitation.

To be fair, representing "both sides" is easier said than done in this case. The season ends with a long list of people who have refused to be interviewed for the documentary, including half a dozen members of the Halbach family. But after seeing the private miseries of the Avery family in the sight of the world, can you really blame the Halbachs for not wanting to make this series?