Making a Murderer: Part 1

"The twists and turns on Making a Murderer are so crazy and real that the series stands on its own."

"It is so determinedly not flashy that it may be too dry for some viewers—it’s ten hours of one case, in the end--but Making a Murderer illuminates so many issues with violations of authority, failures in our legal system and, ultimately, what could be genuine evil..."

"Episodes build to key revelations or legal turning points and they sometimes exceed the standard hour boundaries and as propulsive as episodes are, they feel substantive, but also still trimmable. The series has an urgency, but in that urgency there's also an occasional sloppiness."

"It’s worth observing that while Making a Murderer is more detached than those other docuseries—with a very uncinematic, nonfiction, brass-tacks style—the series also can’t help but evoke some other critically acclaimed series of the past few years."

"“Riveting” is an overused, even lazy, term in criticism, but it’s hard to think of one that better applies to Making a Murderer, Netflix’s stunning 10-part documentary."

"It's a sprawling small-town saga that, nonetheless, feels lived-in and intimate. And even as it succumbs to some of true crime's greatest faults, it's always less interested in the gruesomeness of the crime than in the impossibility of finding the truth, something that serves it well. This is grim television, but it's also necessary television."

"As far as longform journalism goes, it’s something of a masterstroke."

"It's as engrossing as they come, impactful and devastating, and it left me with a hollowed-out despondence generally treatable only with alcohol and ranting."

"Judging by the first four episodes, though, it’s not only a gripping true-crime story, it’s also the most moral one I’ve seen in a long time."