# The Staircase (2004)

> A documentary filmmaker is granted rare access to the defense team and family of author Michael Peterson as he faces trial for his wife's death at the foot of their stairs.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/19747

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 49 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Created by: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
- Network: SundanceTV, Canal+, Netflix
- Cast: Michael Peterson, Ron Guerette, Tom Maher, David Rudolf, Bill Peterson
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388644/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, unsettling, intimate, methodical, ambiguous

## What critics say

Viewers broadly praise the unprecedented access and the way the documentary lays out the defense strategy and contested evidence in a murder trial.

## Synopsis

The Staircase (2004-2018) is a French-produced true crime documentary series created by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and broadcast across SundanceTV, Canal+ and Netflix. Over a single season of thirteen roughly forty-nine minute episodes, the camera follows novelist Michael Peterson, whose wife Kathleen was found dead on the stairway of their North Carolina home, as he faces a murder trial. The engine of the series is the defense: the filmmakers gain unusual access to Peterson's lawyers, including David Rudolf, as they weigh strategic options, and to his family, including his brother Bill Peterson, in private moments away from the courtroom. Each episode is built from meetings, legal arguments, family conversations and courtroom exchanges, so the story unfolds through the slow accumulation of evidence and doubt rather than a single reveal. The tone is intimate, tense and unsettling, with a documentary realism that lets the ambiguity of the case sit uncomfortably with the viewer. Fans of The Jinx, Making a Murderer and Paradise Lost will find the same deep dive into an American murder case, where the verdict and the truth remain difficult to separate.

## Shows like The Staircase

- [Untitled Murdaugh Murders Series (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/177850)
- [Death of the Pastor's Wife (2026)](https://ember.film/tv/1105007)
- [Interrogation (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/81425)
- [Law & Order True Crime (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/63214)
- [Till Murder Do Us Part: Soering vs. Haysom (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/154706)
- [Worst Ex Ever (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/173660)
- [The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55155)
- [Making a Murderer (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/57018)
- [American Murder: Laci Peterson (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/175260)
- [The Innocent Man (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/72066)

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