Le Sang des Murdaugh: Scandale en Caroline du Sud

Five mysterious deaths occur on four separate dates in the last ten years in the lowcountry region of South Carolina and each one has a connection to a powerful dynastic legal family in the area. First a young gay man, alleged to have had a same-sex relationship with one of the two young sons of the influential Murdaugh family, is found dead late at night lying in an unnatural position on a country road. No arrest is made but the local grapevine points the finger at the oldest of the two sons of multi-millionaire local attorney Alex Murdaugh.

Then, a few years later, the younger Murdaugh son is allegedly drunk at the wheel of a small boat which crashes and sees one of its party of teenage passengers, a 19-year-old girl thrown out into the water and drown.

Next, the Murdaugh's 57-year-old family housekeeper of 20 years dies at their residence after reportedly tripping over the family dog and falling backwards down the brick entrance steps and hitting her head.

Finally and most recently, Alex Murdaugh himself is charged and as of this morning, convicted of the murder by the shooting of his wife and younger son, but not before he has bizarrely botched his own death, paying a third party to shoot him, in order that his surviving son can claim on his life insurance.

Deemed by many as untouchable in the small area where this empowered family resided and presided, Murdaugh was finally brought to book, with all of the above details and more unfolded in not one but two explosive separate TV documentaries, one by HBO, the other by Netflix.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave..." Murdaugh Sr said in his own defence on the stand but seriously, Spiderman himself couldn't have created a bigger or stickier one than we get here. Besides the tragic deaths, we learn that Murdaugh Sr was a serial embezzler, even defrauding the surviving family of his late housekeeper of a multi-million liability pay-out he himself had instigated on his own household policy, set up barely months before. Murdaugh claimed that the money he stole was swallowed up by his opioid addiction though the point was effectively made that even with the high cost of his palliative drug of choice, it could only have amounted to a fraction of the actual amount he took.

Told in Netflix's typical tabloid-style, fast, flashy documentary style, with multiple interviews, usually from multiple angles, together wirh sometimes unnecessarily morbid reconstructions, like the aftermath of the boat crash and especially an unnecessarily tasteless graphic image of the dead housekeeper's trainered feet posed at the top of a set of stairs, this was nevertheless addictive true-crime, only-in-America trash TV, which for all its ugliness and garishness, was compulsive viewing for my wife and I.

By sheer coincidence, we only watched the final episode last night and have woken up this morning to read the headline news that Murdaugh Sr has indeed been convicted of the murder of his wife and son on circumstantial, but obviously to the jury, convincing evidence.

Somehow though, I think there may be a further twist to come in this fantastical tale. Apparently at one point in his father's trial, his surviving son tried to pass his father a John Grisham book, the irony being that even at his most imaginative, the author himself couldn't have concocted a plot as unbelievable and improbable as this.

The original 3 part of the true-crime docuseries investigates the Murdaughs, the most powerful family over the past 100 years in Low County, South Carolina. The family last name led the office of prosecution for 87 years. They became a formidable force through their connections with local law enforcement, political leaders, and the owners of the local banks and businesses. Whilst holding public office of prosecution, their family members have also established a law firm with partners that provided them with almost an iron grip over all the surrounding communities.

On February 24th, 2020, Paul (19 years old) the youngest son of Alex Murdaugh, was piloting a speed boat whilst under the influence of Alcohol. One of the passengers, Mallory Beach (19 years old) was killed in the accident when the boat hit one of the pillars of the bridge at about 2:30 pm.

Paul's father Alex and his grandfather immediately entangled themselves in the event to cover up Paul's involvement in the accident. They blamed Mallory Beach's boyfriend and warned police that he was the one who was piloting the boat.

However, the event brought national attention and brought the Murdaugh dynasty under the microscope. What happened next was an unbelievable set of events that finally started to crumble the dynasty.

Although the details of the events have long been in the news, however, the documentary brings up the personal perspective of the people and the unfortunate lives that were destroyed. It's a well-done true crime documentary.

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (2023) is a series that I recently watched on Netflix. The storyline follows a group of privileged kids with money, drugs, boats and planes in South Carolina that one day takes their carefree lifestyle too far leading to the death of a young lady. One of the kid's fathers is the town lawyer from a family with a history or privilege and living life above the law and comes in to hide the murder. The misdeeds of father's past come to the surface and he takes things a bit too far for the cover up.

This movie is codirected by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, who also worked together on The Pharmacist. Growing up in Maine I could relate to just about every aspect of this picture. This docuseries perfectly depicts small town white America and the lifestyles, relationships and how authority works...until someone gets too comfortable and gets over their skis. The interviews with the people involved was fascinating and their raw emotions and depiction of the events were fascinating. I did feel there was a lack of accountability on display from both the victims, families and towns people, but if this doesn't perfectly depict the problems within our society nothing does.

Overall, both the big picture and actual storyline of this series is fascinating, eye opening but not surprising. I would score this series an 8/10 and strongly recommend it.

The story is interesting. Powerful people above the law getting away with literally murder.

The execution by Netflix is worrying... the first two minutes of the 3 part doc is basically a trailer telling you everything which is going to happen over the next 3 hours. Could basically turn off then.

The final part of episode 2 (presumably to make you watch episode 3) is disgraceful. Literally just starts telling you about another case without any storytelling.

I'm starting to wonder if documentaries are dead and slowly just becoming fiction. Netflix are to blame for this, throwing out low quality docs month after month, with only one gem every year.

After watching multiple documentaries, special news reports, etc. On the lives of the Murdaughs, a southern institution of a family, I was very pleased to find this docuseries actually gives more screen time to Mallory Beach, the REAL victim, and not to the insane, evil murdaugh family and their conspiracies. (Although the audience is given information that I've never heard before on the specifics of their swift and direct interruption of the investigation.... facts provided unbiased from the kids on the boat and their parents, who must finally feel unthreatened to speak openly.)

This was more of a tribute to Mallory, a testament to her as a person, as well as recognizing the pain all of the kids endured, versus a shockumentary on how unabashedly despicable the Murdaugh clan ruled over the innocent community for a century.

Yes, there is focus on the other deaths and events involving the murdaughs specifically, but FINALLY the audience gets to know the reality and loss of this teenager, as a human being.

That is what is missing in so many true crime documentaries. The focus is on the perpetrator, rarely on the victims.