The Staircase

I feel like this show was good until someone in post-production decided to turn it into a time-travel show. Same issue with other shows being put out these days that end up as background watching. I think one of the cardinal rules for film/TV is to not have flashbacks unless you are exposing an essential piece of information. It would have been more entertaining if the information was presented in chronological order. Maybe since this is what seems to work with docuseries they think it will work with other story telling.

The acting is good. The writing is good. Technically it is good. I just feel that it falls apart in the edit. Mind you, the edited scenes by themselves are well-edited. But who wants to see a dramatic scene thrown in at a random point of the timeline where it doesn't belong?... and this whole show ends up feeling like that. So overall, it's just kind of confusing where you're at at any given point, so you tune out.

Watched four episodes and am done. Too slow and just boring. I really love Toni Collette and Colin Firth, but it's all over the place. I'm just sick of the entire family. I watched the docu-drama on Netflix years ago. Bad situation. He probably did it.

This seems to be made in a way where the story just seems to drag on and on...

This could easily have been consolidated into a 4 or 5 episode series instead of the 8 episodes - the producers have stretched the story to the point where the viewer starts losing interest.

Also the way the timeline keeps switching between historical and present without giving the viewer much indication that we are going back in time can be confusing at times.

This could have been written so much better to reflect the true story this series is supposed to be based on. One could also argue that the creators also took a little too much artistic licence in telling the story.

Either way, it's not a complete waste of time, but the creation of this series was poorly executed in my opinion.

Good performance by Firth. The "constantly back and forth narrative" was pointless and even irritating. A lot of scenes had no meaning whatsoever. It should have been 4 episodes, there's way too many pointless minutes.

We enjoyed the mini-series, however it could be hard to follow in places. Why? We've noticed a trend in productions, they just can't be linear, they just have to jump back and forth in time. A little is okay and sometimes you need to do that to flush out the details of the movie, but most movies have so much of it, it feels like the show is just jumping around constantly. And this was no exception. Before her death, just before her death, after her death, the original trial, the 2017 statement, back to the 2011 retrial, then 2017, then just before her death. We were getting sea-sick. I just wish they wouldn't do this in movies all the time, it is so hard on the viewer.