I've seen a bunch of Lifetime films and they're all alike with their "successful single mother and her teenage child in peril" trope. But Catfish Murder (renamed My Son Didn't Do It for TV programming) is a significant decline in an already mediocre at best quality of screenplay and technical aspects.
Faded picture, little to no background music (I find it hard to believe this film has two composers), vapid screenplay even by the standards of Lifetime/Reel One, uninspired acting with a bunch of walking dummies prancing around creased and constantly fatigued Gina Holden whose career is definitely having such a hard time she stopped pretending to enjoy her work for the network. I love Gina, some of her earlier movies I gladly rewatch, so it's especially tough for me to admit her recession.
Both director and screenwriter are newcomers, which is an apparent reason of a visible lack of budget money, which greatly contributed to the overwhelming failure of Catfish Murder. I mean c'mon, they didn't even shoot it in Vancouver like they usually do, moving the production to Kelowna instead. Every single thing about this film says "we're uninterested, we can't wait to finish it and move on". Well, so am I.
Also, have you seen the trailer? It literally highlights the true perpetrator and their reason to commit the crime. So much for the mystery thriller. Appalling.