Netflix Getting in on the True Crime Racket With ‘Making A Murderer’

You’ve likely heard one person or another recommending HBO’s The Jinx as a followup to Serial, and Netflix hopes Making a Murderer might serve as the next link in our “true crime” chain. The streaming service has announced its own heartland murder-mystery with all the real-life twists you can handle, streaming this December.

So reads the official description for Netflix’s ten-part Making a Murderer, aimed to hit streaming on December 18, a day most everyone will be assuredly indoors, and not doing anything else in particular:

Inspired by a newspaper article from 2005, directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos have spent the last decade documenting an unprecedented real-life thriller that spans more than thirty years. Set in America’s Heartland, Making a Murderer follows the harrowing story of Steven Avery, an outsider from the wrong side of the tracks, convicted and later exonerated of a brutal assault. His release triggered major criminal justice reform legislation, and he filed a lawsuit that threatened to expose corruption in local law enforcement and award him millions of dollars. But in the midst of his very public civil case, he suddenly finds himself the prime suspect in a grisly new crime.

The series takes viewers inside a riveting, high-stakes criminal case where reputation is everything and things are never as they appear. The filmmakers have documented every angle of the story, following the second investigation and ensuing trial of the accused, petitioning the court to avoid having to turn over their footage, gathering archival materials, and interviewing those closest to the case.

Said Netflix of the acquisition:

There are an unbelievable number of twists and turns in the story arc of Making a Murderer, it feels like it has to be fictional. Ricciardi and Demos have navigated very complex terrain and skillfully woven together an incredible series that leaves you feeling like you’re right in the middle of the action.

Of course, the question remains if Netflix’s all-at-once streaming model can generate the same kind of buzz created over a period of weeks by Serial or The Jinx, but one imagines the streaming service hopes the mystery’s strength will stand on its own. Could Making a Murderer really provide our next true crime fix? Check out the poster below: