Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Unbelievable’ On Netflix, Where A Teen Who’s Accused Of Making Up A Rape Is Connected To Another Case

In 2015, ProPublica and The Marshall Project published a longform story called “An Unbelievable Story of Rape“, which linked up the story of Marie Adler, who was accused of a false rape claim, with two detectives in Colorado who investigated similar cases a few years later. Now, screenwriter Susannah Grant, along with novelist Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman, have adapted the story into a fascinating drama. Read on for more…

UNBELIEVABLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes of the town of Lynnwood, Washington, and a police vehicle showing up at the Oakdale Apartments for At-Risk Youth.

The Gist: In August, 2008, Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever), who is living in the Oakdale Apartments as a way to transition out of the foster care system, reported that a man in a mask broke into her house, then he blindfolded and gagged her, and raped her. He took a picture of her afterwards and threatened to post it to social media if she reports the incident.

After giving her story to the patrol officer who responded to the report, she then has to give her story again to Det. Parker (Eric Lange), who seems like he’s sympathetic, but doesn’t have any sensitivity to the fact that she’s given the traumatic story already. She recalls that he had a backpack, and that he tied her up with her shoelace, and he took a knife from her drawer, both of which he left there. But the more she tells the story — and Parker and his partner, Det. Pruitt (Bill Fagerbakke), make her tell the story multiple times — the more inconsistencies pop up.

Marie seeks support from one of her foster moms, Colleen (Bridgett Everett), but as they’re out shopping for stuff for her new apartment, Marie demands the same pattern as the sheets that were on her bed when she was attacked. That and a generally detached manner leads Colleen to talk to Marie’s final foster mom, Judith (Elizabeth Marvel), who calls Det. Parker. She tells him about Marie’s tough past and wonders if she made up the attack to garner attention.

As the inconsistencies pile up, Detectives Parker and Pruitt make her go over her story again and again, both verbally and in writing, until even Marie starts to think she should recant just to get this torture over with. She gets badgered into admitting she made it up, which alienates her from the residents at the apartment complex, then she decides to recant that. When Det. Pruitt tells her that if she’s caught filing a false report, she’ll go to prison. So she decides to stay with the last statement saying she made it up. But the memories that flash back to her and the stress she’s under are real, and she knows what happened that night.

Our Take: If you look at the article Unbelievable is based on, a joint effort between ProPublica and The Marshall Project, you are already familiar with the format that the miniseries is going to take. The creators of the miniseries, Susannah Grant, Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon, more or less stay true to the format.

We start in Lynwood and show Marie’s ordeal with how the male detectives charged with investigating her case seem like they care, but then ask her to repeat her story so many times, she gets traumatized all over again. The entire first episode is spent in Lynwood, in order to give viewers a real feeling of how the investigation kept Marie’s wound open, from the details she needed to give about where she was penetrated and if the perpetrator used a condom, to the exam she’s given in the hospital, to the repeated requests for her to recall the night. The more Marie has to recall the story, the more it affects her, especially when she then admits she made it up. The repercussions of that are serious, because her support system all but disappears.

In the second episode, we flash forward to 2011, and we’re introduced to Golden, Colorado police detective Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever). She treats Amber (Danielle Macdonald), who reports a rape similar to Marie’s, with much more care, understanding and consideration. She stays with Amber until she gets to the hospital, then comes back. She only asks Amber to tell her story once, and appreciates the level of detail. She makes sure Amber stays with someone she trusts. But there isn’t a ton of physical evidence to go on, which is when her husband suggests she team up with a detective in Westminster who is investigating a similar case. That’s when we’re introduced to Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette).

But we don’t abandon Marie. We keep going back to her life in 2008-09 and the aftermath of the second trauma she faced at the hands of the Lynwood police. She can’t seem to focus at her job, her foster father distances himself from her to make sure he and Colleen stay in the foster system.

At some point, the two stories should connect. But until it gets there, we’re going to enjoy watching the ever-enjoyable Wever and Collette get to the bottom of the Colorado cases while watching Dever play Marie’s struggle to keep her life on track. We love all of their performances: Det. Duvall is caring, meticulous, and shows that investigating sexual assaults is not just a job to her. Collette plays Det. Rasmussen as a take-no-shit cop who wants badly to find the scumbag who is attacking these women.

But Dever is the revelation; she easily handles the conflicting emotions Marie is feeling, from the period where she pushes down the trauma to the times when it comes back in the form of nightmarish visions. Despite the star power and charm of Wever and Collette, who have 3 Emmys between them, Dever is the one we want to keep watching as the miniseries progresses.

What we admire about the series to this point is not only the level of detail the writers go into in order to stay true to the original story, even if some details have changed, but they don’t rely on stereotypes. The detectives in Lynwood don’t come off as unsympathetic, but the way they handle the investigation shows that their training has left them tone deaf to what the victim is going through, and the contrast with how Duvall investigates is stark but not cliche.

Sex and Skin: There’s plenty of skin, all in the context of Marie’s attack and what she has to do in the hospital to get the rape kit completed. So none of it is sexy.

Parting Shot: Marie contemplates jumping off a bridge, after the trauma of her experience with the police has left her an emotional mess.

Sleeper Star: Everett does a nice job playing Colleen, who cares a lot about Marie, but also knows that she’s difficult to read at times.

Most Pilot-y Line: We’re fans of Fagerbakke — Dauber forever! — but his Det. Pruitt feels like the most cliched, unfeeling, male chauvinist character in the first episode. He doesn’t even have a scintilla of empathy for Marie and questions her from the viewpoint of someone who sees her as just another crazy young woman getting attention. Feh.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Unbelievable has strong writing and performances, and the fact that the story is based on actual events makes Marie Adler’s part of the story all the more remarkable.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Unbelievable On Netflix