Steven Avery is an innocent man, railroaded by the Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, Sheriff’s Office and sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. This is the only conclusion at which one could reasonably arrive after watching Netflix’s new true crime documentary series Making a Murderer, which debuted on December 18 and has already garnered the ultimate prize of television’s new world order: an explosive social media reaction.
First things first: Making a Murderer is great TV, with an almost-too-good-to-be-true hook: Avery, who was arrested for the rape and murder of Theresa Halbach in November of 2005, had, just two years earlier, been released from prison after serving 18 years for a crime he (really) did not commit. The theory presented in the show, and by Avery’s defense team, is that the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office framed him for Halbach’s murder to curtail a massive lawsuit stemming from his prior wrongful conviction.
