Colin Firth is having a moment. An infrequent on-screen presence since a five-film outing in 2018, the English actor is currently starring wherever one looks. In addition to his supporting role in Mothering Sunday, Eva Husson’s recently released adaptation of the novel by Graham Swift, Firth plays the lead in John Madden’s new Netflix film, Operation Mincemeat, a saga of World War II-era espionage. Accompanying these movie projects is Firth’s impressive turn in the limited series The Staircase, HBO Max’s morbidly entertaining dramatization of the now 20-year-old Michael Peterson affair. As true crime fans already know, the Peterson case was captured superbly by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s 2004 docuseries of the same name. Yet HBO’s efforts here are not in vain. An eight-episode production impeccably written and cast, the scripted show confirms that there is meat left on this particular bone.

HBO’s series begins Feb. 24, 2017, a notable date in Peterson lore but one that showrunner Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time) declines immediately to explain. Why is our hero (Firth), a war novelist convicted of the 2001 murder of his second wife, donning a suit complete with a bloodstained tie? Just as importantly, who is the woman (Juliette Binoche) hurrying him along and bestowing, in an intriguing follow-up scene, an affectionate kiss?