Guilty on all counts: Why the Alex Murdaugh saga is irresistible true-crime TV
Even by the lurid standards of true crime, the saga of the Murdaugh family stands out.
How could it not? It’s got everything the genre demands: murder, a financial scam, drug addiction, abuse of power, cover-ups, a botched fake suicide, lies and more lies. It’s the subject of not one but two big-streamer documentary series even as a high-profile trial involving the family is still underway.
In short, it’s a modern Southern Gothic tale — but instead of William Faulkner and Carson McCullers telling it, Netflix and HBO Max are. Along with most of the nation’s major news outlets, if not the world’s. They covered the trial of Alex Murdaugh, who was charged with killing his wife Maggie and their youngest son, Paul.
Murdaugh was found guilty of murdering them, after only a few hours of deliberations. Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Murdaugh to life in prison Friday.
“I would never hurt my wife, Maggie, and I would never hurt my son, Paw Paw,” Murdaugh, wearing a brown prison jumpsuit, told the court.
Newman sounded unimpressed.
“Within your own soul you have to deal with that, and I know you have to see Paul and Maggie in the nighttime as you attempt to go to sleep,” he said. “I’m sure they come and visit you.”
After the verdict Thursday, commentators were caught off guard by the speed of the jury's deliberations.
"It's stunning to me," Bill Hemmer said on Fox News after the verdict was read. "The jury deliberated, to the extent that they did deliberate, for a grand total of three hours. They barely stayed for dinner at this courthouse tonight. This is stunning speed."
Dianne Gallagher, a CNN correspondent covering the trial, echoed this. "We had roughly three hours of deliberation after they sat through that for nearly six weeks, listening to graphic testimony."
Why we're drawn to the Murdaugh case and TV trial
The trial was streamed on azcentral, CNN and other media outlets, including, naturally, Court TV. And a slew of podcasts has sprung up around the case.
But as the documentaries make clear, this isn’t just any true-crime story. It is the systematic destruction of a mighty Southern dynasty, a family whose alleged sins are laid bare.
Comeuppance comes calling in a way that novelists would be unable to resist.
"What you saw is a professional manipulator," Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County in Florida, said on CNN after the verdict. "You saw right through to his real self. He's used to manipulating others through his words and his emotions."
Best movies ever?See if you agree with this Arizona author's picks
'Murdaugh Dynasty' landed last year. 'Murdaugh Murders' is new
Although Murdaugh admitted guilt to some crimes, he denied that he killed his wife and son.
Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down on June 7, 2021, at their South Carolina hunting estate. Eventually, Alex Murdaugh was charged with their murders.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg — and that's what makes the sordid saga so compelling, so irresistible to streaming services like HBO Max, whose “Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty” debuted in November.
Not to be outdone, Netflix dropped “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” on Feb. 22 — the day before Alex Murdaugh took the stand in his own defense.
How the Netflix and HBO Max Murdaugh documentaries differ
It’s easy to see what attracted the streamers, and their rabid true-crime audiences. One series — they’re both three episodes in length — is not necessarily better than the other. Instead, they are complementary.
If you’re interested in the Murdaugh story, and a lot of people obviously are, you’ll want to devour both.
They necessarily cover a lot of the same ground, but talk to different people, which gives them a different feel and more perspectives.
“Murdaugh Murders” goes in on tacky reenactments a little more, and “Low Country” at times has better footage — there is almost nothing someone’s smartphone or security cameras didn’t capture — though that too is often duplicated from one series to the other.
The HBO series talks more with lawyers and law-enforcement types, the Netflix one with friends of Paul (though some people appear in both).
Best movie of 2023 so far?'Linoleum' is a low-budget stunner
Why Paul Murdaugh's boat crash sets the story in motion
Both begin with the boat wreck that changed everything.
On Feb. 24, 2019, Paul Murdaugh allegedly crashed a boat into a bridge with five of his friends aboard. 19-year-old Mallory Beach died. The Netflix series devotes an entire episode to the crash. Paul was indicted on three felony charges, including boating under the influence causing death, but was murdered before he could stand trial.
It’s used not just as a tragedy that sets the story in motion, but as an example of the grip the Murdaughs had on Hampton County, where they lived. Generations of Murdaughs served as elected prosecutors in the country and had influence with law enforcement. They controlled aspects of the accident from the start, witnesses say, seemingly trying to shift blame away from Paul and onto others.
The Murdaugh murder plot thickens, but the players are familiar
In both series, it’s a portrait of an absurdly privileged family that will be familiar to anyone who grew up in a small town — particularly a Southern one — the rich white family whose children run wild without fear of consequences, and woe be to anyone who crosses them.
Both series investigate the death of Stephen Smith, a young gay man whom rumors link to the Murdaugh family. Then there is the death of the Murdaugh’s housekeeper — and the insurance fraud prosecutors say followed.
There is the alleged suicide-for-hire involving Alex Murdaugh, his admission that he stole money from clients, that he had an opioid addiction. It just goes on and on.
Faulkner was not given to understatement or to half measures — in “Absalom, Absalom!” he wrote a 1,287-word sentence. Yet even he might look at the twists and turns in the Murdaugh story and decide, nah, it’s too much.
Of course it’s too much. That’s why people can’t look away. It’s a story of power gained and lost in a small rural community, but it’s also a story with aspects that everyone can recognize. Make the specific universal and the world will beat a path to your door. Or to Netflix and HBO Max, anyway.
How to watch the Murdaugh true crime documentaries
"Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty" is streaming on HBO Max.
"Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal" is streaming on Netflix.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. What are you waiting for?
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Who is Alex Murdaugh? True crime series investigate on Netflix, HBO
