Sep 22, 2019
Netflix Unbelievable- A gripping crime drama true on events[Review]
A breathtaking depiction of the case of a serial rapist in America. Will the dedication of two amazing, smart and driven detectives will catch the guy?
[Spoiler Alert]
IMDB 8.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes 96%
Netflix description of Unbelievable:
“After a young woman is accused of lying about rape, two female detectives investigate a spate off eerily similar attacks. Inspired by true events.”
Two things that caught my eyes: Lying about rape and true event.
I thought; Is it possible for a woman to the fake a story of her worst nightmare and go to through the series of events to describe how she got raped?
So, I started watching. It starts with a 17–18-year-old girl; shocked, sad, confused, full of questions accompanied by an older woman. A police officer comes and she tells him that she got raped. While describing, she went through the incident all over again in her mind. Then again a detective came and he asked her again to describe the event.
Then she goes through medical procedures, a lot of! No one is asking if she needs time? if she is ready? if she is okay with the tests? There is no one but a foster mom and a counseller with her in the hospital.
She goes through that, again and again, visiting the police station, filling out forms, describing the incident. And that too all alone.
After all that trauma and police formalities she ends up being accused of false reports, kicked out from her job and rooms, left out from her friends. Just because there was “inconsistency” in her statements and prejudice based on her past abusive life.
That young girl Marie Adler (played by Kaitlyn Dever of Booksmart), showed how confusing, disappointing and irrational the world can become when you treated badly by life. And how killing it is when no one believes you.
It made me angry to watch her see going through all those things and finally due to pressure of little mismatch in her test and laziness of officers made her hide the injustice with the lie.
The story took a twist when you actually fall into believing that she might be lying and tries to suicide.
The show gets more thrilling with episodes along especially when two women detectives face similar cases and how they managed to gather piles of information on rapist w/o any solid evidence and witness.
The show where displayed irresponsible officers at the beginning, it also showed the dedication, all night working procedures and passion of good detectives to find the bad guy; to save people.
The story is based on the true event of a serial rapist case and it took the details from an extensive report: An Unbelievable Story of Rape written by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica and Ken Armstrong, The Marshall Project December 16, 2015.
The Badass Women Detectives
In the show, the two detectives are inspired by real personnel i.e. Edna Hendershot as Grace Rasmussen (played by Toni Collette) and Det. Stacy Galbraith as Detective Karen Duvall (Played by Merritt Wever). You can see the real pics of them in the report provided above.
This show tried its best to explains how common is sexual assault and yet some people and (part of the judicial system) not have the understanding to resolve it with sensitivity.
You get sad, angry, confused, frustrated with the stories and struggle you see in this show. Yet it makes you believe how strong those women are to carry on with their lives in spite of 24*7 fear and suffocation.
The show ends with catching the rapist and Marie on her way to change her life for real with an apology of detective and with belief; there is still good in this world.
Being a woman and after reading and watching a lot of stories on sexual assaults on women, I’ll recommend people to watch this show to enhance their understanding.
I give Netflix Unbelievable 9/10.
Here is the cast of Unbelievable
………………………………Watch Unbelievable Now……………………
What do you think about the show?
Let me know in the comment.
Keep Netflixing (wink wink)!
