Making a Murderer

Both storylines come with moments of triumph and disappointment for the respective teams in season 2, but it's Zellner's case, with its bloody reenactments, science experts and her fascinating and relentless brain at work, that will keep viewers in their chairs.

Ricciardi and Demos employ sober, straightforward aesthetics to scrupulously detail every aspect of their tale, never better than in late sequences in which Zellner explicates her theory about the actual fate that befell Halbach. Much like lawyers arguing in front of a jury, the directors present their findings with exhaustive precision, even as they craft a larger panorama of the case’s sprawling cultural connections and impact.

Part 2 still offers its share of the mystery and surprise that made the original so compelling. It’s a very different viewing experience, however.

Even thrust under the spotlight, strictly as a docu-series imbued with the compulsive, binge-worthy qualities of a thriller, "Part 2" doesn't disappoint.

If Making A Murderer is primarily focused on proving the innocence of Steven Avery—a seed that was sown three years ago--it’s because the show and its filmmakers genuinely believe in him and in the justice system. It’s a surprising through-line, this kind of enduring optimism in an institution that has allegedly failed both Avery and Dassey many times over. Defense attorneys are a force for good in this story.

It is a less shocking, more plodding, in-depth procedural that depicts the legal steps required to attempt to overturn Dassey’s conviction.

As entertainment, Murderer remains expertly made, its seductive slow pace gripping viewers by the neck; as morality play, its terms are kept blunt and simplistic enough by Zellner to come through. As advocacy, though, it achieved precisely the opposite of its mission from the start. Building a season around a few years of thwarted Avery and Dassey appeals, cases blunted by the very enthusiasm that the show fostered, ends up lacking much of a point at all, beyond sustaining itself as a TV show.

Right now, Part 2 feels like false hope, and the filmmakers would’ve been better off waiting for something to happen before pushing out another wearying report.

I admire that it's more driven by intellect than passion, while lamenting its lack of clear and smooth construction.

Part 2 is the equivalent of fan service: further confirmation that they're innocent, demonstrated by an even more painstaking examination of the flawed evidence against them. But for those with a more casual interest in the cases and the true-crime genre they helped spawn, the sequel is a lesser version of the original, with the same style and trappings slapped on a less-compelling story.

It’s fitfully interesting to see Zellner mount her new defense, but the fact that both Avery and Dassey are still in prison doesn’t exactly make you want to race through the series to witness a triumphant conclusion.