UNBELIEVABLE: An Excellent Crime Drama Based on a True Story

He crept up on his victims at night or in the early morning. He raped them for several hours, then ordered them to wash, and disappeared—parting with the comment that next time they should lock their doors and windows. He left no DNA traces, taking with him every object he had touched, particularly the victims’ bedding and underwear, and the apartments and houses showed no signs of forced entry. When eighteen-year-old Marie Adler reported the assault to the police, the officers were skeptical of her account’s veracity and ultimately charged her with making a false report. The ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, and lack of sensitivity of the police allowed a dangerous serial rapist to remain at large for a very long time, utterly destroying the young woman’s life.

This is how the first episode of the Netflix series Unbelievable, based on a true story, begins.

Because, unfortunately, Marie’s story really happened. It first saw the light of day thanks to the Pulitzer Prize–winning article An Unbelievable Story of Rape published by the independent journalistic organization ProPublica. In the series, we initially watch with disbelief the dismissive treatment Marie (Kaitlyn Dever) receives from those whose job is to prevent crime, yet after a moment we find ourselves persuaded by the two detectives interrogating her: what if she really is lying? flits through our minds.

That impression is quickly overturned in the second episode, where we meet Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever), who is investigating a rape whose modus operandi resembles what happened to Marie. Duvall does not yet know that this is not the perpetrator’s only crime, but her interrogation of the victim is conducted with the utmost delicacy and professionalism. Her approach is entirely different from that of her colleagues: she treats the girl, who has suffered a horrific assault, with respect, offering her full support.

Time and again she reassures her that she does not need to explain herself, applies no pressure, and allows her to speak freely—treating memory gaps not as evidence of lying but as the result of trauma. She surrounds her with unobtrusive care, escorting her to the hospital for an examination and then driving her to a friend’s apartment. In this context, Unbelievable does tremendous educational work, showing us how things should be and how they often are not, drawing attention to the fact that rapists do not only attack young women dressed in skimpy skirts, and that different women react differently to rape—and every reaction is entirely valid.

Netflix delivers us a wrenching and anger-inducing depiction of the prejudices and flaws of a system in which rape victims have little chance of justice, and in which up to 40 percent of officers commit domestic violence against their partners. Unbelievable confronts us mercilessly with these horrifying facts while remaining one of the most humane dramas about violence. Beyond being an important social series that highlights several pressing issues, it is above all a very good crime drama in the style of competence porn (a term coined by screenwriter John Rogers), in which several talented characters join forces and, using their intelligence and resourcefulness, solve problems.

Determined to catch the serial rapist, Karen Duvall (in this exceptionally well-realized role by Emmy winner Merritt Wever) teams up with Grace Rasmussen (as always excellent, played by Toni Collette), a detective from another district handling a nearly identical case. Together they discover that the serial rapist remains elusive, committing the same crimes in different jurisdictions. The main storyline of the series is a painstaking investigation filled with dead ends and grueling, ant-like work that often yields no immediate results.

Karen Duvall and Grace Rasmussen are ordinary women who, outside of work, lead normal family and social lives.

Unbelievable, like Mindhunter, dispels the cinematic stereotype of the detective as a tough, unyielding, solitary figure with personal problems and a flask in his pocket. There are no fireworks or deus ex machina in this series; the protagonists keep their feet firmly on the ground. It is precisely this everyday, often brutal realism that grips viewers and keeps them in suspense from beginning to end.

Unbelievable is an important voice in the discussion about how victims of sexual crimes are treated. It gives priority on screen to victims and their fight against both themselves and the system, creating a poignant drama on a topic rarely explored in film.

Netflix’s new series is above all a gripping crime drama based on a true story, in which flesh-and-blood characters fight for justice.