A lot of the time, I try to steer clear of cop shows or reality television in general as they generally stick to a certain formula, have technology way in advance of the starship Enterprise to show the Jackson Pollock painting of staines over a crime scene and frankly when was the last time you could remember the bad guys getting a break?

The last time I even ventured willingly into that world was Law & Order: Special Victims Unit where they decided to make an episode all about Gamergate and the complete headf*ck that became. Even more so, reality television which gives us typically the likes of Big Bother, the Great British Bake-B*llocks-Off and World’s Strongest Carrot (wait for it, it will be on BBC 2 this year I bet…) which tend to be do mind numbingly dull, you will end up feeling your own neck to check if there is still any sign of life.

However, like the world we live where we sway from one thing to another on a coin toss, it appears that something new has caught everyone’s attention. A lot of attention actually, to the point that even the White House was involved.

Over on Netflix, there was a recent addition in the form of the documentary series called Making A Murderer which on the face of it appears to be another in the long line of reality TV but once you get into it, then it becomes all the more sinister, leaving far too many questions.

Granted those questions mainly are about the justice system in the USA as we know, and the people who were involved. It’s not even a spoiler to say that after watching even just a couple of episodes, there’s no way in hell you would want to live in the state of Wisconsin or perhaps even the US as a whole unless you stick to the coastal cities with easy access to an airport to escape the madness.

The main story begins in September 2003 as one happy go lucky scamp called Steven Avery during the very first episode is released from a Wisconsin prison, exonerated by DNA evidence 18 years after he was convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder. The reason why it took so long? It appears to be as a result of a vendetta with local police after a couple of really stupid incidents and thus various things get overlooked and cast aside in order to ensure that the Grizzly Adams lookalike sees bars on a more permanent basis.

Why does everyone who has a beard look bloody dodgy?

During this time, his and it looks to be a lot more, his family gets ripped apart as the time moves on with really heated letters exchanged. He emerges a older, tired, heavily bearded man (more in keeping with being a band member of ZZ Top) and then for about a couple of years he starts trying to get a life together again.

On the side, through a connection with a liberty group type thing, he starts to advocate for judicial reform, taking lots of photos with various officials, shaves his beard off and he stands to get quite a lot of money for those 18 years he had to stay the holiday death camp of prison. You start thinking that maybe there will be some justice here.

But then Avery is charged with a crime the Law and Order chaps would be over the moon with, the death of a innocent photographer, and every question of guilt, innocence, corruption and justice is raised again at a even louder volume, but this time even more of the family are in the picture as Steven’s cousin, a 16 year old who clearly from watching integration footage apparently obtained by the documentary crew, is not even fit to tie his own shoe laces, let alone actively get involved in lies, treachery and deceit. But nevertheless, he is tried along with Stephen Avery for the crime of murder.

All the while, everything seems to have been recorded and put on display for your horrific pleasure.

Watching this, you started to wonder if this was what it was like in Guantanamo Bay….

With an IQ under 75 and a history of messed up criminal activity, Avery seems to have either been railroaded by bitter relatives, f*cked over by a colluding police department or perhaps it was just the lovely fact that his family decided to hide away from the community instead of being all 1950’s American sitcom-y. At least the first time, which must have had a massive impact on proceedings in the second trial and what unfolded.

With conversations recorded from all involved, comments from various lawyers and members of the law establishment, it’s actually remarkable to have something so simple, actually leaving you wanting to know what happened, in way that perhaps soap operas like Eastenders can only dream of.

Remarkably though, it would take about 5 minutes of browsing Google to spoil the outcome of all this, so I’ll leave that to you if you want to find out. But I would honestly say that how this has all been put together by the makers of the programme is incredibly well done. The opening theme of the series is haunting and sets the tone of what is to come expertly, almost too well for a documentary in fact. The framing of everything is kept low key, the pace is easy to keep up with and there seems to have been a relatively decent effort to show the human side of events.

There are clearly founded arguments about bias about the show itself, perhaps leaving out details which may swing your opinions the other way against the Avery Family (like sort of glossing over that cat accidently setting on fire which Stephen Avery committed in his youth, which is just completely messed up regardless of everything else).

Nevertheless it cannot be understated how much of a light has been shone on a true story whose end perhaps is still yet to come. The incredible amount of footage from local TV stations also really compliment what unfolded, in a way also highlighting how hungry for more the local media was at the time.

As the series goes on, rather than really focus on Stephen Avery, it seems to put him more into the background who is of course still very much present, but instead it looks to show what kind of environment is small town America. After all, we get the coastal cities all time in various media with lovely piles of pants such as the Apprentice with human flump Donald Trump and America’s Top Model / Stick, but seldom do we see what happens in the wild wilderness that comprises a lot of America, at least to this level of actual reality.

Sure we have stereotypes galore, but paraded on an international streaming media platform for all to see?

Seriously, does anyone else think this is all just f*cked up? And why do I look so much like Stephen Colbert?

The documentary series presents a lot of information to cast a hell of a lot of doubt about what happened and if everything was actually even close to being according to the law. But it still leaves it to you ultimately as whether or not the outcome was just in itself.

From my own tiny point of view as a fat man writing bile on the internet for all to read, after seeing how the law enforcement try to twist things into their favour, manipulating people who clearly are a fridge full of food short of being able to make a sandwich and point blank lie on a number of occasions, I draw one major conclusion. Wisconsin is a really bad place to live if the wrong people hate you, and no-one should never ever visit there.

The BBC recently announced that they are keen to repeat the success of the programme by creating something in the same vein looking at criminal cases over here, so it’s only a matter of time before everyone bellows more at Number 10 than they already do about everything wrong in the country, and ol’ Dave Cameron will be crying at the injustice, probably in an attempt to look human.

So Making a Murderer then. It’s probably one of the most successful series to be made and it actually is something to watch in its entirety, but perhaps leaves you wanting to take a cold shower to wash the stench of human f*ckery away.

Remarkably, Netflix decided to give everyone a taste of things to come when it came to this series, I suppose because of the subject matter, so please enjoy (if that’s the right word) the first episode free of charge from YouTube. If you can stomach what happens in this opener alone, then go ahead and watch the rest on Netflix, but only if you want to know how bad people can really be towards one another and how bad life can become if you’re on the wrong end of people.