Unbelievable (TV series)

Television series
German title	Unbelievable
Original title	Unbelievable
Country of production	United States
original language	English
year	2019
Production ; company	Katie Couric Media, ; Escapist Fare, ; Timberman / Beverly Productions, ; Sage Lane Productions, ; CBS Television Studios
length	43-58 minutes
Episodes	8 in 1 season ( list )
genre	True crime , ; drama
idea	Susannah Grant , ; Ayelet Waldman , ; Michael Chabon
production	Susannah Grant, ; Ayelet Waldman, ; Michael Chabon, ; Lisa Cholodenko , ; Katie Couric
music	Will Bates
Initial release	September 13, 2019 on Netflix
; First publication in German	September 13, 2019 on Netflix
occupation
synchronization

Unbelievable is an American miniseries that premiered on September 13, 2019 on the video-on-demand provider Netflix . The True Crime production is based on the 2015 Pulitzer Prize- winning article, An Unbelievable Story of Rape, by journalists T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, about a rape series in Washington and Colorado states . The article appeared on both ProPublica and The Marshall Project , also a non-profit organization that focuses on criminal cases in the United States. In addition, a podcast appeared on This American Life at the same time about the case, in which the authors had their own say.

action

Marie Adler, a behavioral youth from Lynnwood, Washington, claims to have been raped in 2008. Investigators Parker and Pruitt treat them disrespectfully and unnecessarily often ask them to repeat the description of the crime. Since she does not have a particularly good reputation, the police do not believe her and get her to admit a false statement. Marie is charged with false testimony, which has profound consequences for her relationships with her friends, her colleagues in the supermarket and the supervisors in the social program of which she is a member. As a result, she has to struggle with severe verbal attacks in the press and on the Internet as well as with the loss of confidence in those around her.

Three years later, Detective Karen Duvall of Golden , Colorado was investigating a rape case. Her husband Max notices that there is a connection with a rape from his Westminster area of responsibility . So Karen and Grace, the investigator from Westminster, get together and investigate together. They quickly find out that their cases are about the same perpetrator and that they are dealing with a serial rapist. During their investigation, Karen and Grace are confronted with uncooperative colleagues and many clues that lead nowhere.

Cast and dubbing

The synchronization of the series was done at RRP Media based on a dialogue book by Kalpna Joshi and Jan Fabian Krüger under the dialogue direction by Ralf Pel.

role	actor	Voice actor
Detective Grace Rasmussen	Toni Collette	Christin Marquitan
Detective Karen Duvall	Merritt Wever	Friederike Walke
Marie Adler	Kaitlyn Dever	Ronja Peters
Detective Parker	Eric Lange	Dirc Simpson
Detective Pruitt	Bill Fagerbakke	Roman Kretschmer
Judith	Elizabeth Marvel	Andrea Solter
Colleen Doggett	Bridget Everett	Almut Zydra
Amber	Danielle Macdonald	Juliane Schöttler
RoseMarie	Dale Dickey	Judith Steinhäuser
Mia	Liza Lapira	Uschi Hugo
Elias	Omar Maskati	Marcel Mann
Max Duvall	Austin Hébert	Patrick Giese
Steve Rasmussen	Kai Lennox	Steven Merting
Christopher McCarthy	Blake Ellis	Alexander Hauff
Curtis McCarthy	Aaron Staton	Jörn Linnenbröker
Becca	Patricia Fa'asua	Meryem Celik
Ty	Charlie McDermott	Patrick Cieslik
Al	Brent Sexton	Harald Effenberg
Lily	Annaleigh Ashford	Lo Rivera
FBI Special Agent Billy Taggart	Scott Lawrence	Oliver Siebeck
Connor	Shane Paul McGhie	Kaze Uzumaki

Episode list

No.	German title	Original title	Director	script
1	episode 1	Episode 1	Lisa Cholodenko	Susannah Grant & Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman
In August 2008 , Marie Adler, a former foster child and now a member of a social program for difficult youths, sits in her room in Lynwood, Washington , disturbed and is comforted by her former foster mother Judith. When the police arrive, Marie is questioned by an officer and claims to have been raped . Shortly afterwards, investigators Parker and Pruitt arrive. They ask Marie several times to describe the crime again, because Marie made contradicting statements in a small, for the case insignificant detail, in the first statement, and Parker and Pruitt are of the opinion that they are far too untouched to be a rape victim behaves. She is then admitted to a hospital, where she will be examined to prove the rape, and is again forced to describe it. The police examine Marie's apartment for evidence, but find nothing. Colleen, who was Marie's foster mother before Judith, helps Marie move to another apartment in the same building. When Judith mentions to Parker that Marie has shown self-promotional behavior in the past, he and Pruitt conclude that Marie was just making up the rape. They put her under pressure, so Marie retracts her claims, which cost her the trust of her friends and program supervisors.
2	Episode 2	Episode 2	Lisa Cholodenko	Susannah Grant
Parker closes Marie's file, shortly afterwards an unknown source at the police station gives Marie's name to the press, which is why her house is constantly besieged by reporters. Marie tries in vain to avoid them. This is why she has great concentration problems in her work in the program, which is why her supervisors introduce a strict curfew and other measures to be able to monitor her better. Marie wants to visit Coleen, who is not at home at the moment, her husband Al tells Marie directly that he does not want to be alone with her because of her alleged false statement, which is why Marie leaves again dejected. The plot then jumps to 2011 : Detective Karen Duvall investigates the raped 22-year-old Amber Stevenson in the town of Golden , Colorado . Amber describes her attacker and mentions that he had a birthmark on his left calf . Karen's husband Max, who works for the Westminster Police Department , notices that Amber's descriptions match an unsolved case in his area of responsibility. He therefore suggests that Karen call his colleague Grace Rasmussen, who was the lead investigator at the time. Meanwhile, Grace observes the scene of a recent rape at night, where she notices a man with a backpack.
3	Episode 3	Episode 3	Lisa Cholodenko	Susannah Grant
It turns out that the observed man is not the wanted perpetrator. Shortly thereafter, Grace receives a visit from Karen, who explains the similarities in their cases, which is why the two go to Sarah, the victim from Grace's old case. Despite some initial difficulties, the two decide to investigate together. Karen concludes that this is a serial offender who knows that the various police stations are not good at sharing information, so he only raped one woman in each jurisdiction so that it would not be obvious that he was a serial offender. Karen and Grace spend the night looking through files of all the rape cases in Colorado over the past six years, and they also call the investigators. Karen finds a surveillance video that shows a white pickup truck that presumably belongs to the perpetrator, Grace sees another connection to a case from Aurora . Meanwhile, a flashback from 2008 shows Marie, who is desperate due to multiple negative press reports and messages in social networks, which is why she goes to her boyfriend Connor. She receives a notice that she has been charged by the police for her false testimony. Marie fears that she will be released from the program, her supervisor Ty reassures her and promises to support her.
4th	Episode 4	Episode 4	Michael Dinner	Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman
A fellow student of Amber claims to know the perpetrator. Karen and Grace initiate a confrontation, but Amber is not sure if he is her rapist. Karen interrogates the man and discovers that although he has attitudes towards women that justify the suspicion, he is not the perpetrator. Karen and Grace believe that the real culprit has inside knowledge and could therefore be a cop. So Grace asks her husband, Steve, who works for the Colorado Attorney General, to tell her which police officers have committed domestic violence against their wives with impunity, but Steve refuses. Shortly afterwards, another woman is raped in a suburb of Denver . Meanwhile, Marie turned to lawyer Donald Hughes in 2008. He is very surprised that she has been charged, since false statements to the police practically never lead to complaints, and he wants to reach a deal with the prosecutor. When Marie visits Colleen and Al again, a televised report shows a rape in Kirkland . Colleen notices immediately that there are similarities between the current and Marie's descriptions of the perpetrator. She asks Marie to withdraw her confession about the false statement. Marie is scared and doesn't want to go to the police because she doesn't trust them.
5	Episode 5	Episode 5	Michael Dinner	Jennifer Schuur
Grace questions Lily, who was almost raped but saved herself by jumping off the balcony and breaking her pelvis in the process . She claims that Detective Harkness, the investigator at the time, despised her. Evidence from Lily's apartment fits together with evidence from the apartments of the other victims, which is why the serial perpetrator theory is confirmed. Karen is investigating a rape in Kansas , which has nothing to do with the Colorado show. Instead, under the evidence from the Kansas crime, there is a textbook on rape investigative methods that provides a rapist with useful information on how to cover up his actions. Meanwhile, Amber has great difficulty processing her experience and behaves very atypically for her, for example she often has sex with strangers. In 2008, Marie's supervisor in the supermarket sent her to work on the loading ramp, where she was verbally harassed by a colleague. When Connor visits her at work, she yells at him out of anger and frustration, which is observed by her manager. She receives a reprimand from him, whereupon she resigns. Meanwhile, Colleen wants to call the Kirkland police to explain the connection between the two rapes. Judith is against it, because she fears that Marie will be disturbed by further contact with the police, Coleen calls anyway. The call has no effect, however, as an investigator from Kirkland calls Pruitt, who continues to claim that Marie's testimony was false and that the cases are therefore unrelated.
6th	Episode 6	Episode 6	Michael Dinner	Becky fashion
Steve reconsiders his actions and gives Grace the files on Cop James Massey. Steve tells her that Massey shouldn't be a police officer, even if he's not the rapist. Grace secretly wants to look for clues to James' guilt, but fails because he sees her and recognizes her. He spits in her face and threatens her not to investigate any further. Elias, a young data analyst in Westminster, manages to identify the white pickup and its owner, Christopher McCarthy. Karen then follows a man who is leaving Christopher's house, she follows him and takes a sample of his DNA. Meanwhile, Grace and FBI agent Billy Taggart knock on the front door before going inside to look for clues. They react in surprise when Christopher opens the door, the shadowed man was his brother Curtis. Grace invents a reasonable excuse for her visit, and she and Billy quickly run away. In another flashback, Donald succeeds in negotiating with the prosecutor: Marie is given a suspended sentence, has to pay a fine and does not have a criminal record if she does not get into debt during the probation period. Marie is frustrated as parole limits her free time. She gets drunk, uses marijuana, and is breaking the curfew, which is why she is being fired from the program. She moves back in with Judith, who borrows her money so that she can pay the fine.
7th	Episode 7	Episode 7	Susannah Grant	Becky Mode Idea: Susannah Grant
Karen and Grace wonder if Christopher and Curtis were involved in the rapes one after the other. That's why Elias uses the analysis of entries in social networks and cell phone recordings to create a timeline. This indicates that Christopher is probably acting alone and that Curtis is innocent. Karen and Grace arrest Curtis with insufficient evidence on the timeline. After checking and questioning him, his innocence is confirmed. Karen and Billy search Christopher's house and find hard evidence to convict him. Grace does not come with to arrest Christopher, but leaves it to Karen and thus the credit for solving the case. In 2008, Marie was sent to a therapist on the instructions of the court. Marie initially behaves very uncooperatively until her therapist convinces her to talk about topics that have nothing to do with her rape. Marie first talks about zombie films, which she likes to watch, and then draws parallels between the story of the film and the way she was treated by the police. She tells the therapist that she was really raped and pressured by investigators to withdraw her claims. The therapist believes her and asks what she would do differently if she could relive the situation. Marie replies that she would lie about her rape sooner and more vigorously in order not to be confronted with the legal system, since persons in authority would displease uncomfortable truths.
8th	Episode 8	Episode 8	Susannah Grant	Susannah Grant
Karen and Grace evaluate photos that Christopher took of his victims. They find out that several of these were created in Washington State in 2008. Grace sends this to Detective Parker, who recognizes Marie in a photo and realizes that she was telling the truth. Parker informs Marie that her tormentor has been arrested and gives her a refund on behalf of the city of $ 500, the amount of her fine. Christopher pleads guilty in court but refuses to hand over a hard drive containing evidence of further crimes. Many of his victims testify against him during the trial or, like Amber, are among the audience. Christopher is sentenced to 327 years and 6 months in prison. After the trial, he asks Billy to question him as an "expert" so that other rapists can be convicted in the future. Marie is suing Lynwood City and her attorney obtains $ 150,000 in compensation and an official apology. Donald actually demands a higher sum, but Marie is satisfied and does not insist on an increase. Marie buys a car and wants to leave town with it, but stops at the police station beforehand. She told Parker that she had not received a personal apology from any of the parties involved. He then asks her forgiveness, while Pruitt stands silently next to him. Before Marie leaves, she admonishes Parker to investigate more carefully in the future. Then she calls Karen and thanks her for transferring Christopher, then she continues her journey to her new home.
On September 13, 2019, all episodes of the season were released simultaneously on Netflix.

reception

In the Internet Movie Database, the series received an 8.7 out of ten star rating based on 15,873 votes. On Rotten Tomatoes , there was a critic rating of 96 percent based on 55 reviews and a viewer rating of 93 percent based on 360 audience votes. At Metacritic , the series received a rating of 82 out of 100.

Judy Berman described the series in Time as "Anti - Law & Order ". At first, the plot of Unbelievable sounds artificial even for a “moralizing, awkward crime series”, as it is about “poorly trained men who botch the investigation into a piquant sex crime”, which has devastating consequences for a young woman who is marginalized society would stand. The case is then resolved by a more competent, empathetic, female team. In fact, the series is heartbreaking. Among other things, she honestly presents the background to rape cases without wanting to make them a sensation at the same time. For example, it is thanks to the performance of the actresses in question that the rapes themselves, which are portrayed from the victims' point of view, in contrast to similar sequences from Game of Thrones or The Handmaid's Tale - The Maid's Report made a lasting impression on the audience would leave behind. The two investigators Duvall and Rasmussen are also not typical crime series characters. Rather, they feel empathy for the victims and a long-standing anger about the apathy in the predominantly male judicial system. Berman closed her criticism by saying that the series was in some places a bit instructive and, among other things, forced statistics about rape into the plot. But the actors in their play are subtle. Susannah Grant is not interested in entertaining Law & Order fans, but rather to show why real rape cases are often more complex than they are shown on television.

“In some episodes, Unbelievable seems like a tough but pretty routine detective drama. You watch the two policewomen interrogating grim men and attacked women. (...) Against all odds and occasional doubts of their own about their work, the two investigators manage to tighten their net by questioning witnesses again, ruthlessly digging through and tracking down even the most unlikely leads. (...) The power center of the series, however, are the scenes in which Unbelievable follows the path of the heroine Marie Adler for months and years. She fights touchingly for the affection of her only confidante, she endures various legal malevolences with quiet equanimity (...) But at some point one of the policemen stands in front of the young woman who has helped ruin a few years of her life. The man says that he was unfortunately wrong. The policeman is not portrayed here as a villain or a stubborn macho, but rather as a pitiful representative of a social machinery of order that does not provide justice for outsiders like Marie Adler. (...) It is a great, heartbreaking scene that follows, about which one can only reveal one thing: There can be no talk of reconciliation - even one with the circumstances - here. "

- Wolfgang Höbel : The mirror

Ken Armstrong, one of the authors of the article that created the series, described the real Marie Adler's reaction to the production on Twitter . Adler would have found the series excellent, especially Kaitlyn Dever's performance and the authenticity of the plot would have rated it positively. It would not have been easy for her to watch the production, but she also cried while doing it. However, this was a possibility for her to finally come to an end with what she had experienced, especially through the sequence in which Christopher McCarthy is sentenced to 327 years in prison.

Nominations

Golden Globe Awards 2020

Nomination : Best Miniseries or Best TV Movie
Nomination : Best Actress in a Miniseries or a TV Movie, for Kaitlyn Dever
Nomination : Best Actress in a Miniseries or a TV Movie, for Merritt Wever
Nomination : Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Miniseries or TV Movie, for Toni Collette

Critics' Choice Television Awards 2020

Nomination : Best Miniseries
Nomination : Best Actress in a Miniseries or a TV Movie, for Kaitlyn Dever
Nomination : Best Actress in a Miniseries or a TV Movie, for Merritt Wever
Award : Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a TV Movie, for Toni Collette

Producers Guild of America Award 2020