Lifetime: Television for Women who love men who kill them. The standard murder-mystery potboiler gets a contemporary update on Lifetime Television this Sunday night, with the debut of The Staircase Murders, based on a true story. Treat Williams plays best-selling novelist Michael Peterson, whose second wife dies falling down a flight of stairs in the couple's North Carolina home — or so it appears.
At first, the author's two sons by a former marriage and his two adopted daughters believe in their father's innocence. Peterson's step-daughter and the sister of his now-deceased second wife have their doubts. The prosecutor, who accuses Peterson of murder, has even less faith in Peterson's accidental-fall explanation.
In the midst of the murder investigation, Peterson and his attorney (Kevin Pollock) actually allow a documentary filmmaker to come into the family home and document their lives before and during Peterson's murder trial. The author begins to play rather shamelessly to the cameras with the kind of arrogance one might expect of a best-selling author. But does this behavior reflect a man who is innocent and certain he will be vindicated, or one who is simply a sociopath?
Treat Williams does a good job of walking that fine line that allows the viewer to maintain some doubt as to his character's guilt or innocence. Donald Martin delivers an effective screenplay, adapted from Aphrodite Jones' book The Perfect Husband. The entire affair unfolds like a cross between CSI and an old episode of Perry Mason. But for full appreciation of the plot and any suspense contained therein, I suggest you record the show and fast-forward through the commercials. Nothing kills tension quite as effectively as a commercial for new and improved Tide.
I don't want to destroy your fun, but it also helps if you pay attention to the title, remembering that it references more than one murder. The story really picks up steam when it shows Peterson at the gym, lifting weights with a hunky workout partner and subsequently following the man into a shower stall, pulling the curtain closed behind them. There are no scenes that allow Williams to engage in some man-on-man face-sucking, but the script makes his character's sexuality perfectly clear.
As soon as he is outed by a record of online cruising downloaded from his computer's hard drive, Peterson quickly communicates to the police, and to his family over dinner, that yes, he is indeed bisexual, and his wife knew and accepted his sexual orientation. Now, would you please pass the mashed potatoes? Peterson's oh-by-the-way affection for man-pussy, supported by the courtroom testimony of a male escort, pushes the story into new territory for Lifetime. It even allows the accused to drag out homophobia as one of the reasons he has been wrongfully accused of murder. That proves to be a hard sell.
The Staircase Murders debuts on Lifetime Television Sunday, April 15 at 8 p.m., with a repeat airing Monday, April 16 at 9 p.m.