Unbelievable Netflix Series Review

Unbelievable (2019)
Limited Series - 8 episodes

Watch Unbelievable on Netflix
Created by: Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman
Starring: Kaitlyn Dever, Toni Collette, Merritt Wever
Rated: TV-MA
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Plot
Based on the true story of Marie, a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped, and the two female detectives who eventually capture her attacker and reveal the truth.

Verdict
This is difficult to watch. It's a horrific crime made all the worse by a system that doesn't care. I feel terrible for almost everyone in the show. It's easy to see why people wouldn't come forward, as just providing a report forces you to relive a traumatic experience over again. There is no support system for victims that desperately need it.
How do you catch a criminal with so few clues and victims not willing to come forward? The system is designed to catch criminals, not support victims. The dynamic is very different between female  and male cops with victims. I really like the professional relationship between Grace and Karen. They're well-written characters.
The series details the problems with the system which should be apparent when a victim feels the need to recant her statement.
Watch it.

Review
This starts right into the trauma of being raped. Marie has to relive the story over and over again. First she tells a cop, then a detective. It's easy to see the problems in the system, and why people don't want to come forward. Cops treat this as any other crime, and that's just not effective. The cops are looking for a bad guy, and trauma doesn't matter to them as much because it's not their trauma. They can't comprehend what Marie is experiencing, and Marie has no support at all.

Kaitlyn Dever plays Marie.

Marie states she made up the report as a means to leave the police station. She's been questioned, she's recounted the story, and she just wants to leave. The cops won't let her, putting her in a helpless position. She sees her quickest way out as saying the made up the story. This isn't all that different from suspects that admit to a crime they didn't do.
You get why the cops don't believe her, but they're pushing a woman that just had a traumatic experience very hard.

Merritt Wever plays Karen.

The dynamic is very different when a female cop interviews a new victim. Karen doesn't just seem to care, she truly does. We see how a cop should talk to a victim, after the failure in the earlier episodes. The show is difficult to watch as victims recount crimes. It's  a hard subject.
I really liked Merritt Wever as Karen. She does such a great job portraying the character. She's caring, determined, and tough. You really believe it.

Karen teams up with Grace (Toni Collette). Grace is very brash, but takes on a different persona with a victim. It makes sense she would code switch. The show did a great job with these two characters. Grace is restoring a car with her husband, and I like the detail that Karen locks her firearm in a safe as soon as she gets home. That's a detail you never see. Both of them feel like real people.

Toni Collette and Merritt Wever play Grace and Karen.

I don't know if cops would really be able to dedicate this much time to a case as Karen and Grace do, even if it is serial. That's another flaw in the system. There are more crimes than resources.

This is a fantastic series that explores the crime and the aftermath, reshaping what's typical. There is no typical reaction as everyone handles trauma differently. What victims need most is support and patience. That's difficult in the criminal system where cops are pushed to solve cases quickly and move to the next one.