Unbelievable on Netflix is a must-see harrowing crime drama

The truth hurts and is even tougher to face, but as difficult as it is to watch Netflix’s Unbelievable, it’s crucial that you do.

Unbelievable follows Marie, an 18-year-old woman in Lynnwood, Washington, who wakes up to shockingly find that a man has broken into her apartment. He proceeds to tie her up, threaten her with a knife, and rape her on-and-off for several hours. Before leaving, he takes photographs of Marie and tells her that he’ll expose the photos if Marie tells anyone about it. As awful as this is, it’s not what’s so infuriating about the story, but what happens after.

Instead of being on the road to recovery, with counseling, a group of family and friends who support Marie, and detectives on the hunt for the attacker, this traumatizing chapter in her life has only just begun for Marie.

Detectives arrive and question Marie, over and over again. It’s important to note that these are all men. In fact, the only female in Marie’s case is the one who examines her in a very invasive, albeit necessary, post-rape procedure. Instantly, we feel for Marie. Sure, this needs to happen to gather all the evidence possible, but there’s such much a heavy lack of emotion here. To the nurse, this is just another body. There is never any sympathy towards Marie.

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To make matter worse (as if that was even possible) two of Marie’s previous foster moms share with detectives details about Marie that give everyone the impression Marie is a problematic and dramatic teenager. Marie is questioned again and the detectives even bring in some of her “friends,” all who give them different and contradictory information.

Here’s the big question, though — why are the police siding with the details they receive from those around Marie instead of Marie, the victim, herself?

The most maddening fact, here? It’s all based on a true and frustrating story. Unbelievable stems from a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 joint investigation between detectives Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot. Galbraith and Hendershot teamed up to catch this serial killer and bring him to justice.

The road to justice and how terribly wrong Marie was treated won’t be fun to watch, but it is necessary we all do to grow and learn from her story. In today’s world, victims, specifically women, aren’t immediately believed when they go to the authorities. It’s a situation that is, unfortunately, seen one to many times.

Unbelievable shares its story with the world from the point of view of the victims and hard-working detectives, never glamorizing or putting focus on the rapist. The miniseries is now available to stream on Netflix.