By Liz Ciocher
Arts & Entertainment Editor
When the Netflix original docuseries “Murdaugh Murders: Southern Scandal” was originally released back in February, I was all for it — the drama, tragedy and unethical behaviors of the case were documented so well. The timing of its release was the most impressive thing about it, dropping just the day before the suspected Alex Murdaugh’s trial began.
Now, six months after his guilty conviction, a second season of the show has been released to provide a much needed follow-up. While I was very excited for this release, it was clear to me within the first 20 minutes that it was not nearly as compelling as the first season.
Before that 20 minute mark, I had some really high hopes for this season. It started off strong with official bodycam footage of responding officers talking to Alex Murdaugh the same evening that his son and wife were found fatally shot. One of my only complaints about the first season was how little of the actual investigation was talked about, so I was glad to see they brought elements like this in.
When diving deeper into the investigation, we got to hear commentary from a lot of important people: the clerk of court, the attorney general, the lead prosecutor, jurors and more. But I was disappointed that there was nothing said from the law enforcement and police officers besides what we could hear from the bodycam footage.
Regardless of this missing element, the three episodes of this season covered a lot of the court case, which I was happy about. We got to see actual footage of the trial as if sitting in the courtroom ourselves, along with everything that was shown by the lawyers to the jury at the time.
There were some returning people from the first season, which I was most excited for, as a lot of them were what made the first season so emotional. But there was a substantial switch between this season from the first; season one had a strong focus on Paul Murdaugh, and this season had the spotlight on Alex. I felt like these voices weren’t necessarily as needed here as they were in the first season, and there were different people I would have rather heard from.
Based on the ending of the first season, I was really expecting there to be more of a divulgence into investigating who committed the two murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. But since this was released after Alex Murdaugh was found guilty, there was none of that. It was really a deep dive on his life and behavior after the death of his son and wife.
This was the biggest disappointment for me, because after watching that first season, I had theories of my own. By the time season one was wrapped up, I was wondering who'd done it and was not convinced Alex was guilty. Since there was not nearly as much investigative curiosity in this season as the first, the entire mood shifted. It was a lot less interesting than I expected.
Even though I was pretty disappointed, I would suggest to anyone who has watched the first season to sit through the second one anyway. This season is once again only three episodes, but I did notice this time they are significantly shorter. In season one, the episodes ranged from 40 to 50 minutes, and here they never exceeded 40.
My opinion on the actual trial has not changed. I was hoping the second season would provide me some insight on who I have found to believe is guilty, but was left short. The series takes a quick jump from a “who-dun-it” kind of series to one that focuses on legalities and courtroom measures, which ultimately led to my disappointment.
