The Reel Review
Just months after the riveting 2023 Netflix series about disgraced former South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, this second season of the true crime docuseries focuses on the night of the 2021 execution-style killings of his wife and youngest son, and the trial which saw Murdaugh convicted of both murders and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The series introduces some new individuals – former Murdaugh family housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson, who, incredibly, and at Alex Murdaugh’s request, was allowed to walk right past investigators to clean the Murdaugh family home the day after the slayings, Libby Murdaugh’s caregiver Shelly Smith, whose testimony, along with a damning smartphone video, destroyed Alex’s alibi, and Curtis Edward Smith, who claims Alex tried to have shoot him. Trial juror Gwen Generette also shares some color from the jury panel.
Besides the added interview subjects and a little new light on the goings on the weekend of the double murder, there really isn’t a lot in this second season that is earth shattering, nor are there any interviews with investigators, Alex or his eldest son Buster. The three half-hour episodes feel more like a rushed attempt to keep the ongoing Murdaugh saga in the public eye. Still, the body cam video from the crime scene brings the horrific nature of the crimes into jarring, realistic perspective, as does the shocking bodycam footage of Murdaugh family and friends hanging out at the crime scene the day after the shootings as investigators did their work. Speculation in the third episode about a potential co-conspirator hints that more seasons are likely yet to come.
REEL FACTS
• Earlier this month, Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, claiming Colleton County clerk of court Rebecca Hill tampered with the jury that convicted him.
• On Sept 21, 2023, Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty to charges for the first time – to nearly two dozen fraud and money laundering charges which stemmed from a decade-long scheme in which Murdaugh stole more than $9 million from his personal injury clients.
• Alex Murdaugh will face a state trial in November for 101 charges that include accusations that he siphoned off insurance settlement funds in the death of the Murdaughs’ longtime housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield. Satterfield died in 2018 after what Maggie Murdaugh described as a “trip and fall” occurred at the family home.
Video & Photo
