Continuing my troll through Netflix for true crime, ‘Murdaugh Murders’ reprises a scandal I’d been aware of from the news. The docuseries adds further information to what had previously been common knowledge – common at least for news junkies like me – so it was time well spent. The basic premise of the film is eventual justice for an entitled number of people in a single family known in South Carolina for its connection to the legal system.
The skeleton of the case finds its start in a boating accident caused by excessive consumption of alcohol that resulted in the death of a very young woman. The family tried to cover it up because Paul Murdaugh was driving the boat. The story gets weirded however later on when Paul and his mother are shot dead on a Murdaugh property and Paul’s father Alex is arrested. As of writing this review Alex is still in prison.
Documentary of this nature is interesting because of what it says about us. We live in communities where the means for subsistence are allocated unequally, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with this problems arise when people take their privilege for granted, as Alex Murdaugh evidently did. The Murdaugh legal dynasty was founded at the beginning of last century and lawyers with the name Murdaugh have been practicing law in Hampton County ever since. While this state of affairs is set to continue the result of the events recorded in the docuseries is that the name Murdaugh will forever be associated with abuse of privilege.
This is sad.
It’s sad because life is short. What Netflix has done is to give us reason to be thankful for what we have in our own lives, wherever we live them. And while the show’s subtitle suggests that what happened in Hampton County is a particularly southern phenomenon inherent in the scenario is abuse of privilege stretching way beyond one family and out of contemporary boundaries to the deep past. Even if you’re never visited the South you can still identify parts of your own life in ‘Murdaugh Murders’. Even if you have no desire to visit the South you can still benefit by spending a few hours watching this show.
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