Netflix's new series 'Unbelievable' is the true-crime drama that everyone is talking about. Based on The Marshall Project and ProPublica's Pulitzer Prize-winning article, An Unbelievable Story of Rape, the series follows the real life story of a teenage girl who was charged with lying about being raped.
Unbelievable's lead character, Marie, played by Kaitlyn Dever, is based on the real woman Marie Adler. After her ordeal, she shared her story with reporters, one of whom was writer Ken Armstrong, who worked on the ProPublica article. After the series captured the attention of so many across the world, Marie spoke to Ken about her thoughts on the Netflix drama.
Writing on Twitter, Ken said: "To me, Marie is not a character. She is someone who trusted me with her story, painful as it was."
He continued, praising the accuracy of the series in comparison to the real life events: "In the show's 1st episode, Marie, after reporting her rape, goes to the hospital for an exam. In the scene, we learn how many swabs are taken. Where they're taken from. And what Marie is told after - that she might start thinking of killing herself.
"Each detail is accurate. I know, because I've read the real-life medical report. The scene is clinical, unadorned...and powerful."
He adds that the show "wanted to capture how an investigation can become its own form of trauma. To do that, she let the facts speak for themselves."
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Continuing his thread on Twitter, Ken shared the real Marie Adler's response to the show, revealing how emotional it was for her to watch. "Two weeks ago I got a call, from Marie. She told me she had just watched the series. Watching it was hard, she said. 'I did cry quite a bit,' she said. But she had decided she wanted to and was glad that she did. She called the show 'excellent.'"
Ken said that Marie "brought up one scene in particular—in the first episode, in which she’s confronted by police and recants.
"Marie has told me before that it can be a struggle for her to put her feelings and thoughts into words. In that scene, she said, Kaitlyn Dever captured her struggle impeccably. 'It was, like, perfect,' she said."
Ken went on to comment on the show's portrayal of Marie's foster mothers, who initially doubted that she was telling the truth, before later apologising to her. "After finishing the series, Marie called both, to reassure them: The show doesn’t demonise you. She encouraged both to watch."
Speaking of the police who worked on the case, Ken added: "For Marie, watching the work of the detectives in Colorado, 1,300 miles from where she had been attacked, reinforced a sense she’d had since first she learned about them: 'I felt like they were my guardian angels, looking out for me.'
"And watching the last episode, watching the re-creation of the Colorado detectives closing in, provided Marie something she didn’t expect. 'Seeing him get put away, that was closure for me,' she said."
For the full story, read An Unbelievable Story of Rape by Ken Armstrong and T. Christian Miller.
Unbelievable is available to stream on Netflix now.
Emily Gulla was Cosmopolitan UK’s Former Editorial Assistant/Junior Entertainment and Lifestyle Writer, covering celebs, TV and film for the site, magazine and video. She’s interviewed the casts of your favourite TV shows, from Bridgerton to Derry Girls and Stranger Things, as well as dozens of Love Islanders. She also loves getting stuck into long-read features, writing on all things digital culture (including her favourite topic: memes), and dating - having appeared on the radio to discuss dating.
Emily's work has also been published on ELLE, Women's Health, Harper's Bazaar, Digital Spy and more. She holds a First Class degree in English with Film Studies from King's College London, and even wrote her dissertation on Love Island. You can find Emily on Instagram and LinkedIn, and can see more of her work on her website.
