Steven Avery's Making A Murderer

How does “evil incarnate” talk to his mother? Does he scream and scold the defenseless women on the end of the line, or does he joke lightheartedly and reassure her of his safety. Taken out of context and given no background, into a person’s personality and values become subjective to the viewer’s scrutiny. Making a Murderer follows the life of Steven Avery, a man who has had a convoluted and troubling experience with the Manitowoc county justice system. After being released from prison for a crime he did not commit, he is soon put on trial for the murder of a young Autotrader photographer two years later. From the public’s limited scope of news reports, the Avery family is depicted as the uneducated, poor junkyard family that lives on the

fringe of an otherwise healthy county and possess a threat to the assimilated members. Yet, the documentary series is able to debunk this notion of the otherwise demonized family. Making A Murderer’s use of phone calls and their accompanying images allow the audience to sympathize with Avery and the rest of the family by showcasing their feelings of hopelessness and aloofness, humanizing them and enforcing the idea that his convictions are a fault of the justice system.
Starting from the pilot episode, the viewer is dropped in the middle of Avery’s exoneration after his false imprisonment charge. Considering this scene is the initial starting point, the audience faces a sense of unease and confusion over what had happened before. The viewer faces dilemma, is Steven Avery innocent and his circumstances were a result of malpractice, or is he a simple-minded at-risk man whose personality and past would automatically assume him guilty?
After flashbacks of his life as a marginalized, uneducated troublemaker in Manitowoc county, it seems he would fit the profile of a murderer relatively easily. However, during his first imprisonment, Avery’s personality is able to shine through his prison phone conversations with his mother. First, he displays unfaltered integrity in his first recorded call. While the audience is presented images of the empty Green Bay Correctional Institution, he explains his view on the situation and states that, “if I did it, I would admit it right away. I’ll take the punishment, I’ll do the time”(Making a Murderer E1). From this conversation of a wrongfully imprisoned man juxtaposed with the caged-in prison, the audience amasses sympathy because of his misplaced situation and the injustice that he is wrongfully subjected to. Also, because Avery had been portrayed as someone who would admit to his wrongdoings, as exemplified with his early crimes, the audience’s perception of this uneducated member of a reclusive family softens. The audience, however, is supposedly very different from the Averys. Considering the documentary series is a Netflix exclusive, the audience most likely resembles the prosecutors in terms of socioeconomic status as opposed to the subjects of the show. Nonetheless, Avery seems more human and lovable as opposed to dangerous and feared, designating him the “protagonist” of this ongoing story where he faces an uphill battle against those who imprisoned him. Had his previous phone conversation been omitted from the episode, Avery may come across as dishonest or hostile. Simply listening to him argue for his innocence would be natural for most people in his situation, guilty or not, however, knowing that he would be willing to face retributions for his actions enhances the view of him being an accepting and innocent man.
Beyond just his personality, his idiolect is highlighted and presented to the viewer in a positive and slightly charming way that contrasts with the disdain of the general public.

With his many conversations with his family, there is an abundance of “Oh”’s and “Yeah”’s littered in their phone calls. Although some may see this as an indication of a lower class or lack of education, the banality of these filler words seem to cast doubt in the viewer’s mind. Following Avery’s second accusation of raping and killing Teresa Halbach, the plan that the prosecution presents almost seems too complex and too dastardly for a common man whose conversations are incredibly simple. Because the previous episodes that document his resolved first case establishes his lovable oaf personality, the viewer almost wants to believe that the simple minded Avery is innocent. A person with surface knowledge of the Avery family and the previous case may assume him to be taking advantage of the idea of feigned ignorance, but his simple sentences and overall aloofness in his phone calls contrasts the idea of a clever and despicable mastermind. Moreover, because the documentary seems to antagonize the Manitowoc justice system, there is an underlying feeling of hope where the viewer wants to see the simple hero (Avery) triumph over the overbearing force that has demonized and shown malicious intent to, “end the gene pool here”(Ep. 10). This underdog attempt to clear his name is appealing to the audience

as his seemingly dull speech and lifestyle faces against a horde of eloquent and well-educated foes.
Due to the way that Steven Avery had been framed beforehand and his simple personality, one may think that this second accusation could be a repeat of his early case.

However, one crucial character, Avery’s nephew Brendan Dassey, serves as the incriminating factor in this case. To the general public, this sixteen year-old “eyewitness” confirms Avery’s involvement in the death of Teresa Halbach. However, Making a Murderer soon incorporates Dassey’s recorded phone conversations that further support the idea of malpractice while also garnering sympathy and support from the viewer. From his introduction, Dassey is seen as a young, aloof kid with an IQ of 73 and a potential learning disability, similar to Steven Avery. However, what separates the two is their awareness of the situation. As Avery is adamant about proving his innocence and returning to his life, Dassey seems to not grasp the severity of his involvement and is almost living in his own world. By including his conversations, the audience not only sees the progression of his fabricated stories that are constructed through police coercion, but also his impressionability and his lack of judgment. Consequently, Brendan is established as an unreliable source that is swayed by the last person he has a conversation

with.
His first conversation with his mother after he is put into a juvenile detention center almost enrages the audience with his seemingly lack of seriousness; he seems to willingly submit to whatever actions are going on and his mother scolds him for “guessing with something like that” (Ep.4). His response to his mother’s explanations of the situation are simple barrages of “Yeah”’s, further angering her and the audience that questions Brendan’s lack of intelligence. Accompanying this phone call is a sequence of the Avery salvage yard emphasizing how his misguided actions will force Avery to bear the consequences of his fabricated story. Sympathy is established for both of them because it explores Brendan’s illogical thought process and shows how police were able to take advantage of his gentle nature and low self-esteem. He says, “I am really stupid” (Ep.4) twice in this conversation, capitalizing on his mother’s feelings of