Murdaugh: Death In The Family: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
Patricia Arquette and Jason Clarke star in a dramatisation of the tangled South Carolina case
Year: 2025
Certificate: 15
Patricia Arquette and Jason Clarke take the leads in a high-end re-creation of the Murdaugh (pronounced 'Murdock') murders that shocked the world in 2021. The bones of the case are as follows: in June 2021, prominent South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh called police to say he'd found his wife Maggie and 22-year-old son Paul shot dead at home.
Around two years before, in 2019, an allegedly drunk Paul had been driving a boat that crashed, killing teenager Mallory Beach in the process. As such, two competing theories emerged as to who killed Maggie and Paul: that it was in retaliation for the crash, or that it was, for reasons unknown, down to Murdaugh himself. The case then took another twist when, in September 2021, it was claimed that Alex had hired a distant cousin to kill him.
Clarke is excellent as Alex, the 'honest man' dealing with the downfall of his legal dynasty (and plenty else besides) here, while Arquette delivers a simmering performance as his wife, Maggie. There's a lot to dig into, but the underlying theme of delivering justice when the accused is local legal royalty is a strong one. The show is inspired by the Murdaugh Murders Podcast by journalist Mandy Matney, played here by Brittany Snow. (Eight episodes)
