Netflix's 'Unbelievable' offers cop drama with real consequence

The following is a spoiler-free review of Netflix's Unbelievable.

Unbelievable is an incredible cop show. A gripping story with staggering twists, the investigation of a serial rapist attacking women across Colorado is as captivating as True Detective, Mindhunter, or any Law & Order marathon.

In just eight episodes, the miniseries explores crime scene forensics, eyewitness testimony, criminal profiling, the complexities of suspect databases, and a dozen other fascinating aspects of solving unsolvable cases. There are good detectives with great senses of humor, good detectives with bad senses of humor, and straight-up bad detectives whose sense of humor doesn't even begin to matter. It's the best kind of crime show, smart and engrossing.

For fans of the genre, that will be enough to merit a binge. But in this era of intense police controversy and daytime procedural fatigue, Unbelievable may alienate viewers less keen on the format and subject matter. Thankfully, the cop part of this cop drama is just one small fraction of what places Unbelievable among 2019's best TV.

Based on An Unbelievable Story of Rape, factual reporting published jointly under ProPublica and The Marshall Project in 2015, Unbelievable recounts the story of Marie (Kaitlyn Dever). A young woman living in a transitional housing facility, Marie woke one night in 2009 to find a stranger in her bedroom. Over the next four hours, Marie was repeatedly raped by that stranger at knifepoint.

That was the first of two violations the then-18-year-old experienced that year. Following the attack, Marie's account was disbelieved by police and she was later charged with filing a false report. She lost her housing, her job, and much of her support network. Despite Marie's assertions that she wasn't lying, she eventually agreed to a pretrial diversion program. The program placed Marie under supervised probation and required she pay a $500 fine for wasting the police department's time and resources.

It wasn't until 2011, when detectives Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot — renamed Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) for the series — began investigating rapes like Marie's that the young woman had any hope of finding justice.

It's an incredible story, one that creator Susannah Grant adapts well for the most part. Yes, you can pick apart the show's stretched pacing, remark on its occasionally clichéd scripting, and complain about its bad title and rather on-the-nose finale. But all of that, when put in the context of the true story the series services, is unimportant.

Unbelievable should be praised first and foremost for drawing attention to a significant event, one I would wager few viewers knew about before it came to the Netflix platform. A pleading and poignant look at the way those who vow to protect us can do more harm than good — particularly when it comes to cases of sexual assault — Unbelievable examines biases, good intentions, unchecked power, fear, and how being in the right place at the right time can sometimes bring justice.

Like When They See Us, another Netflix dramatization examining the injustices of the Central Park Five case, Unbelievable is at times uncomfortable viewing. The events described aren't easy to hear about, let alone watch, and the themes explored venture into territory plenty of fictitious shows consciously avoid. That said, the unsteadiness you will feel watching this show is important. It is the heart-wrenching queasiness that will allow Marie's story to stay with you.

Since the details of Marie's case were brought to light, critical changes have been made to policing, although plenty of her case's more insidious realities remain today. Unbelievable has the power to serve as a springboard for discussions about believing women in the #MeToo era and reexamining the ways law enforcement officials are charged with serving the public.

Unbelievable has done everything it can to give a voice to a victim who deserved one long ago. It is now our obligation to listen — and in this case, watch.

Unbelievable is now streaming on Netflix.