---
title: "Unbelievable"
year: 2019
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/unbelievable"
fi1m_score: 85
critics_score: 87
critics_reviews: 12
published: "2026-09-17T13:53:34.782969+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T13:53:35.434451+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Unbelievable (2019)

Created by Susannah Grant · MPA TV-MA · Drama, Crime

**Fi1m score: 85** · Critics 87 from 12 reviews

*In a sentence:* A police procedural in which the shocking thing is two detectives doing their jobs properly

> Susannah Grant’s eight-part series about a real rape case that nobody believed is careful, plain and quietly furious. Kaitlyn Dever is remarkable as the girl the police stop listening to; the detectives’ half is a fine procedural and, now and then, only that.

## Synopsis

Lynnwood, Washington, 2008. Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever), eighteen and not long out of foster care, lives alone in a supported housing block. One night a masked man breaks in, ties her with her own shoelaces, rapes her and photographs her. She reports it and is made to tell the story to a patrol officer, a detective, a hospital nurse and the detective again. Her former foster mothers Judith (Elizabeth Marvel) and Colleen Doggett (Bridget Everett) begin to wonder whether she is telling the truth, and so do the police. Three years later, in Colorado, Detective Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) attends a similar attack and learns that Detective Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette), in a neighbouring force, has one too.

## Review

*Unbelievable* opens on a young woman on a sofa with a blanket round her, waiting to tell a stranger what has happened, and then makes her tell it again, and again. Marie Adler (Kaitlyn Dever) is eighteen, not long out of foster care, living in a supported housing block in Lynnwood, Washington, in 2008. A man in a mask has broken in during the night, tied her with her own shoelaces, raped her and photographed her. She tells a patrol officer, then a detective, then a nurse, then the detective again. Susannah Grant’s eight-part series, drawn from a real case, spends most of its first hour on that repetition, and that hour is the best thing in it. We recommend it, with one caveat: the second half is a fine police drama, and the first episode is something rarer.

Grant directs alongside Lisa Cholodenko and Michael Dinner, and three cinematographers, Quyen Tran, Xavier Grobet and John Lindley, share the eight episodes. The Lynnwood material is kept grey and flat: overcast car parks, strip-lit corridors, a hospital before the day has started. The assault is never played as a scene. It arrives in fragments a second long, a blade, a shoelace, a camera flash, and editors Jeffrey M. Werner and Keith Henderson drop them into the interviews without warning, so we get the attack the way Marie gets it, as an intrusion. The forensic examination is swabs, photographs and a ruler held against a bruise, and nothing is lit for effect. Will Bates’s score, mostly a low held tone, stays under the picture.

Then the doubt starts. Judith (Elizabeth Marvel), one of Marie’s former foster mothers, sees her laughing on the phone the next day and rings the detective to say something feels off. Colleen Doggett (Bridget Everett), another foster mother, is warmer and no more use. The scene in which two tired detectives list the details that do not quite match and ask Marie whether it is possible none of it happened made us angrier than television usually manages, and nobody in it raises his voice. The men are not monsters, just tired, and they have decided. Marie gives them the answer they want.

Three years later and in another state, Detective Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) is called to a flat in Colorado where a student has been raped by a masked man who took photographs. Her interview is the first episode played back with decency restored: she tells the woman she can stop whenever she likes, explains each step before she takes it, and writes down what she is told. Then Detective Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette), with a similar case in the next jurisdiction, turns up with the manner of someone who assumes you are wasting her time. Wever plays Duvall watchful and easily hurt; Collette plays Rasmussen loud and permanently in a hurry. They are written as an odd couple, the careful one and the brusque one, and both are good enough to get away with it. Julie Berghoff’s production design gives Marie a flat of pale plywood and donated furniture, and the detectives squad rooms with sunlight in them.

The flaws are in the middle. Around the fifth episode the Colorado strand settles into whiteboards, database searches and meetings about jurisdiction, and we noticed we had become comfortable, which is not what the series is for. Brooke Smith, as the therapist Dara Kaplan, is given scenes that explain what Dever’s face has already told us. Eight hours could have been seven. And the argument is a little too clean: the Colorado detectives get right everything the Lynnwood ones got wrong, and life is seldom so tidy with its lessons.

What keeps pulling it back is Dever. Marie is not written to be liked. She is sullen, she lies about small things, she laughs at the wrong moment, and the series understands that this is exactly why she was not believed. Each time she tells the story it gets shorter and flatter, until she is reciting, and Dever makes us hear the difference. The moment when she looks at Judith and sees the doubt arrive moved us more than we expected, because she registers it and puts it away, as if she has seen that look before and knows what follows.

It carries an 18 certificate and earns it while showing almost nothing. Watch the first episode on its own and stop. Then decide whether you can take the other seven in a run. We took two nights over them and were glad of the gap.

*Fi1m score 85, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are unanimous. All twelve are positive, and the praise gathers in two places: the restraint with which the series handles rape, declining graphic reconstruction and refusing to put a male detective at the centre, and the performances. Kaitlyn Dever’s Marie is named most often, with Merritt Wever and Toni Collette close behind as the two investigators whose patience is set against the doubt Marie meets. Several critics also credit the writing for its interest in process, in how a case is built or broken by the questions asked in the first hours.

The spread is narrow, running from good to exceptional, and nobody dissents on the whole. The reservations are small. Variety finds parts of the portrayal of the justice system troubling, and The Guardian is the most measured of the twelve, admiring the refusal of voyeurism without joining the raves. The Telegraph warns that the first episode is brutal to sit through, though it thinks the difficulty is earned.

### Reviews we read (12)

- **The i Paper**, Sarah Carson (★★★★★): The critic calls the series an excellent, important and relentlessly bleak depiction of rape reporting that powerfully examines institutionalised misogyny and the fragility of survivors without exploiting violence or centering a male detective. It singles out Kaitlyn Dever’s intimate, sensitive performance as Marie for particular praise. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/unbelievable-netflix-review-kaitlyn-dever-toni-collette-merritt-weaver-337999)
- **The Telegraph** (5/5): The first episode is some of the most brutal and harrowing television, showing how the system fails victims through invasive questioning and doubt, based on a true story. It deals with complex issues in a considered way without sensationalism, highlighting why victims must be taken seriously. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/0/unbelievable-review-brutal-drama-based-true-story-really-unbelievable/)
- **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): The review calls Unbelievable a radical and exceptional crime series that prioritizes victims and the impact of compassionate versus dismissive treatment by police. It singles out the grounded performances by Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever, and Toni Collette, along with the humanist, low-key feminist tone set by the directors and writers. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/unbelievable-netflix-review.html)
- **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the series soars as a humanistic document of trauma and self-worth with a plainspoken virtue; it praises Kaitlyn Dever’s crystalline performance highly while noting some troubling aspects in the justice portrayal. It singles out the focus on one individual ground up by the system. [Read](https://variety.com/2019/tv/reviews/unbelievable-netflix-review-toni-collette-merritt-wever-1203304722/)
- **Radio Times**, Flora Carr (80/100, inferred): The review finds the series enraging in its portrayal of police mistakes that enabled a serial rapist while contrasting victim treatment; it praises the sensitive, non-gratuitous approach that avoids graphic sexualisation. It singles out Merritt Wever’s standout empathetic performance as detective Karen Duvall. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/unbelievable-review-netflix/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (80/100, inferred): The critic calls it surprisingly satisfying despite bleak subject matter, praising the confident, occasionally light tone, smart crafting, narrative economy and strong ensemble performances. It singles out the focus on process, failings of the justice system and the importance of listening and believing. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/unbelievable-1238404/)
- **The AV Club**, Danette Chavez (B): The critic praises the miniseries for its restraint and focus on the victims' experiences rather than sensationalism or graphic exploitation. It highlights the strong performances, particularly Kaitlyn Dever's, and its examination of how the justice system fails survivors while still offering some hope through compassionate detectives. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/unbelievable-tells-a-powerful-all-too-real-story-about-1837898194)
- **The Guardian** (70/100, inferred): The series is a fiercely feminist look at whose stories get heard in the justice system, focusing on a retracted rape allegation and the work of two female detectives. It avoids voyeurism or clichés by exploring trauma, power dynamics, and the grey areas of truth rather than sensationalising violence. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/13/unbelievable-review-toni-collete-netflix)
- **Collider**, Lauren Thoman (★★★★★): The critic calls the series a stunning, sensitive true-crime drama that builds on a foundation of belief in the survivors. Performances by Kaitlyn Dever, Merritt Wever, and Toni Collette are singled out as powerhouse work that anchors the story of trauma and healing. [Read](https://collider.com/unbelievable-review-netflix/)
- **Paste**, Allison Shoemaker (9.5/10): The series is described as difficult yet exemplary, devastating without needing to shock, with quiet power that lingers after viewing. The three lead performances are praised as uniformly excellent, with the show distinguished by its assumption that viewers understand the horror of rape. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/unbelievable/unbelievable-review-netflix)
- **Den of Geek**, Delia Harrington (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the series as an insightful masterpiece and unflinching look at injustice, centering survivors and the failures of the system in handling sexual assault cases. It praises the precise adaptation, realistic portrayal of trauma, and standout performances, especially Kaitlyn Dever's, while noting its respectful handling of difficult material. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/unbelievable-review-an-insightful-masterpiece-from-netflix/)
- **The Ringer**, Alison Herman (85/100, inferred): The series achieves a rare level of empathy through its focus on survivors of sexual violence and the women who advocate for them. It contrasts one victim's mistreatment by skeptical male detectives with compassionate female investigators who properly support victims and pursue the perpetrator. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2019/09/19/tv/unbelievable-review-merritt-wever-kaitlyn-dever)

## Details

- **Created by:** Susannah Grant
- **Creator:** Susannah Grant
- **Director:** Michael Dinner, Lisa Cholodenko, Susannah Grant
- **Writer:** Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, Becky Mode, Jennifer Schuur
- **Story:** Susannah Grant
- **Teleplay:** Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, Becky Mode
- **Cinematography:** Xavier Grobet, Quyen Tran, John Lindley
- **Editor:** Jeffrey M. Werner, Keith Henderson
- **Music:** Will Bates
- **Production design:** Julie Berghoff
- **Costume design:** Alonzo Wilson
- **Producer:** John E. Vohlers, T. Christian Miller, Katie DiMento
- **Cast:** Kaitlyn Dever as Marie Adler; Toni Collette as Detective Grace Rasmussen; Merritt Wever as Detective Karen Duvall; Charlie McDermott as Ty; Brent Sexton as Al; Nick Searcy as Detective Harkness; Bridget Everett as Colleen Doggett; Shane Paul McGhie as Connor
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 13 September 2019
- **Genres:** Drama, Crime
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTIkUzkbzQk

## Where to watch in the US

- Netflix: streaming

*Checked 2026-09-17.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Prime Suspect* (1991): Helen Mirren’s Tennison works a murder while the squad room waits for her to fail.
- *Top of the Lake* (2013): Jane Campion’s detective, a missing girl and a lakeside town that would rather not know.
- *Zodiac* (2007), Fi1m 91: Fincher’s account of a case that grinds down everyone who touches the files. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/zodiac.md)
- *I May Destroy You* (2020), Fi1m 88: Michaela Coel on the year after an assault, funny and precise where you least expect. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/i-may-destroy-you.md)
- *Spotlight* (2015), Fi1m 85: Reporters, filing cabinets and an institution that decided long ago not to listen. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/spotlight.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/unbelievable