A dramatization of the 2008–2011 Washington and Colorado serial rape cases, Unbelievable follows "Marie, a teenager who was charged with lying about having been raped, and the two detectives who followed a twisting path to arrive at the truth". The program draws from "An Unbelievable Story of Rape", a Pulitzer Prize-winning article by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong for ProPublica and The Marshall Project.
Merritt Wever as Det. Karen Duvall, a Golden Police Department detective in Golden, Colorado; inspired by Stacy Galbraith.
Kaitlyn Dever as Marie Adler, a victim of sexual assault.
Recurring
Eric Lange as Det. Parker, a Lynnwood Police Department detective in Lynnwood, Washington who is assigned to Marie's case; inspired by Sergeant Jeffrey Mason
Bill Fagerbakke as Det. Pruitt, a Lynnwood Police Department detective also assigned to Marie's case; inspired by Jerry Rittgarn
On January 22, 2018, Netflix ordered Unbelievable from Timberman/Beverly Productions and CBS Television Studios with executive producers including Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, and Katie Couric. The eight episode miniseries is based on an article by ProPublica and The Marshall Project, "An Unbelievable Story of Rape" written by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong about a case in Lynnwood, Washington. There was also a concurrently-published This American Life radio episode about the same case, Anatomy of Doubt. Grant served as showrunner and also wrote for the series along with Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman.
Casting
On June 25, 2018, it was announced that Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, and Kaitlyn Dever had been cast in the series' main roles. On July 26, 2018, it was reported that Danielle Macdonald had joined the main cast. In August 2018, it was announced that Kai Lennox, Austin Hébert, Dale Dickey, Omar Maskati, Elizabeth Marvel, Liza Lapira, and Eric Lange had been cast in recurring roles. On September 26, 2018, it was reported that Vanessa Bell Calloway had joined the cast in a recurring capacity.
Episodes
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 98% based on 82 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Heartbreaking and powerful, Unbelievable transcends familiar true-crime beats by shifting its gaze to survivors of abuse, telling their stories with grace and gravity." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Former United States President Barack Obama named Unbelievable among his favorite films and television series of 2019. In his annual list of favorite films, which he released on Twitter on December 29, 2019, he added a small addendum with the title, "and a quick list of TV shows that I considered as powerful as movies: Fleabag: Season 2, Unbelievable, and Watchmen.
Audience viewership
On October 17, 2019, Netflix announced that the miniseries had been viewed by over 32 million viewers after its release on their platform.
