Thread by @bykenarmstrong

In @Netflix's #Unbelievable, Marie is a teen who reports being raped.
I was one of the reporters who first told Marie’s full story.
To me, Marie is not a character. She is someone who trusted me with her story, painful as it was.
Here are Marie’s and my thoughts on the show:

@netflix 2/ In the show’s 1st episode, Marie, after reporting her rape, goes to the hospital for an exam.
In the scene, we learn how many swabs are taken. Where they're taken from. And what Marie is told after—that she might start thinking of killing herself.
Each detail is accurate.

@netflix 3/ I know, because I've read the real-life medical report. The scene is clinical, unadorned...and powerful.
Susannah Grant, the series' showrunner, wanted to capture how an investigation can become its own form of trauma. To do that, she let the facts speak for themselves.

@netflix 4/ This 8-part series is the 4th way this story has been told. W/ @txtianmillerI was part of the first 3:
A @ProPublica @MarshallProj story: bit.ly/226XQyL
A @ThisAmerLife episode w/ @RobynSemien: bit.ly/2smzbLy
A @penguinrandom book: bit.ly/2lUzOvj

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom 5/ Knowing this story would become a dramatized series, T (he goes by T) and I had concerns.
Reporters become protective of stories. We want their lessons to come through.
Reporters become protective of people. We want them to ring true.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom 6/ That’s why I say that to me, Marie is not a character.
Jeff Mason, the detective who charged Marie with lying, is not a character. He is a cop who sat with me and owned his mistakes, horrific as they were.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom 7/ T and I got lucky: Unbelievable’s cast and crew, it turned out, were protective of the story, too.
One of my all-time favorite shows is "Justified." Its executive producer, Sarah Timberman, became executive producer for "Unbelievable," along with @katiecouric and others.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric 8/ One of Justified's young stars was @KaitlynDever. She was cast as Marie. Dever told a NYC screening audience that she steeped herself in the story while respecting Marie & her privacy.
She didn't fret over mannerisms or accent. She concentrated on emotion. On state of mind.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever 9/ I met Dever and other cast members at a screening in LA. I learned how deeply each had studied this case. Merritt Wever had me sign her book. The story “ignited something in me,” she told @EW. “The responsibility of the material weighed on me heavily.”
ew.com/tv/2019/09/09/…

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW 10/ @MrEricLange was cast as the lead detective in Marie's case. He could have made his character a cartoon villain. But he didn't.
Because the man he played wasn't.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange 11/ On the series, T and I are credited as producers. But that title is generous. We served as consultants. We didn’t see the first minute of film until the production was wrapped.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange 12/ When I did see the series, the lessons were all there:
—The misconceptions about trauma
—The confrontational tactics misused by the police in Washington
—The triumph of police teamwork in Colorado

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange 13/ Critics have called “Unbelievable” “the antithesis of most serial-criminal dramas” bit.ly/2lzcWl3
“a series that is deeply and unapologetically female” bit.ly/2kiPjgp
a show that “never loses sight of the victims” dcdr.me/2lEOoqz

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange 14/ @judyberman wrote in @TIME:
“Like much of 2019’s best TV…Unbelievable isn’t light viewing. But in defending reality against received wisdom & eschewing suspense in favor of insight, it makes a plea for revising simplistic rape narratives that should be impossible to ignore.”

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME 15/ Read her full review here:
time.com/5667707/unbeli…

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME 16/ @chaneyj uses similar language in @vulture, saying Unbelievable “eschews flashiness at every turn.” @vulture calls the show “radical” & “exceptional” bit.ly/2lLvVJe, other critics, “quietly revolutionary”bit.ly/2khL7gM & “insurgent” bit.ly/2lMASRW

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 17/ Two weeks ago I got a call, from Marie. She told me she had just watched the series. Watching it was hard, she said. “I did cry quite a bit,” she said. But she had decided she wanted to and was glad that she did. She called the show “excellent.”

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 18/ I asked Marie if I could share her thoughts on Twitter. She said that would be fine. She brought up one scene in particular—in the first episode, in which she’s confronted by police and recants.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 19/ Marie has told me before that it can be a struggle for her to put her feelings and thoughts into words. In that scene, she said, Kaitlyn Dever captured her struggle. “It was, like, perfect,” she said.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 20/ The series shows how two of Marie’s former foster moms doubted her account. Both later apologized to her. Marie forgave both. She kept ties with both. After finishing the series, Marie called both, to reassure them: The show doesn’t demonize you. She encouraged both to watch.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 21/ For Marie, watching the work of the detectives in Colorado, 1,300 miles from where she had been attacked, reinforced a sense she’d had since first she learned about them: “I felt like they were my guardian angels, looking out for me.”

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 22/ And watching the last episode, watching the re-creation of the Colorado detectives closing in, provided Marie something she didn’t expect. “Seeing him get put away, that was closure for me,” she said.

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 23/ For those of you interested in reading the full story, here it is: propublica.org/article/false-…

@netflix @propublica @MarshallProj @ThisAmerLife @RobynSemien @penguinrandom @katiecouric @KaitlynDever @EW @MrEricLange @judyberman @TIME @chaneyj @vulture 24/24 And sign up for @ProPublica’s newsletter for alerts on whatever big investigation comes next: go.propublica.org/bigstory-social