But if you thought that 2025 couldn’t possibly squeeze another true-crime series into its schedule, well, think again. Because between Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ and ‘Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy,’ the genre is already feeling exceptionally oversaturated. But Hulu is doing what it can to crash this particular party with something that feels darker, more disturbing, and perhaps even more relevant, simply because ‘Murdaugh: Death in the Family’ is a scripted drama that not only tells the same old story of a murder but also explores the downfall of an American dynasty that seemed completely untouchable.
One thing the trailer does immediately is to show that Jason Clarke’s Alex Murdaugh is certainly not the kind of father figure you would want running your family. He is, on the face of things, incredibly charming, but the beginnings of the decay within him come through in his comments, such as “It’s only cheating if you get caught.” What makes this particularly chilling is that Clarke doesn’t go about portraying him as obviously the bad guy. Instead, he shows him as a man who has always thought himself beyond the rules. On the other side of the equation is Patricia Arquette as Maggie Murdaugh, exuding the same level of quiet intensity she brought to ‘The Act.’ She, however, appears to be even more tormented in this, capturing the essence of a woman who is fighting to keep her family intact while being undermined by secrets that could rip everything apart.
A Dynasty Built on Law, Undone by Its Own Lies
In theory, the Murdaugh family is royalty in Hampton County, located in South Carolina. Four generations of lawyers comprised a massive law practice empire. With the Murdaugh name came opportunities, ended cases, and protected them from the spotlight. However, when their youngest son, Paul, was involved in a fatal boat accident in 2019, the Murdaugh family’s perfect image began to crack. A tragic accident turned into a devastating revelation of possible cover-ups, corruption, and a series of mysterious death occurrences that were linked to the family.
The Hulu series picks up with the boat crash as the catalyst. From there, things spiral out of control. Viewers witness the death of a housekeeper whose demise is highly suspicious, the body of a teenager discovered on a rural road, the theft of millions of settlements, and, in the end, the deaths of Maggie and Paul themselves.
If you have listened to the Murdaugh Murders Podcast by Mandy Matney (played here by Brittany Snow), you will know the story. But the Hulu adaptation takes it past the points on the list. It does not just focus on the facts. It explores the psychology. What it is like to be part of a family where money and class both protect and kill.
A perfect example of this is Clarke’s character, Alex. He is more than a man with secrets. He is a man so accustomed to winning that when the wheels finally begin to fall off, he makes moves that are desperate and irresponsible. The emotional center of the story is, of course, Arquette’s Maggie, but also Johnny Berchtold as Paul, who embodies the tragedy of a young man born with a family that never said no.
The series also relies heavily on its Southern context. The imagery of the large porches, the Spanish moss, and the mansions shrouded in golden light give it the impression of a Southern Gothic novel that is coming to life. However, far from being a romantic or nostalgic one, the atmosphere here is thick with foreboding. This is the same soil on which many Murdaugh family members grew up, but it is also the same soil that many people failed to survive.
More Than Murder: Hulu’s Murdaugh Saga Exposes How a Dynasty Bent the System for Generations
It is the nature of true crime that there are plenty of murders that will shock. What distinguishes Murdaugh: Death in the Family is more than the murders. A family’s influence extends far beyond the scope of the true crime genre. It had been decades since the Murdaugh name could be mentioned as a means to make the system bend. The police were reluctant, and the prosecutors turned a blind eye.
The Hulu series asks us to consider what happens when privilege keeps people sheltered for so long that they begin to think that consequences no longer exist. And then, when those consequences finally do arrive? It’s catastrophic.
Joined by Clarke, Arquette, Berchtold, and Snow, other members of the ensemble include Will Harrison, J. Smith-Cameron, Gerald McRaney, and Noah Emmerich, and these individuals certainly know how to add depth to their characters. The show debuts on October 15 with three episodes, and then it will become a weekly series until the finale on November 19. At first, you might just see it as another headline-to-screen story. But Murdaugh: Death in the Family has the chance to be more than that. It’s not just a show about the murders, or even about Alex Murdaugh. It’s about how entire systems—legal, political, even cultural systems—can be warped to shelter a family. And it’s about what happens when the truth finally breaks through decades of silence. By the time the series finale is broadcast, it is likely that audiences will not be as surprised by the murder itself but rather the length of time during which the family’s power maintained justice at bay. It’s what makes this story so chilling. This is more than just a narrative that encapsulates what transpired on that land in 2021. It encompasses everything that led to it.
