The series, focused on two rape investigations - one gone awry, one dogged and empathetic - shows the refreshing power of depicting hard, sensitive workIn the second episode of the Netflix drama series Unbelievable, detective Karen Duvall, played by Merritt Wever, conducts what I imagine could be a high-budget training video for sexual assault investigators. Duvall finds the victim, a college student named Amber, processing in the stairwell of her apartment building in Golden, Colorado, one morning in 2011. Duvall already knows the outline of the crime - breaking and entering, a rape that lasted for hours - but she starts at the beginning, smoothly guiding Amber through an interview step by step, checking her comfort level with each question. Her voice is disarming and pillowy, couching sentences with `if itīs all right with you`, `if youīre comfortable` and `take your time`. Yet she builds a case, detail by detail. When she visits Amber at the hospital after her physical exam, she requests the nurse on duty to `ask her if she wants me to come in, but make it clear that if she doesnīt, thatīs absolutely fine.` Then she immediately calls the station to block off conference room three for her investigation. Related: Unbelievable review - grimly credible story of trauma, power and injustice Continue reading...
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