Unbelievable Review: Here I Am Send Me (Season 1 Episodes 1-2)
On Unbelievable Season 1 Episode 1 police question the credibility of a rape victim, and in the aftermath of the attack, she finds herself at odds with the detectives investigating her case. On Unbelievable Season 1 Episode 2 a female detective in Colorado becomes obsessed with a dangerous criminal.
Netflix’s new limited series, Unbelievable, is based on true events recounted in a Pulitzer Prize-winning article written by T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and The Marshall Project’s Ken Armstrong.
Episode 1 draws its emotional power from the abuse Marie suffers not only from her attacker but those whose job it is to protect her. Viewers are spared watching Marie’s rape from start to finish which some directors may feel is a more visceral effective tool when trying to elicit more sympathy from viewers.
On Unbelievable, the attacks themselves are handled in a way that reinforces how different the experience of being raped is for each victim as well as the aftermath.
Marie is despondent and detached, unable to recall details but plagued by flashbacks. It doesn’t feel as if anyone is trying to convince us there’s a chance Marie is lying but providing reasons why someone else would.
Kaitlyn Dever plays Marie’s inner conflict so beautifully: her nervous twitches and shakes, the steady stream of tears running down her cheeks, and her refusal or inability to make eye contact due to shame, betrayal, and humiliation.
By comparison, Amber (Danielle Macdonald) is pleasant, even chipper, holding it together on the outside. But she’s too okay, too eager to not make a big deal out of what’s happened as if that might make it easier to pretend it didn’t.
Amber paints a clearer picture of the attacker, and viewers know this is the same person who raped Marie three years earlier. This raises a ton of questions such as how did this person get from Washington to Colorado, how many women has he attacked, and will Marie factor into this investigation at all?
As we watch her atone for sins she didn’t even commit, she’s betrayed by one of the few people she trusts and judged, ridiculed, and abandoned by the rest. Somehow, Marie becomes the threat — the girl who cries wolf.
Hopefully by the end of the series, Marie will be vindicated. We want that for her after watching her be bullied, belittled, and discarded. She’s continually judged by circumstances beyond her control.
Crappy parents? Not her fault. Being sexually and physically abused as a child? Not her fault? Raped in her own apartment? Not her fault. The looming question is how we get from victim to victorious?
If this story weren’t true, it would be easy to write off Pruitt (Bill Fagerbakke) and Parker (Eric Lange) as mere cliches, but these two cops didn’t do their job. This is further reinforced by the stark differences between their treatment of the crime scene, of the evidence, and of the victim compared to Duvall’s.
Wever brings a calmness to Duvall, it’s almost hypnotic — like a human metronome gently swaying back and forth. We learn immediately she’s a mother which undoubtedly factors in some way to how she does her job, but it isn’t the sole determining factor if she’s a good cop or a bad one.
Unbelievable doesn’t pretend gender doesn’t make a difference when it comes to criminals, crimes, the people who solve them, but just like with race, it does because these people carry their prejudices and experiences with them and can’t necessarily set them aside at work.
Male cops simply won’t approach a rape case the same way female cops will: this is unapologetically demonstrated during the first two episodes.
Duvall is a good investigator and arguably some of that can be attributed to the likelihood female victims find it easier to open up to her, or perhaps female cops are simply more intuitive and empathetic than their male counterparts.
The first two episodes of Unbelievable are a testament to women’s strength.
Whether it’s Marie’s decision to not dive off that bridge, or Amber having the “presence of mind” to keep the rapist talking, or Duvall’s quote stuck on a Post It to her dashboard reminding her of her purpose, or Grace Rasmussen’s (Toni Collette) more in your face, ballbusting approach to her work.
Unbelievable Episodes 1-2 already have us eager to see the Duvall-Rasmussen pairing. Our first introduction to Rasmussen in brief, and like Duvall, she looks to be a strong female character, but perhaps a bit rougher around the edges. It will be disappointing if she’s just another female flatfoot trope.
Women on the big and small screens are so often punished for being tough. If they are committed to a job, their personal lives ultimately suffer.
What did you think of these episodes of Unbelievable? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Unbelievable Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Jennifer Lind-Westbrook
Jennifer has been working as a freelance writer for six years, contributing to BuddyTV, Screen Rant, TVRage, Hidden Remote, Gossip On This, and PopMatters. She prefers binge-watching old episodes of The Office (British and American versions) to long walks on the beach. She's still holding out hope that Happy Endings will get a revival.