The shocking events surrounding the deaths of the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh, a well-known South Carolina attorney, in 2021 gripped the nation. Questions arose: Were these killings acts of vengeance against Murdaugh, or was the entire family in jeopardy? As investigations unfolded, the case took a strange twist, revealing Murdaugh himself as a suspect while exposing the powerful reach of his family.

Hulu has transformed this gripping case into a limited series titled “Murdaugh: Death in the Family,” now available for streaming. The series features Jason Clarke as Alex Murdaugh, with Patricia Arquette portraying his wife, Maggie. Johnny Berchtold and Will Harrison take on the roles of sons Paul and Buster. The narrative is inspired by the thorough reporting of local journalist Mandy Matney, who extensively covered the case through her podcast and also serves as an executive producer. Brittany Snow steps into the role of Matney in the series.

Currently, Murdaugh is serving a life sentence for the brutal murders of his wife and son Paul, along with convictions for multiple financial crimes.

Mirror to the psyche

To prepare for his portrayal of Murdaugh, Jason Clarke immersed himself in trial audio before watching video footage. He explained, “By listening, I could focus solely on his voice, his thoughts, and the tone, which was very insightful. I listened as though I were him.”

Clarke also delved into Murdaugh’s physical presence and rumored poor eating habits to better understand his character. Many scenes depict Murdaugh consuming food.

“That insatiable hunger needed constant satisfaction,” Clarke remarked, likening Murdaugh to “a great white shark—constantly moving, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.” Arquette viewed his relentless appetite as a metaphor for someone “starving to death.”

“You know, ‘I need that attention. I need your approval. I need you to like me. I need you to think I’m smart. I need some more money. I need love. I need drugs. I need this. I need to get something over on you. I need to trick somebody,” Arquette said.

An interest in human behavior

“Death in the Family” isn’t the first acting job Arquette has had based on a true crime. She also starred in “Escape at Dannemora” and “The Act” and says she’s “always been interested” in the genre and what leads people to make the choices they do.

“We have this weird species that does these things,” Arquette said. To learn more about Maggie, she turned to Matney’s research.

“She was able to give me little things,” explained Arquette. “What kind of makeup Maggie wore, what she would make for breakfast, and how she would carry her cash in a plastic bag in her purse. Just little idiosyncratic things.”

Arquette began to see Maggie as a supporting player to her family. “She loved a family photo like a trophy. ‘We made it. Here we are. Look at my beautiful family,’ but the videos I had access to, she’s the photographer, the support system. The documenter of everyone else’s life.”

Son Paul Murdaugh had his own legal troubles. In 2019. he was driving a boat that crashed into a local bridge and killed one of its passengers, Mallory Beach, and injured several others. He was charged with felony boating under the influence. Berchtold was intent on playing Paul as a three-dimensional person.

“I think when we consume true crime or we hear a case, we go, ‘OK, that’s the villain.’ It can be very black and white, of course, but that’s not life. That’s not humanity,” explained Berchtold. “There’s so much going on with him. Look at the environment he was raised in. Something that I really wanted to hold on to, that I found really fascinating, is there has been documentation of his personality and his friendliness and his heart, which I found really surprising when you just look at headlines.”

Power and influence

Co-creator and showrunner Michael D. Fuller grew up in South Carolina and immediately recognized the good ‘ol boys mentality ingrained in its culture, which is likely why the Murdaughs had so much power and influence for generations. He felt “a draw in wanting to dramatize and adapt it with as much reverence and responsibility and respect to the place and the people.”

Matney spent many sleepless nights diving deep into the Murdaughs. She sees the release of “Death in the Family” as the end of an era in her personal story but not to the Murdaugh’s web of corruption.

“It will never be over. We’ve all come to terms with that,” said Matney, citing the recent conviction and sentencing of Murdaugh associate Russell Laffitte for fraud related to the case. “A lot of what I went through while investigating this case was a dark chapter for me. For a while, I just didn’t want to talk about it. But now this has made me feel so positive about the experience, and it’s been like the best way to close this chapter of my life.”

There’s also hope that a takeaway for viewers could be about the importance of local journalism.

“A journalist can go up against the grain,” said Matney, “even if her boss is and everybody’s telling her not to. I think that that’s a story that people need to hear right now. And I think with a lot of media, it’s just really easy to fall into line and to do what they want you to do. But this is a story about not doing that and where you can go.”