Is the new SC Murdaugh family series on Hulu any good? We got an early look
Hours and hours of television time have been devoted to chronicling Alex Murdaugh’s crimes, but none are as authentic as the upcoming Murdaugh: Death in the Family series to premiere on Hulu and Disney+ Oct. 15.
Based on journalist Mandy Matney’s Murdaugh Murders Podcast and co-created by South Carolina native and showrunner Michael Fuller, the eight-part series begins with Alex’s 911 call reporting the death of his wife Maggie and son Paul, who are slain execution style outside the family’s dog kennels on their 1,700-acre estate in Colleton County, South Carolina, in 2021.
The feel of the location, accents, even the imagined dialog, are convincing. The show used replicas of the family’s belongings and clothing to lend further authenticity as the complicated story takes hold, through tragedy after tragedy — a boat crash with Paul Murdaugh driving that kills a friend and Alex lying and stealing millions of dollars from clients’ wrongful death settlements.
Fuller credited the makeup team with the realistic resemblance to Murdaugh family members.
Played convincingly by Jason Clarke, who is from Australia, yet managed a true Southern accent, Alex becomes the heartless, conniving lawyer he was shown to be during the trial that left him convicted of murdering Maggie and Paul and serving a life sentence in a South Carolina prison. He also pleaded guilty to dozens of financial crimes in state and federal courts.
His murder conviction appeal is pending before the South Carolina Supreme Court.
While there are so many victims — virtually everyone who ever came into contact with Alex — it is Maggie, played by Patricia Arquette, who engenders the most sympathy.
In Arquette’s hands, Maggie goes from everybody’s mom to a desperate and sad woman as she finds her husband is abusing prescription medication and cheating on her. She’s unaware of her husband’s financial turmoil until her credit card is denied at the grocery store.
She retreats to the family beach house on Edisto, takes long walks with her dog Bubba and eventually leaves a message for a lawyer to talk about divorce. She never makes it.
Paul, played by Johnny Berchtold, is a party boy rarely seen without a beer or a drink who calls himself Timmy when he’s drunk. Berchtold is so convincing it’s hard to feel any sympathy for Paul after the boat accident and he is charged with boating under the influence with a death and injuries. Paul was killed before he faced a court proceeding.
The nighttime boating scene is particularly compelling and heart rending.
As the story unfolds, Paul becomes a more sympathetic person.
One bit of dramatic license the producers took to explore the well-documented family dynamic was a vacation to the Bahamas after the boat crash. They had been on family vacations there before but not immediately after the accident.
The scenes from that vacation are powerful, showing the fun the family attempted to have amid extreme dysfunction — drunk Paul picking a fight in a bar, Alex trying to pick up a young girl while waiting for money stolen from clients to hit his bank account to pay an almost $70,000 hotel bill and Maggie telling a woman who has struck up a conversation that she is divorced, no children and a landscape architect from Atlanta. The sadness is palpable.
“I’m not a therapist, but she’s with a sociopathic narcissist and is not aware at all of who she’s with,” Arquette told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a nightmare. People like that are very charming and full of life, and they lure you into this sense of safety.”
Arquette told Entertainment Weekly Matney, who worked as a technical advisor and producer and is played by Brittany Snow, helped her understand Maggie’s evolution.
“Mandy’s podcast was amazing, and it was invaluable to have her and [co-creator] Erin [Lee Carr] to give us information,” Arquette told the magazine. “Even stuff like what was in Maggie’s purse? She kept her cash in a plastic bag in her purse.”
Fuller, who is from Columbia and graduated from Lexington High School and the College of Charleston, said it was important to him to treat the topics and people with sensitivity.
On the night they filmed the shooting on a set that looked just like the dog kennels, he told the cast and crew to remember the lives lost. It wasn’t some gratuitous murder scene.
“It was our version of the last moments of real human beings’ lives,” he said.
The first three episodes will be available on Hulu and Disney Oct. 15 with new episodes airing each week through Nov. 19.
This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Is the new SC Murdaugh family series on Hulu any good? We got an early look."