Hulu's Captive Audience thoughtfully explores the Stayner family's surreal life in the true-crime spotlight

BuzzFeed News

Director Jessica Dimmock’s three-part series Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story revisits the Steven Stayner kidnapping and Cary Stayner's murderous spree and its impact on their family. But it "doesn’t adopt the explicitly revisionary lens that has propelled most contemporary true crime productions, which often reclaim survivors’ perspectives or reveal criminal justice failures," says Alessa Dominguez. "Instead, by foregrounding the voices of the Stayner family, including Steven Stayner’s mother, son, and daughter, it hints at themes like intergenerational trauma and the distortions and consolations of storytelling. Mostly, though, it amplifies the bizarre story’s own simple power."