Antonio felt that Colin’s likability as a celebrity figure—who doesn’t love him in Bridget Jones Diary?—was an advantage, explaining, “It allowed you to connect with with the character in the way that you should right away because we meet a person who’s a grieving husband and you need to connect with him in that moment. Then, as the story unfolds, you must look at him differently.

And is where the writers started to stray from the documentary, which had stopped being filmed at this point.

Colin pulls at the heartstrings in episode 5. He plays Michael who is sentenced and sent to prison. After he arrives, his inmates beat him and then his kids start to live their lives. This leaves him isolated and the shell that he once was.

Episode five further shocks viewers with its reveal that The Staircase documentary editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) started a long-distance relationship with Michael while he was in prison. She sends him books and letters in which she promises him that he will be free soon enough, inadvertently drawing her own credibility into question—and sparking a debate between the filmmakers.