Watchable on Crave, Prime Video May 2 to 8, 2022

SHOW OF THE WEEK: The Staircase (May 5, 9:50 p.m., Crave)

Such is the imperative to feed the TV machine — an estimated 559 scripted series in 2021 and counting — that the medium has started cannibalizing itself, turning one of its most popular nonfiction forms, the true crime documentary, into drama.

There have been hits (“The Girl From Plainville”) and misses (“Joe vs. Carole”). Now comes “The Staircase,” which revisits the story told in the 2004 documentary of the same name about the 2001 death of Kathleen Peterson and subsequent murder conviction of her husband, Michael Peterson.

What makes this HBO Max series mostly work is that it’s as much a family as a crime drama, one that elucidates the human toll when the criminal justice system turns lives inside out and upside down.

Michael, in an excellent performance by Colin Firth, is very much the lead character here as he was in the docuseries, but the miniseries makes space for other members of the family, particularly Kathleen, played by the ever reliable Tony Collette, whom we see in flashback as the warm, energetic but stressed matriarch of an incredibly close blended brood.

The brood, as in real life, splinters after Michael goes on trial for first-degree murder. Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge) changes her mind about Michael’s innocence and sides with Kathleen’s sisters (Rosemarie DeWitt and Maria Dizzia) against him. His sons Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Clayton (Dane DeHaan), and adopted daughters Margaret (Sophie Turner) and Martha (Odessa Young) continue to support him, although not without an emotional cost.

Creator Antonio Campos, who also directed six of the nine episodes, doesn’t draw a conclusion as to Michael’s guilt or innocence. Indeed, in the five episodes made available for review, we see two versions of Kathleen’s death recreated: one in which she does indeed fall down the stairs, as Michael claimed; one in which Michael kills her after an argument over gay porn and emails to other men she discovers on his computer.

You will likely find your own opinion changing from episode to episode and scene to scene, not only as the prosecution (Cullen Moss as DA Jim Hardin and Parker Posey as assistant DA Freda Black) and defence (Michael Stuhlbarg as defence lawyer David Rudolf) lay out their cases but as you ponder what appears to be a close, loving relationship between Michael and Kathleen.

“The Staircase” also portrays the shifting, clashing viewpoints of the makers of the 2004 docuseries, including director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Vincent Vermignon), editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche) and producer Denis Poncet (Frank Feys). And it moves the action forward to 2017, when Michael pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Kathleen’s death while maintaining his innocence (a circumstance known as an Alford plea) and was released from jail for time served, a development also covered by the doc makers in an addendum to their series.

Therein lies the weakness of “The Staircase,” that almost everything we see here has been extensively covered before. At the same time, a dramatization by a skilled cast can give a story resonance in ways a documentary telling can’t. You might feel you know it all, but Firth and his co-stars give you a reason to keep watching.

Short Takes

Signora Volpe (May 2, Acorn)

It should be no surprise, given its appeal to an older, female demographic, that the Acorn streaming service features a subset of programming that could be described as “female detectives of a certain age.” This latest entry stars 47-year-old Emilia Fox (“Silent Witness”) as former MI6 agent Sylvia Fox (volpe means fox in Italian) who takes a work sabbatical and buys a house in Italy after a visit to her sister (Tara Fitzgerald, “Game of Thrones”) in the Umbrian town of Panicale. Naturally, Sylvia ends up getting drawn into local crimes, which she helps solve with a combination of smarts and nosiness. It doesn’t hurt that she’s caught the eye of handsome police captain Riva (Giovanni Cirfiera). This is escapist fare with an amiable lead, a beautiful setting and mysteries that are interesting but not overly demanding.

Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Known (May 3, 9 p.m., HBO/Crave)

You should watch this one if you’re a fan of the Tony Award-winning 2006 musical “Spring Awakening,” of musical theatre in general or just shows that make you feel feelings. The documentary lets us be flies on the wall as the original cast reunites in 2021 for a one-night-only fundraising concert for the Actors Fund charity. Footage from the concert is interwoven with rehearsal footage, interviews and original performances of the musical’s rock songs. The show by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik was a hit off-Broadway but was bombing on Broadway until its 11 Tony nominations in 2007 (it won eight, including Best Musical), after which it became a pop culture sensation. The cast — with a special emphasis on its two biggest stars, Jonathan Groff (“Hamilton”) and Lea Michele (“Glee”) — recall the joys and hardships of performing in a show that tackled adolescent sexuality, sexual molestation, abortion and suicide while many were still teenagers themselves. It was clearly a profound, life-changing experience, one that feels rewarding to revisit.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (May 5, 9 p.m., CTV Sci-Fi Channel/Crave)

If you’re feeling a little bewildered by all the “Star Trek” spinoffs, know that this is the one that feels the most like the original series. After becoming a fan favourite on “Star Trek: Discovery,” Anson Mount’s Captain Pike is in full command of the starship Enterprise, backed by faces and names you’ll recognize, including Spock (Ethan Peck), Number One, a.k.a. Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush). But because this is airing in 2022 and not 1966, there are plenty of regular characters who aren’t white, human males, including Christina Chong as security officer La’an Noonien-Singh, Melissa Navia as pilot Erica Ortegas, Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M’Benga (whose character appeared in two episodes of the original series), Andre Dae Kim as transporter chief Kyle and Bruce Horak as Aenar engineer Hemmer. The series picks up after the events of Season 2 of “Discovery” when that ship and its crew jumped 930 years into the future but doesn’t dwell on that. “Strange New Worlds” mostly adopts a planet and/or alien of the week format, based on the five episodes that were made available for review. I’m not gonna lie: both “Discovery” and “Picard” became slogs after their first seasons. “Strange New Worlds” has the potential to become the most enjoyable of the new crop of shows if it can balance its earnestness with humour and camaraderie.

The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith (May 6, Prime Video)

Toronto Star reporter Wendy Gillis, one of the interview subjects in this four-part docuseries, nails what makes it compelling when she says, “There’s so much human emotion involved in this story.” It’s impossible not to feel the tragedy of the loss of Beverly Lynn Smith, who was 22 and the mother of a 10-month-old daughter when she was shot in the back of the head in her kitchen in Raglan, Ont., in 1974. The pain of it is still clearly very real for her family all these years later, particularly her twin sister, Barbra Brown. But the series, directed by Nathalie Bibeau (“The Walrus and the Whistleblower”), also devotes time to the main suspect in the case and the controversial tactics used in the police investigation. Having seen just two episodes, I can’t say what conclusion the series reaches, if any, but the case remains unsolved to this day.

Prime Video also has Season 2 of the teen girls stranded after a plane crash series “The Wilds” (May 6).

Odds and Ends

The Netflix premiere that’s bound to inspire the most curiosity if you’re a fan of Canadian comedian Mike Myers is “The Pentaverate” (May 5), his six-part series in which he plays multiple roles, including that of a Toronto reporter named Ken Scarborough who’s out to expose a secret society that’s been influencing world events since 1347. I didn’t get a preview so I can’t tell you if this is “Austin Powers” level stuff or another “The Love Guru.” Netflix also has the documentary “Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive” (May 3); Season 4 of “The Circle” (May 4); Season 5 of Spanish prison drama “El Marginal” (May 4); docuseries “Meltdown: Three Mile Island” (May 4); Season 3 of Italian drama “Summertime” (May 4); its first Nigerian original series, “Blood Sisters” (May 5); “Clark” (May 5), about the criminal who inspired the term “Stockholm syndrome”; cute animal series “Wild Babies” (May 5); South Korean drama series “The Sound of Magic” (May 6) and Spanish drama “Welcome to Eden” (May 6), about a party on a remote island that goes bad.

I didn’t get a chance to screen Season 2 episodes of “Tehran” (May 6, Apple TV Plus), the Israeli spy drama about a Mossad agent (Niv Sultan) trying to carry out a dangerous mission in Iran, but I will definitely watch, having been a fan of the first season. Apple also has “The Big Conn” (May 6), a docuseries about a half-a-billion-dollar social security fraud in Kentucky, and “To Mom (and Dad) With Love” (May 6), its latest Peanuts special.

If you were a fan of the Prime Video detective drama “Bosch” you’ll want to follow Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) in “Bosch: Legacy” (May 6, IMDb TV), in which the former LAPD cop is now a private detective working with his former enemy Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers).

NOTE: The listings here are in Eastern Standard Time and I’ve verified the times where possible, but it’s always best to check listings for your own area. The selection of programs reviewed reflects what I’m given access to by networks and streamers, whether reviews are embargoed, how many shows I have time to watch and my own personal taste. The Odds and Ends section includes shows that I have not watched.