General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal is an American true-crime documentary series released on Netflix on February 22, 2023, that examines the collapse of the Murdaugh family, a legal dynasty in South Carolina's Lowcountry, after the 2019 death of teenager Mallory Beach in a boating crash and the June 2021 murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.¹ The first season ran three episodes; a second season of three episodes followed on September 20, 2023.²

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	February 22, 2023, on Netflix; three-part first season¹
Directors	Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst; showrunner and executive producer Michael Gasparro¹
Season 2	Three episodes released September 20, 2023, covering the trial and verdict²
Central events	The February 24, 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, and the June 7, 2021 shootings of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22³^•⁴
Rating	TV-MA; classified by Netflix as a documentary and true-crime series⁵
Critical reception	82% average Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes across 11 reviews⁶
Aftermath covered	Alex Murdaugh's March 2023 murder conviction, the South Carolina Supreme Court's overturning of that conviction, and prosecutors' plan to retry him⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Subject matter

The series opens with the boat crash of February 24, 2019, in which Paul Murdaugh, then 19, was alleged to have been boating under the influence when the vessel he ran crashed and killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Paul was charged with multiple felonies including boating under the influence, and the wreck prompted questions about whether his family's ties to the local legal system affected the investigation.³

On June 7, 2021, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul, 22, were found fatally shot near the dog kennels at the family's estate near Islandton, South Carolina, while Paul was awaiting trial for the boat crash. Alex Murdaugh told authorities he had been out at the time and found the bodies when he arrived home.³

First-hand accounts. The first season centers the story on the young people aboard the boat that night, several of whom had not previously spoken publicly about the crash or the double homicide: Paul Murdaugh's longtime girlfriend Morgan Doughty; Mallory Beach's childhood friends Miley Altman and Connor Cook; and Mallory's boyfriend Anthony Cook, among others.¹ Directors Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, whose earlier work includes Fyre Fraud and LulaRich, began production in the fall of 2021 and chose to tell the story through these survivors rather than chase the daily news cycle.⁹

Episodes

Season 1 consists of three episodes:⁵

"Where Is Mallory?" (41 minutes), on the boat crash and the survivors' reflections on Paul Murdaugh.
"Murders at Moselle" (50 minutes), on Alex Murdaugh's response after Mallory's death and the killings two years later.
"No Secrets Are Safe" (50 minutes), on the worldwide coverage of the deaths and the accusations drawn by past "accidents."

Season 2, released September 20, 2023, covers the trial: its episodes are "A Normal Day," "Alex's Alibi," and "A Tangled Web We Weave," the last of which follows the video found on Paul's phone, Alex's testimony, and the verdict.²

The trial the series ran alongside

Season 1 premiered while Alex Murdaugh's double-murder trial was underway in Walterboro, South Carolina. A jury convicted him in March 2023 of killing his wife and son, and he was sentenced to life in prison.⁷ Central prosecution evidence included a Snapchat video recovered from Paul Murdaugh's phone containing the voices of Alex, Maggie, and Paul together in the minutes before the shooting, which contradicted Alex's initial account that he had not been at the kennels; after a six-week trial, the jury deliberated about three hours.¹⁰

The story did not end with the verdict. The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions and life sentence because the court clerk at his trial had suggested he was guilty, and prosecutors announced plans to retry him. He remains imprisoned, having pleaded guilty to stealing around $12 million from clients and serving a 40-year federal sentence alongside a 27-year state sentence for financial crimes.⁸

Reception and related adaptations

On Rotten Tomatoes the series holds an 82% average Tomatometer from 11 reviews and a 68% Popcornmeter score.⁶ Critics highlighted its treatment of the family's institutional connections; BuzzFeed's Alessa Dominguez wrote that the documentary's purpose was not an inquiry into Alex Murdaugh's mind but the links between crime, privilege, and power.¹¹

The series is one of several screen treatments of the case. HBO Max released the three-part Low Country: The Murdaugh Dynasty in late 2022, months before the Netflix series premiered.¹² Lifetime produced the two-part dramatization Murdaugh Murders: The Movie starring Bill Pullman, and in October 2025 Hulu premiered the eight-episode limited drama Murdaugh: Death in the Family, based on journalist Mandy Matney's Murdaugh Murders podcast, with Jason Clarke as Alex Murdaugh and Patricia Arquette as Maggie.¹³ Netflix later announced Instadocs: Alex Murdaugh, Unconvicted, a special examining the overturning of the double murder conviction, scheduled for May 30, 2026.¹⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026