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Unbelievable

135 statements
25 feature instances
6 referencing feature instances

Unbelievable	type	TVTItem
Unbelievable	label	Unbelievable
Unbelievable	page	Unbelievable
Unbelievable	comment	Unbelievable is an eight-episode mini series released on Netflix on September 13, 2019. It is Based on a True Story, being a dramatization of the 2008–2011 Washington and Colorado serial rape cases, but is especially inspired by a Pulitzer-winning article that journalists T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong wrote about the case.The series mostly takes place in two states and two timelines. In 2008, teenager Marie Adler's account of her brutal rape in Lynwood, Washington is met with skepticism by the police, who push her to recant her statement. Three years later, and completely unaware of the existence of Adler, detectives Karen Duvall and Grace Rasmussen pursue a serial rapist across multiple jurisdictions in Colorado. The show bounces back and forth between the two timelines, exploring the devastating effects Marie's experience has had on her while Duvall and Rasmussen chase down leads on a series of rapes whose circumstances are eerily similar to Adler's.
Unbelievable	fetched	2023-08-03T16:16:14Z
Unbelievable	parsed	2023-08-03T16:16:14Z
Unbelievable	processingComment	Dropped link to AnAesop: Not a Feature - IGNORE
Unbelievable	processingComment	Dropped link to ConvictionByContradiction: Not a Feature - ITEM
Unbelievable	isPartOf	DBTropes
Unbelievable / int_12dd1d4c	type	Rape as Drama
Unbelievable / int_12dd1d4c	comment	Rape as Drama: The series starts by focusing on Marie Adler, who's raped by a masked man in her home. After her case is wrongly dismissed by the police, we learn that the rapist has attacked many other women as well. The effect of this upon her and the rapist's other victims is shown in great detail.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_12dd1d4c
Unbelievable / int_1c5002bc	type	The Stoic
Unbelievable / int_1c5002bc	comment	The Stoic: Marie suffers disbelief for acting somewhat like this in the wake of her rape. This makes her foster mother and then the police suspicious, leading the latter to dismiss her accusation as entirely fabricated in the wake of a minor contradiction which Marie had in her story (that wasn't even directly related to the rape). As her other foster mother notes, people respond in different ways to trauma, and her manner is not uncommon.
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Unbelievable / int_1c5002bc	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_1c5002bc
Unbelievable / int_22cf50f9	type	Chekhov's Gag
Unbelievable / int_22cf50f9	comment	Chekhov's Gag: An in-universe one. Early on, Detective Duvall discovers that her husband Max, who's also a cop but in a different department, has been nicknamed 'Max the Knife' by his colleagues. She spends the entire series wondering where this nickname came from, only to find out at the end of episode eight that it's because after a couple of drinks, he likes to sing Frank Sinatra songs in karaoke.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_22cf50f9
Unbelievable / int_2784846f	type	Good Victims, Bad Victims
Unbelievable / int_2784846f	comment	Good Victims, Bad Victims: Marie suffers a version of this, not only from the detectives but her foster mother, a fellow rape victim, who thinks her reaction was "off". This makes the detectives suspicious, and then a very minor inconsistency in her statement convinces the two Marie made it all up.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_2784846f
Unbelievable / int_3763bcf8	type	False Rape Accusation
Unbelievable / int_3763bcf8	comment	False Rape Accusation: Marie is accused of making one by the detectives, on very slender grounds, though not against anyone specifically (as the rapist was masked and she didn't recognize him otherwise). They use this to intimidate her into recanting, then have her charged with false reporting. Only later do they learn everything she said was true.
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Unbelievable / int_3763bcf8	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_3763bcf8
Unbelievable / int_4e7c4536	type	Wham Line
Unbelievable / int_4e7c4536	comment	Wham Line: "Did he have a backpack?" If Max, a cop at Westminster PD, hadn't said this to his wife, a detective at Golden PD, the two police departments might never have shared notes and realized that they were both investigating the same criminal. Justified, in that it's Duvall's realization that this is the rapist's MO—trusting that police departments in different districts won't communicate with each other—that puts her on the right track.
Unbelievable / int_4e7c4536	featureApplicability	1.0
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_4e7c4536
Unbelievable / int_557838d1	type	Adaptational Attractiveness
Unbelievable / int_557838d1	comment	Adaptational Attractiveness: Averted in a peculiar way: Detectives Duvall and Rasmussen are based on real Colorado detectives, Stacy Galbraith and Edna Hendershot, but Stacy Galbraith, whose character is played by Merritt Wever, resembles Toni Collette, and Edna Hendershot, whose character is played by Toni Collette, resembles Merritt Wever.
Unbelievable / int_557838d1	featureApplicability	-1.0
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_557838d1
Unbelievable / int_56515a39	type	Artistic License â€“ History
Unbelievable / int_56515a39	comment	Artistic License – History: Marie was not told of the arrest by one of the officers she had talked to. Though Marie really went to the police station and got an apology from one of the officers, the second was not present because he had moved to another station before the arrest was made.
Unbelievable / int_56515a39	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_56515a39	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_56515a39
Unbelievable / int_6b05b601	type	Jerkass Has a Point
Unbelievable / int_6b05b601	comment	Jerkass Has a Point: Rasmussen interrogates a man she caught skulking around behind the scene of a rape. It turns out he has nothing to do with the crime and the only thing he's guilty of is an odd obsession with the placement of rocks on riverbeds. Rasmussen treats the man and his obvious impatience and frustration with total disgust (she even tells Duvall that he's an "asshole"), but it's hard not to understand why an innocent man would be so frustrated about being hauled into a police station and questioned over a crime he didn't commit.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_6b05b601
Unbelievable / int_6d089995	type	The Shrink
Unbelievable / int_6d089995	comment	The Shrink: Marie meets with one as part of her plea deal. She turns out to be an Awesome Shrink, as she manages to get Marie to open up in spite of her avowed desire not to say anything.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_6d089995
Unbelievable / int_71e8a5c5	type	Trauma Conga Line
Unbelievable / int_71e8a5c5	comment	Trauma Conga Line: At the very beginning of episode one, Marie is raped. Then she has to give a statement to the cop on the scene, the same morning. Then she has to give a statement to the detectives on the scene. Then she has to give a statement to the medical examiner. Then she has to give another statement to the same detectives, back at the station. Then she has to give a written version of the same statement — reliving the event over and over again, just because it's procedure. Then, the cops can't find any evidence so they become open to doubting the statement. Then, one of Marie's foster mothers casts doubt on her credibility without actually saying that she made it all up. The cops seize on this and question Marie, doubting her statement to her face, and they browbeat her into admitting that the statement isn't true. So she writes a new statement in which she says she dreamed it all and thought it was real. The cops aren't satisfied with this, so they make her rewrite her new statement, "admitting" that she made it all up, even though she didn't. They then close the case. Marie's support network abandons her, thinking that she's a lying fantasist who just wants attention. Then, the cops charge her with making a false statement. Justified in that this all really happened: see Roman à Clef above.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_71e8a5c5
Unbelievable / int_727a65e0	type	Gaslighting
Unbelievable / int_727a65e0	comment	Gaslighting: An unintentional, but altogether just as damaging example. After being faced with a barrage of doubt from the police and her peers and even being more-or-less bullied into recanting her statement, Marie starts to question her own memory of the event to the point where it takes an additional toll on her mental health on top of the damage she suffered from the rape.
Unbelievable / int_727a65e0	featureApplicability	1.0
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_727a65e0
Unbelievable / int_7e84a642	type	Serial Rapist
Unbelievable / int_7e84a642	comment	Serial Rapist: The perpetrator of the attack on Marie is found to be one. He not only raped many other women in his home state, but there may well be others the police still haven't discovered even when he's convicted, as the encryption on his hard drive can't be cracked, where they suspect he kept far more photos of victims.
Unbelievable / int_7e84a642	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_7e84a642	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_7e84a642
Unbelievable / int_8470aa73	type	Roman Ã Clef
Unbelievable / int_8470aa73	comment	Roman à Clef: Pretty much. Most names have been changed, but Marie keeps the pseudonym of her real life counterpart (Marie is her middle name — everything else was kept confidential for her privacy), and episode one in particular is exactly what happened to the real Marie. Later episodes contain more adaptation.
Unbelievable / int_8470aa73	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_8470aa73	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_8470aa73
Unbelievable / int_8a817c2a	type	Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
Unbelievable / int_8a817c2a	comment	Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The series frames the rapist's actions as especially heinous, placing particular emphasis on his brutality and sadism. Part of Rasmussen's and Duvall's struggle is persuading other people that this is the case.
Unbelievable / int_8a817c2a	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_8a817c2a	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_8a817c2a
Unbelievable / int_9b4c842e	type	Longer-Than-Life Sentence
Unbelievable / int_9b4c842e	comment	Longer-Than-Life Sentence: The rapist is sentenced to the maximum on each charge after pleading guilty. It comes out to over three hundred years, and thus he'll never be free again. Believe it or not, this sentence was actually incorrectly listed in the show, as his real life counterpart got an even harsher sentence, totaling over 450 years, with his earliest possibility for parole being set in December 2283.
Unbelievable / int_9b4c842e	featureApplicability	1.0
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_9b4c842e
Unbelievable / int_9e1f8fde	type	Good Lawyers, Good Clients
Unbelievable / int_9e1f8fde	comment	Good Lawyers, Good Clients: In the aftermath of all that has happened, Marie works with an attorney who helps her threaten to sue the city of Lynwood for the way she was treated after reporting her rape. The lawyer is both skilled and ethical, and he expresses genuine outrage at Marie's treatment. Marie ends up getting $150,000 from the city — the lawyer makes clear they could get a lot more, but Marie just wants to be done with the whole thing, and he doesn't press the point.
Unbelievable / int_9e1f8fde	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_9e1f8fde	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_9e1f8fde
Unbelievable / int_a1b141f4	type	My God, What Have I Done?
Unbelievable / int_a1b141f4	comment	My God, What Have I Done?: Detective Parker of the Lynwood Police is utterly devastated when he finds out that Marie's account was true and he pressured an actual rape victim to recant her story. He even tells Rasmussen that he's one of the "bad cops" and says "maybe we should get rid of me."
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_a1b141f4
Unbelievable / int_b1f4c5bb	type	Enhance Button
Unbelievable / int_b1f4c5bb	comment	Enhance Button: The intern uses a program to enhance the video image of the license plate of the suspicious pickup Duvall noticed. Downplayed in that the enhanced image still isn't clear enough for them to read the plate.
Unbelievable / int_b1f4c5bb	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_b1f4c5bb	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_b1f4c5bb
Unbelievable / int_b4a6ae4c	type	Everyone Has Standards
Unbelievable / int_b4a6ae4c	comment	Everyone Has Standards: In return for them dropping the kidnapping charges, the rapist enters a guilty plea to the others. Duvall and Rasmussen are baffled as to why he objects at those specifically, but the DA rolls with it.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_b4a6ae4c
Unbelievable / int_b6cebad3	type	Double Standard
Unbelievable / int_b6cebad3	comment	Double Standard: Marie's civil lawyer laments this, noting that if someone reports they were carjacked or mugged, they aren't faced with the suspicion rape victims so often suffer.
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_b6cebad3
Unbelievable / int_cd33644f	type	Incriminating Indifference
Unbelievable / int_cd33644f	comment	Incriminating Indifference: Deconstructed. Marie's former foster-mother Judith suspects Marie of making a False Rape Accusation, because she doesn't see her showing any strong emotions after what happened, and her telling this to the police officers investigating Marie's case makes them come to the same conclusion. When Marie and Judith go to Target after the attack to replace her bed sheets after the police took them as evidence, Judith is first nonplussed when Marie cheerfully zooms around the store on their shopping cart, then can't understand why Marie is so insistent on replacing her sheets with the exact same kind. To the viewer, however, it is made quite clear that Marie's lack of reaction is because she is still in a state of shock and trauma after the rape, and is actually trying her hardest to avoid thinking about what happened. Her other foster mother Colleen points out this to Judith when they talk, noting that people react differently in individual cases.
Unbelievable / int_cd33644f	featureApplicability	1.0
Unbelievable / int_cd33644f	featureConfidence	1.0
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Unbelievable / int_dbca2c99	type	Red Herring
Unbelievable / int_dbca2c99	comment	Red Herring: James Massey, a Dirty Cop and a complete jerkass who spits in Rasmussen's face, but nevertheless isn't the rapist.
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Unbelievable / int_dbca2c99	featureConfidence	1.0
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_dbca2c99
Unbelievable / int_ddeaea82	type	Miscarriage of Justice
Unbelievable / int_ddeaea82	comment	Miscarriage of Justice: Marie is not only bullied by the police into recanting her report of being raped, and being seen as a mentally unstable liar by the people around her as a result, she is also subjected to the further humiliation of being charged with filing a false report — something her public defender even notes is highly unusual for cases like this. Though said public defender is able to negotiate a (under the circumstances) favorable plea bargain with the prosecution — that means Marie faces probation, a fine, and an expungement of her record if she does not re-offend, instead of jail time and a permanent mark on her record — it still means that she is required to admit guilt and face official sanctions for a crime she didn't commit. She is first given redress when the rapist is caught and undeniable evidence that she was telling the truth all along surfaces in the process.
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Unbelievable / int_name	type	ItemName
Unbelievable / int_name	comment
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Unbelievable	hasFeature	Unbelievable / int_name
Unbelievable / int_name	itemName	Unbelievable

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Unbelievable	hasFeature	Good Victims, Bad Victims / int_3473b88b
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Longer-Than-Life Sentence / int_3473b88b
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Serial Rapist / int_3473b88b
Unbelievable	hasFeature	The Social Darwinist / int_3473b88b
Unbelievable	hasFeature	True Crime / int_3473b88b
Unbelievable	hasFeature	Turn of the Millennium / int_3473b88b

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