Genre: crime, drama
Created by: Susannah Grant, Ayelet Waldman, Michael Chabon
Cast: Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, Kaitlyn Dever
Season count: 1
Unbelievable has a subtle revolutionary quality. There are times when it's tough to see, and it's a show that will stay with you long after its last moments are through. The performances of the show's three outstanding main actors are fantastic, but they are also not unique; other series and films have used superb actors to present same tales. Instead, Unbelievable stands out by simply assuming that everyone watching already knows that rape is a horrifying transgression. It assumes that you've already taken care of it. It implies that you've watched The Handmaid's Tale or Boys Don't Cry, or most recently, The Nightingale, and that you've seen rape represented in media in visceral, horrifying form. Among the folks on the opposite side of the screen, one in six women and one in 33 males will have experienced a rape or attempted rape in their lifetimes. Trauma and exploitation are the farthest things from its mind. Incredibly knows that you are aware that rape is a horrible thing. It's not a voyeuristic tool. Susannah Grant, the show's creator, has made it a priority to focus on the survivor's point of view—on what happened to her and how it affects her, certainly, but also on the subsequent abuses.