Who Do You Believe ABC episodes

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Who Do You Believe? is a docuseries that literally interviews people on both sides of a crime. Using split-screens and a back-and-forth format, the two main players in a crime are interviewed, and their stories are supplemented with a generous amount of reenactments. Of course, each person’s account of the story varies wildly. At the end of the episode, the narrator lets the audience come to their own conclusions, even when verdicts and other outcomes are discussed.

WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “When a crime has been committed,” says a narrator, “there are two sides to a story.” This is shown over reenactments of crimes that will be showed during the first season of Who Do You Believe?.

The Gist: In the episode ABC provided for critics, we get to hear about the tumultuous marriage of Mark Athans and Charity Parchem, who met online after they both had a number of failed marriages. They had working in healthcare in common, and it seemed like they got along very well; he proposed to her after five months of dating. But she found him to be very controlling, while he found that she was content to spend his money and lie about major aspects of her life.

The two of them disagree about small details, like the size of the ring he gave her, to big ones, like who initiated the idea to get a quickie wedding at the Sturgis, SD city hall while they attended the biker festival there. Charity claims that he slowly poisoned her, and that’s how his first ex-wife died after their divorce; he finds out that she’s not a registered nurse. But one person’s accusations are definitely more based in evidence than the other’s.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Who Do You Believe has the immediate-sounding music cues and quick editing of other ABC true-crime series, including 20/20.

Our Take: The producers of Who Do You Believe? want you to think that they’re taking an objective view of the case of the week, giving both sides their say and letting the audience decide. But in the episode we saw, there were more than subtle signs that the producers are taking sides.

Surprisingly, that evidence isn’t during the copious reenactments. In this case, they’re necessary because these aren’t about cases in the news. As cheesy as these reenactments can be, without them the episode would just consist of ping-ponging talking heads, and that would be as visually dynamic as the Yule Log.

But where we see the producers’ biases is how each person is presented in their interview. Mark, for instance, is sitting in his den in a puffy chair; Charity is leaning on her elbow on her furry couch at her house, her feet up and tucked underneath. Surely the director told them both to get comfortable, but the way Charity is situated makes her look and sound like someone who has something to hide, whereas Mark looks like an upstanding citizen.

Is one of them lying? Are they both lying? As the saying goes, the truth is somewhere in the middle. And while the show feels like it’s mining data points from both sides to sow doubt, there doesn’t seem to be much question about who’s telling the most truth in their side of the story.

Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty

Parting Shot: None.

Sleeper Star: As we see a split screen of Mark and Charity, the narrator says, “Who is the predator, and who is the con? It all depends on what you believe.”

Most Pilot-y Line: One of the disputed stories was when Charity said Mark asked her to hold $10,000 worth of cash he had in his car. He denies that, saying “The most I would have had in my pocket would have been $1000.” He says that like that’s nothin. Who carries $1000 in cash around with them that isn’t engaging in illegal activity?

Will you stream or skip the true crime docuseries #WhoDoYouBelieve on @ABCNetwork? #SIOSI

— Decider (@decider) May 4, 2022

Our Call: SKIP IT. By playing to both sides of a crime, Who Do You Believe? loses the viewpoint that makes most true crime docuseries so fun to watch. It looks more like the show is about the petty disputes that are at the center of episodes of The Real Housewives franchises than anything else.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

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