In learning about Modrowski’s autism and high school history in Part II of ‘On The Inside’, we view him with sympathy through enlightened eyes. Autism spectrum disorders are understood far greater now than they were at the time of Modrowski’s trial and his level of performance, with a self-confessed IQ of 130+, certainly would have precluded him from a dismissal on the grounds of legally defined mental retardation. But it does smooth over what is described as a cold exterior Modrowski presented in the court room. With hindsight, and with no small dose of self-aggrandisement, we presume we would have found this man not-guilty, a victim of his own disability — just like we would have found Adnan Syed and Steven Avery not-guilty.

But this is what marks Reply All’s mini-series as distinct from either Serial or Making a Murderer. Sarah Koenig was adamant that she was less concerned with Syed’s innocence as she was with determining whether the evidence provided was sufficient for a conviction. Making a Murderer too was largely concerned with the judicial apparatus, specifically of the wonky machine that is a police department. There’s none of that here. Instead, we’re left entirely with judgements of character. Between our pity-soaked initial read of the misunderstood Modrowski and our impression of the easily-agitated oleaginous Faraci, we’re given a seat on a jury without capacity to work through any of the evidence in the case. Instead of asking “Did he do it?”, we’re forced to ask “Could he do it?”.

Pinnamaneni admits in the final instalment that

“In the “guilty” column, there’s no physical evidence.”

So instead, in the showpiece of Part IV, Pinnamaneni gets the first face-to-face interview with Modrowski inside the prison. She takes Modrowski through oblique anecdotes from his past that she says “look really bad”. She brings up when he stabbed another kid at school, when a girl at school received threatening phone calls, all of which Modrowski clumsily handles by excusing them as being “jokes” or just stuff that happens in high school. I can hear a defence attorney shouting “Objection!” at every one of these questions levelled at Modrowski, badgering him for “looking bad” instead of concerned with evidence about the case. This distinction in the optics of the situation results in a disingenuous character study where the cliché’s of fictional serial killers and sociopaths cloud our interpretation, just like the juries of Syed and Avery were themselves clouded. In the final interview, Modrowski’s angry for being locked up for so long from such a young age and who wouldn’t be, especially if you’re convinced of your own innocence? Instead, the fever pitch to which Modrowski is worked up, going so far to call Pinnamaneni “you’re a little nosy person” is played as the triumphant conclusion, with every one of his words spoken in a raised voice another nail in Modrowski’s coffin marked with “GUILTY”.