Doug Schneider

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

'Making a Murderer' was released in late 2015, but that didn't stop a magazine's website from naming it one of the 10 best television shows of 2016.

Forbes ranks the 10-part Netflix documentary about the killing of photographer Teresa Halbach and the convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey as the ninth-best show of the year, behind two series on the O.J. Simpson case, and ahead of Late Night with Seth Meyers.

"A 10-hour long examination of a decade-old murder trial is wildly unlikely candidate as a catalyst for a pop culture phenomenon," Allen St. John writes. "But audiences connected with Steven Avery, and especially his defense attorneys Jerry Buting and Dean Strang and the conspiracy theory they proposed. More to the point, some tangible good seems to have come from all this: an innocent man – Avery’s (then-)17-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey – might be set free."

Avery and Dassey were convicted of the brutal killing of Halbach, who had visited the Avery family's auto-salvage yard to photograph a car that was for sale. Avery had previously been imprisoned for years for a rape he did not commit.

In other 'Making a Murderer'-related news this past week:

The series was the most binge-watched in a number of Midwestern states in 2015 – but not the one where the series took place, according to HighSpeedInternet.com.

The site claims that more viewers binged on "Fuller House" than did so on MaM.

We'll chalk that up to Wisconsinites preferring to watch sit-coms starring actresses who married Russian hockey players, rather than documentaries featuring disgraced Avery prosecutor Ken Kratz.

Folks in South Dakota and our neighbors in Illinois and Minnesota preferred 'MaM' to other binge-able offerings, according to the website, which says it looked at data for the top 75 shows. Other midwestern states were less serious about their viewing; Indiana preferred "Parks and Recreation."

Among the most-popular shows in multiple states: ABC's "Scandal," and the Netflix offerings: "Orange is the New Black," "Bloodline" and "Narcos."

From the Twitters:

►Sad news to report from Avery's defense team. Jerry Buting, who helped defend Avery in the Halbach killing, reports via social media that his mother passed away on Dec. 30. Condolences.

►Kathleen Zellner, the Chicago-area attorney handling Avery's appeal, stayed on message with this New Year's tweet: 2017 goals: "Release of all of our wrongfully convicted clients. Your tips matter to us so keep sending; we are listening #MakingAMurderer."

►And a New Jersey bookstore reports that Buting will be there on March 1, the day after the release of his book, "Illusion of Justice."

"Interweaving his account of the Steven Avery trial at the heart of 'Making a Murderer' with other high profile cases from his criminal defense career, attorney Jerome F. Buting explains the flaws in America’s criminal justice system and lays out a provocative, persuasive blue-print for reform," Word Books of Jersey City writes on its website. "Buting’s powerful, riveting boots-on-the-ground narrative of Avery’s and Dassey’s cases becomes a springboard to examine the shaky integrity of law enforcement and justice in the United States, which Buting has witnessed firsthand for more than 35 years."

Translation: lovers of police and prosecutors probably won't like it.

Tickets are essentially free: a $10 ducat gets you in the door to see Buting, but can then be turned into a $10-off coupon on your next purchase.

Doug Schneider: dschneid@greenbaypressgazette.com; on Twitter @PGDougSchneider