Growing up, I knew about Casey Anthony. Everyone knew about Casey Anthony, and, of course, her missing, then dead, child. I was five when her face appeared on every news program, every 60 Minutes special and every hushed conversation at church. I didn’t really understand what had happened, and now that I’m old enough to, I was eager to watch the Peacock original docuseries, “Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies.”

For those who didn’t grow up with the case, I’ll give a rundown. There’s a lot of C names involved, so do your best to keep up. 

In the summer of 2008, two-year-old Caylee Anthony went missing. 31 days after her disappearance, her maternal grandmother, Cindy Anthony, called the authorities to alert them that her granddaughter was missing and that her daughter Casey’s car smelled like it had a dead body in it. 

Cindy reported that Casey had said many different things about her daughter’s location over the course of that month before Casey admitted that she hadn’t seen Caylee in a month. Casey told several different lies, mainly citing that she had been trying to track her down herself, too scared to call the police. Casey was charged with first-degree murder in October, to which she pled not guilty, before Caylee’s remains were found in the woods in December. 

In July of 2011, Casey was found not guilty of murder, but, instead, guilty of lying to a police officer.

Society was quick to paint Casey as a negligent mother, a “baby killer,” the lowest of the low. This series gives an inside look into Casey’s experiences, her first interview since being acquitted of the murder in 2011. 

Clever title aside, this series is, overall, pretty great. Aside from being, well, long, it’s gripping and just the right amount of suspenseful. The first episode was so interesting that I put aside my habit of multitasking by the television to devote my time to just the show. 

Episode one recaps the case as a whole, as well as what Casey has been up to in recent years (spoiler: it’s not too great). The narrative does a great job of painting Casey as a multi-dimensional figure while not distracting from what she was charged with. In all fairness, Casey herself actually does a pretty great job at creating at least a little sympathy for herself. 

Peacock handles the depressing and, at times, disturbing case with respect to little Caylee Anthony, Casey’s child. There is a lot of focus around childhood sexual abuse and violent crimes, so viewers should take caution when watching. With that in mind, though, anyone who knows anything about the case should check out the series as new episodes are released.