Netflix is a true crime fan’s paradise, and the Death of the Pastor’s Wife filmmakers are taking all the credit — or at least a victory lap timed to the premiere of their latest documentary series.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Julia Willoughby Nason and Mike Gasparro about their newly released collab, which chronicles the life and sudden death of Mica Miller, the wife of South Carolina pastor John-Paul Miller. Spoiler alert: he’s an abusive asshole (case pending!). Death of the Pastor’s Wife, like the duo’s American Murder: Gabby Petito and Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, will grip Netflix subscribers this weekend (and beyond).
Netflix has separated itself from the rest of the streaming- and linear-television pack in Nason’s and Gasparo’s genre of choice. Its standing atop the true-crime-video food chain is as obvious to the filmmakers as it is subscribers.
“Yeah, I think so,” Nason answered when asked if Netflix has won that specific streaming war. She was quick to add, “And we’ve made them that.”
Nason also directed Netflix’s The Pharmacist; Gasparro was among its executive producers. Together, they run New York City-based production company The Cinemart.
“I mean, we’re a small company, and we do as many projects as we can at once. But yeah, we are in that vein, and we set the bar high for ourselves,” she told THR. “We are thankful that Netflix and us, we can collaborate on that level… Netflix has had a really long run with keeping the caliber tight compared to other[s]. They’re reliable in terms of [releasing] product that is compelling, thoughtful, and entertaining.”
“I think that goes to the fact they’ve been doing it for such a long time that they understand making documentaries can be complex. You’re working on a specific budget on a short timeline… you’re making these in a year.” Gasparro said. “From Netflix production to the creative executives to the lawyers to the accountants to [PR]… they just understand how to make it and how to deal with partners — and I think they’re very particular about who they work with too.”
Netflix has also become very particular about how many episodes it wants from its documentary collaborators. Three seems to be “the sweet spot,” Nason said, both inside and outside of the Netflix ecosystem. (Nason and Gasparro made LulaRich for Amazon Prime Video and Fyre Fraud for Hulu, among other projects.)
“We used to do six, and then it went to four, and then three’s been [consistent] since COVID,” she said.
Gasparro says they “were part of the turn” that settled on a trio of episodes. Not that they had much of a choice after Netflix dumped its data over their heads.
“They were like, ‘People are dropping off after a certain amount of episodes — they’re not watching,’” he said, “which I get. People are busy and it’s hard to get through episodes.”
Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro
Presley Ann/Getty Images
The Death of the Pastor’s Wife‘s three episodes can be hard to get through at times, but not for length or quality. Its subject, Mica, is especially lovely, which makes its subject matter — her death — especially disturbing.
Early, the series teases suspicious circumstances surrounding Miller’s apparent suicide, but Nason and Gasparro do not leave her manner of death especially open-ended — a trap that true crime filmmakers can often fall into for entertainment purposes.
“I believe that Mica took her life. I think it’s important that we say that because I think there’s mental health stuff here, and I think if we say anything else, then it’s a disservice to this person’s life and what she went through,” Gasparro said.
Death of the Pastor’s Wife is currently streaming on Netflix.
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