Making a Mania: The Steven Avery Saga and Why We're Obsessed

Ken Kratz, the man who prosecuted the Steven Avery case and is portrayed as a villain in "Making a Murderer," sits down with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin to talk about "Part 2" and Kathleen Zellner's attempts to blast holes in his case.

Among the surprises in "Making a Murderer Part 2" is the way Steven Avery's attorney Kathleen Zellner points fingers at the work of Dean Strang and Jerry Buting, who defended Avery at his 2007 murder trial. We catch up with Buting after his viewing of Part 2 to talk about the series, Zellner's claims of ineffective assistance of council and more.

The long-awaited Part 2 of Netflix's "Making a Murderer" has arrived. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporters Doug Schneider and Shane Nyman talk about their binge session, impressions from the new episodes and whether or not it's worth the 10-hour investment.

Dean Strang was part of Steven Avery's defense team and became a Midwestern folk hero after "Making a Murderer." We talked with him about changes he'd make in the criminal justice system, the politics of Avery supporters, how the Netflix series changed him and more.

Jim Trainum, retired homicide detective and author of "How the Police Generate False Confessions: An Inside Look at the Interrogation Room," explains how and why false confessions happen and how law enforcement can prevent it from happening. Trainum's book on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y87cw7eb

There's no doubt that Ken Kratz, the Calumet County D.A. who prosecuted Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey more than 10 years ago, comes off as a villain in "Making a Murderer." We sit down with Kratz to break down what he says are the most misleading scenes in the series' Part 1. (Kratz's book, "Avery: The Case Against Steven Avery and What 'Making a Murderer' Gets Wrong," on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/y7rlwjzv)

Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey are far from Wisconsin's first famous convicted killers. In the not-so-distant past, the Badger State was home to two of the most famous murderers in history: Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein. We talk with Jim Stingl, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist who covered the Dahmer trial in the '90s, and Keith Gurgall, collector and historian who’s been fascinated by Gein for years.

We talk true crime obsessions with Molly Fitzpatrick, a New York-based freelance journalist who covered the 2017 CrimeCon, and Janine Vaccarello, COO at Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Read Molly's report from CrimeCon: https://tinyurl.com/RingerCrimeCon

We talk with Robert Thompson, a trustee professor of television, radio and film at Syracuse University, and Catherine Tatge, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of the Civic Life Project, about why "Making a Murderer" works and whether it's entertainment or journalism.