For the first time since Jodi Arias was convicted of brutally killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008, a new true documentary is bringing together four pivotal people in Arias’ and Alexander’s lives to give their insider perspective and discuss with each other what really happened in the case that captivated and divided the public. In Jodi Arias: The Friends Speak, premiering on REELZ Sunday, Dec. 8, Executive Producer Buddy Day and Showrunner Paige Boudreau promised in a new interview with PopCulture.com that true crime fans will get a whole new perspective on the case.
Coming together to discuss what they know about Arias and Alexander for the first time in The Friends Speak are Chad Perkins, Alexander’s childhood friend, who shares a personal message Arias sent him after the murder and Chris Hughes, Alexander’s mentor and former roommate of the troubled couple, who will share the story of the time he asked Arias to move out after witnessing her “disturbing behavior.” Also sharing their stories will be Alexander’s roommate at the time of his murder, Enrique Cortez Jr., as well as Ryan Burns, who was briefly a love interest to Arias and will recount the “eerie experiences” with Arias before, during and after Alexander was murdered.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“The whole idea was we could do a unique take on true crime by getting the people actually involved to sit around a table, face each other and hash out what happened,” Day explained of the show’s premise. “She interacted with all these people over a long period of time, and they saw all these crazy things.”
He continued of getting the understandably wary four together, “These four people had never been in a room together before. …It was long overdue.”
Unpacking the nuance of the Arias case, Boudreau said, was essential when it came to determining if she received a fair trial, which “became a character assassination of both [Arias and Alexander].”
“As cases gain notoriety, I feel like they get boiled down to a couple sentences that oversimplify it. …The simplification was that Jodi’s just a crazy slut,” the showrunner continued. “She became a two-dimensional character, and Travis was written out entirely. … It was so unfair and not indicative of the case.”
Day noted that in the current zeitgeist of the Me Too movement, the prosecution strategy of discounting Arias’ abuse claims and using her sexuality against her “would never happen now.”
“A prosecutor would never get away with that now,” he noted. “It kind of begs the question, ‘Did she get a fair trial?’”
Jodi Arias: The Friends Speak (produced by Kinetic Content and Pyramid Productions) premieres Sunday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m ET on REELZ.
Photo credit: REELZ
