The Trial was quite fun to watch, not only acting as a pseudo-jury yourself deliberating on what verdict you choose, but observing all the usual human-nature nuances of people discussing anything. Bias, attention seeking egos, the "I can look at someone and suss them out immediately!" self-aggrandizing sorts, personal experience creating unconscious agendas, projecting of one's past onto the people in question. You hear a lot of "I felt this, now I feel that" because there's precious little actual evidence.
The final episode though seemed hugely contrived, trying to wreck havoc with your guesses until the very final moments. In going for the twisty-drama angle, the show lost a lot of credibility in how it sets up the opposing suspects. Specifically, the usual character traits that normally lend a pattern of character to these cases were hugely manipulated against expectation, making the whole experiment unfair in terms of its objectives to offer up some pseudo-reality. One man goes from gentle, loving, smiling, affectionate, fully- accepting of a woman's infidelities, to aggressive murder without remorse or emotion. The other goes from nice-guy to dominant, aggressive, manipulative, controlling, impulsive, entitled, violent - but of course he didn't do it. Channel 4, having shamelessly contrived the characters in these last moments to toy with your perceptions, then try to place the trial in the context of violence- from-partners, with some statistics. I'm really not sure what point it was trying to make, and I'm not sure if they know themselves. My guess is that two endings were shot (the characters and circumstances in the lead-up were certainly written to cater equally to the murder), with whatever contrary ending provided the best drama depending on what the jury verdict was.
The final episode though seemed hugely contrived, trying to wreck havoc with your guesses until the very final moments. In going for the twisty-drama angle, the show lost a lot of credibility in how it sets up the opposing suspects. Specifically, the usual character traits that normally lend a pattern of character to these cases were hugely manipulated against expectation, making the whole experiment unfair in terms of its objectives to offer up some pseudo-reality. One man goes from gentle, loving, smiling, affectionate, fully- accepting of a woman's infidelities, to aggressive murder without remorse or emotion. The other goes from nice-guy to dominant, aggressive, manipulative, controlling, impulsive, entitled, violent - but of course he didn't do it. Channel 4, having shamelessly contrived the characters in these last moments to toy with your perceptions, then try to place the trial in the context of violence- from-partners, with some statistics. I'm really not sure what point it was trying to make, and I'm not sure if they know themselves. My guess is that two endings were shot (the characters and circumstances in the lead-up were certainly written to cater equally to the murder), with whatever contrary ending provided the best drama depending on what the jury verdict was.