The Widower Netflix Reviews: Critics Split on Thomas Randolph True-Crime Documentary
Netflix’s The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part arrived September 30, with early reviews praising its unusual access to Thomas Randolph’s case while questioning how deeply the film examines the investigation.
Netflix’s new true-crime documentary The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part is already drawing a range of critical reactions, with reviewers largely agreeing that the Thomas Randolph case is compelling but differing over how effectively the film tells it.
Directed by Chris Smith and produced with Dateline journalist Dan Slepian, the 91-minute documentary follows the investigation into Randolph, whose sixth wife, Sharon Causse, was killed in Las Vegas in 2008. Randolph was ultimately convicted in connection with Causse’s death and the killing of handyman Michael Miller.
The documentary’s central attraction is not simply the crime itself. Slepian had followed the case for years, giving the film access to interviews and footage accumulated throughout the investigation, trials and appeals. That access has become one of the main points critics are discussing.
What The New York Times and Decider are saying
Early reviews show a noticeable difference in tone.
The New York Times critic Ben Kenigsberg is considerably more skeptical, describing the film as another entry in Netflix’s extensive true-crime catalog and questioning how much it adds beyond the case itself. Rotten Tomatoes currently lists Kenigsberg’s review alongside three other critics.
Decider’s John Serba takes a more favorable view. He highlights the documentary’s unusual perspective, particularly Slepian’s long-running relationship with Randolph and the extensive access that resulted from it. Serba argues that the reporting gives the film a degree of journalistic credibility despite some of its more sensational material.
That distinction is important because The Widower is not presented solely as a conventional murder mystery. Much of the film is also about how journalists and investigators built the case and how Randolph interacted with the people trying to uncover what happened.
The access is one of the documentary’s biggest strengths
Several reviews have focused on the amount of material Slepian was able to capture over the years.
According to Decider, Slepian conducted multiple on-the-record conversations with Randolph, including lengthy phone calls, while following the case through investigations and legal proceedings. The documentary also includes footage surrounding Randolph’s arrest.
Gazettely similarly praised the documentary’s extensive interviews and contemporaneous footage, while arguing that the film is less successful when explaining the investigative reasoning behind the eventual conviction.
That creates an unusual dynamic: Randolph himself becomes part of the documentary’s evidence and storytelling. Rather than remaining an unseen figure at the center of an old case, he appears extensively and discusses the investigation directly.
Critics are less united on the filmmaking
Not every reviewer thinks the documentary makes the most of that material.
Midgard Times criticized the film for feeling overly mechanical and said its presentation can come across as a collection of facts and testimony rather than a more emotionally developed documentary.
Other reviews have been much warmer. Heaven of Horror called the 91-minute film tightly packed, focused and fast-paced, while Rotten Tomatoes currently lists that review at 4/5.
Leisurebyte also emphasized the unsettling effect of seeing Randolph presented as an apparently ordinary person while the investigation reveals the increasingly disturbing history surrounding his marriages and the deaths of several wives.
As of October 3, Rotten Tomatoes lists four critic reviews for The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part, including reviews from The New York Times, Decider, Movies and Munchies and Heaven of Horror.
The case gives the documentary a complicated foundation
Randolph’s story extends well beyond the 2008 death of Causse. He had been married six times, and four of his wives died, although the circumstances surrounding those deaths were not identical. Randolph was previously acquitted in the case involving his second wife, Becky Gault.
His conviction connected to Causse and Miller was also not the end of the legal story. His initial conviction was overturned, leading to another trial and a later conviction. His sentence ultimately became 60 years to life, and the Nevada Supreme Court rejected his latest appeal in 2026.
That long legal history gives Chris Smith and Slepian considerably more material than a straightforward murder documentary would normally have.
For viewers deciding whether The Widower is worth watching, the early reviews suggest that the answer may depend on what they want from true crime: the unusual reporting access and strange central case have attracted praise, while some critics have found the filmmaking less revealing or emotionally powerful than the underlying story.
The documentary is now streaming on Netflix in the United States following its September 30 release.
