As with so many Lifetime films, To Kill A Stepfather opens with a murder.

Matthew (Dan Golden) is a pillar of his small town’s community.  He’s well-liked by all and he’s renowned for the way his voice sounds whenever he sings with the choir.  His wife, Kate (Elyse Mirto), is a bit less popular with the community but everyone agrees that Matthew has been good as stepfather to her daughter, Riley (Kelly McCart).

Of course, Riley is not Kate’s only daughter.  Nicole (Alex Camacho) is a high-priced defense attorney who left home a long time ago and who has never really made peace with her memories of her mother being an alcoholic.  Nicole barely knows Matthew.  She’s been too busy pursuing her career to keep up with what’s happening at her former home.  Nicole is one of those lawyers who gets yelled at by strangers because so many of her clients are guilty.  Now, of course, Nicole’s job is to defend her clients.  Guilty or not, anyone accused of a crime is entitled to representation and the job of a defense attorney is to serve as their client’s advocate and help them make their way through the complexities of the American legal system.  In other words, Nicole is doing her job.  Get off her back, people!

One night, Matthew and Kate’s neighbors hear an argument coming from their house.  Inside the house, someone shoves Matthew down a flight of stairs and kills him.  When the police arrest Kate for the crime, Riley calls the only attorney that she knows, her older sister Nicole.  Nicole returns to her hometown and discovers that, even in jail and desperately needing an attorney, her mother still isn’t happy to see her.  Indeed, Kate even says that she would prefer a different lawyer but Nicole takes one look at the ambulance chaser who has been assigned to the case and declares that she’s taking over her mother’s defense.

Apparently, this film was inspired by a true story but it plays out like a typical Lifetime courtroom drama.  That’s not a complaint, of course.  The familiarity is one of the things that people love about Lifetime movies.  From the minute that Nicole meets Kate in prison, the viewer will suspect that they know where the story is heading but that’s okay.  The destination is less important than the journey and the journey is enjoyably melodramatic.  Alex Camacho and Kelly McCart are instantly believable as sisters and Elyse Mirto gives a good performance as the mother who wants to hold onto her secrets, even if they mean possibly going to prison.  In the end, the important thing is that the film embraces the melodrama.  That’s really the main thing that we ask from our Lifetime films.

That said, I was kind of amused by how “slick” all of the attorneys in the film were.  I’ve worked as an administrative assistant in a law office.  I’ve known a few lawyers.  I’ve been to the courthouses.  Attorneys are usually the most shabbily-dressed people in the courthouse and, usually, they’re juggling way too much to have time to stand around and exchange snarky bon mots.  But again, one doesn’t watch a legal drama on Lifetime because they’re looking for a realistic portrait of the American legal system.  On Lifetime, all lawyers are perfectly dressed and have not a hair out of place and that’s more than alright.