The seven-part series, which combines documentary and drama elements, focuses on a different real-life murder each week from the victim's point of view.

Each episode includes interviews with the victim's family and friends, real witnesses, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers, as well as scripted scenes with actors.

[1] The following is a table for the United States ratings, based on average total estimated viewers per episode, of Final Witness on ABC.

Jessica Shaw of Entertainment Weekly stated that "Crime reenactments are equal parts disturbing and cheesy – mediocre actors portraying cold-blooded killers and their victims.

"[17] Verne Gay of Newsday also commented on the narration by writing that the series is "a grim, macabre march through a terrible crime, deploying a bad twist – the voice of the deceased.