I read some reviews earlier as I was iffy about watching something like is. Though I agreed with a lot of the negative ones broader points I found their reasoning flawed. I really don't see how one could say this ...documentary? Tabloid thing?...whatever, whoever made it isn't obviously biased toward Heard. How? By showing her side? Such as it was. If they were biased in her favor they did a real poor job of it. Granted she didn't give them much to work with but wow. If you think this was biased what would fair have been? Just 'settle' for crucifying her?
Domestic violence is one of those most malleable legal violations I've ever seen. Did Depp abuse her? Yeah, looks like it, by the definition. And she sure kept up her end. In my state domestic violence is essentially ANY physical contact while you're mad or arguing with the other person. Brush past them in the hallway and your watch or purse scuffs the other person? Sure, arrest em. There's a bias towards men as the aggressors sure. Sometimes the police just take both parties in if they can't figure it out. It's really a matter of who decides to take it outside the relationship and report it first as they control the narrative and decide when the clock starts and when it all starts to count. That's a big advantage.
We'll never know for sure.. that's true. I do know that it takes two to have a violent relationship. Maybe one started, maybe the other. That rapidly becomes irrelevant if you're both fighting and staying. I realize some unfortunate few are isolated and cowed into submission but Amber Heard is/was a celebrity. She could've blinked two times into the cameras constantly pointed at her. There's excuses and reasons to stay, many that Amber deployed, but it comes off rather less a final cry for help then a pulling of the nuclear option and busting his ass kind of thing. This series was overall a fair rehash of the major points, though moving special by any means. It's a documenting of the experience through someone with a lot of online exposure.
Whether you watched the trial or this the big points remain the same:
-Johnny is what I guess you'd call a functional substance abuser/alcoholic that has anger and control issues when under the influence.
- Amber has more constant mental issues regardless of substances. Bipolar or something in that realm. Maybe just PTSD but she's got a funny way of showing it.
- They both oscillate moods and get angry then nice and had been at war for quite some time.
I strongly feel anyone should be able to get help for domestic violence. However at this point with this system I feel it should be completely limited to separation and counseling with no punitive aspect. The same laws that protect a cowed survivor of chronic abuse easily and often get plastered to generally stable people that let themselves be driven nuts in isolated incidents. Abusers every past transgression related or not are generally admissible while the victim can just happen to have accused their last half a dozen previous partners that had never been violent before too and that all gets sealed for their privacy as a delicate survivor. I get why this stuff was put into place but it's so easily exploited. Imagine when a man uses the exploits that and see how you feel about it. There's probably a few guys hiding in the bathroom and crying in the corner of the shower fully dressed but it's not the majority. I get solidarity but it's just too difficult to accurately punish events in a private relationship barring apparent wounds/evidence.
They're both guilty. She probably did drop a deuce on his bed. You go girl. He's an angry drunk and they were pretty much the worst personalities for each others bad sides. Well the guy hung out with Hunter Thompson; did she expect a calm sober pacifist? Everyone should've kept quiet, separate as gracefully as possible and not take it public. With celebrities that's essentially fighting dirty. That Op-Ed was just like the anonymous "I don't want to say who cuz I won't sink that low ...BUT (assassinates the character of person whose identity everyone knows anyway)." It was an ugly embarrassing slog for both of them and wow she got the worst of it. Oh well. You took it into the court of public opinion. Anonymous callous public opinion. Good luck with that.
This series did rely very strongly on a ton of YouTube and TikTok personalities, none of which I recognize and just come off as tacky and dumb (am I suppose to care what a guy in a Deadpool mask said about something?). All that was an aspect as far as the backlash against Heard but if you found that to be a running theme of the trial or integral to it that's just your experience but not everyone's. Random people thought stuff about this. Both ways. Great, so skip all of it.
I recommend this to anyone that managed to totally skip all this as it happened. Otherwise nothing new. I did like the poop emoji with sprinkles Netflix used for the thumbnail though. Not the most cerebral humor but I enjoyed it.