Available on Netflix since yesterday, the documentary series “Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard” looks back on the defamation lawsuit between the two stars.
A little over a year after the highly publicized trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, Netflix is delivering a documentary series on what has fueled social networks for weeks. Titled Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard, the series focuses on the defamation lawsuit between the two actors.
This “trial by TikTok” occupied the United States and many other countries around the world for six weeks in the spring of 2022, dominating conversations on the Internet thanks to over-coverage on social media by media, influencers and commentators of all kinds.
And surprisingly, all three episodes don’t feature interviews with the formerly married couple.
During an interview with varietydirector Emma Cooper explained her decision to focus on the “conversation about the trial“, which led to the exclusion of interviews with Depp, Heard and their legal teams:
“I wanted to get away from the ‘he said, she said’ of the trial, and I just wanted to talk about us, how we communicate and how we view events that don’t have much to do with with us“, she explains.
“That’s actually what the show is about, but I can’t help but watch some of the things that are said about me, without people having seen the show, and it’s interesting that people get a lot out of it conclusions, but that was not my intention at all.“
Furthermore, the series does not include interviews with journalists or experts. It is presented only through the live broadcast of the trial and the comments on YouTube, TikTok and other social networks.
What to expect with the series?
“Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard is a three-part series examining the infamous defamation case that captured the world’s attention and became the world’s first lawsuit on TikTok.“, can we read in the synopsis of Netflix. “Showing the two testimonies side by side for the first time, this series explores this global media event, questioning the nature of truth and the role it plays in our modern society.“
By its process, that of recounting the testimonies of the two protagonists in parallel and pointing the finger at the media circus, the series takes the side of ease. It will not sufficiently dig into the consequences of such media coverage of this trial. It does not offer an analysis by experts or sociologists on the impact of this retransmission on society, nor does it delve into the question of male violence and relations of domination in relations between women and men. .
Emma Cooper is not a journalist and her series tells us nothing more about the case than what we knew at the start. In fact, it tells us much less than we knew when we arrived, because the trial in Virginia was inextricably linked to a previous libel case in the United Kingdom, a case that is barely mentioned and deserves a long development.
There are a lot of “legal” issues that are barely mentioned, as if to say, “Look, most people talking about the case haven’t understood Virginia libel law on a level more than superficial, so why should the documentary do it?” A real investigative work could have shed some interesting light on the case and offered something other than a simple summary.