Netflix
More than a year after the celeb world’s biggest defamation trial was mass-consumed on YouTube and memed all over TikTok, we still don’t know how to talk about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
Unfortunately, the latest example of our society’s tactlessness around this saga—if not all public cases of domestic abuse—can be seen on the biggest streaming platform in the world. On Aug. 16, Netflix drops its latest slapdash docuseries, Depp v. Heard, a chronological retelling of the high-profile trial and the social media phenomenon that followed.
Director Emma Cooper assembles a selection of YouTube and podcast commentary, TikTok memes, and news coverage for her series, representing several perspectives on the matter. She does this less with the intention of forming any sort of conclusion by the end—not necessarily about which party is being truthful, but what this story means for our post-#MeToo culture—and instead gives the series an ambiguity that feels akin to a tasteless true-crime mystery. To summarize the lack of rigor plaguing Depp v. Heard, one of the last voices we hear is that of former Bachelor lead Nick Viall.