He said versus she said

Mona

A love like no other and a dream wedding. When Hollywood A-lister Johnny Depp met a barely known actor Amber Heard, he found in her a stunning woman who was literate, sweet and funny — a perfect partner. But between the first meeting in 2009 with regard to filming of ‘The Rum Diary’ and 2022, when Depp filed a defamation lawsuit at Fairfax County, Virginia, over a newspaper op-ed, a lot ensued. There was this whole circus of patriarchy at play, victim bashing, gender bender at the rather powerful MeToo movement to an unprecedented social media phenomenon!

“I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change” was the title of the piece that Heard wrote in 2018, claiming to be ‘a public figure representing domestic abuse’, without naming Depp. Accused of being a wife beater, Depp had challenged a British tabloid and lost in 2020 but that didn’t stop the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star to file the lawsuit claiming $50 million in damages. Heard filed counterclaims of $100 million.

The trial turned into a kind of a cultural moment rising above being a mere news story or a lawsuit. Depp’s team was ready for the kill from the word go, as state-wise defamation laws vary in the United Sates and Virginia gave them stricter framework. While Depp’s lawyer wanted it all on camera, Heard’s was against it. The judge allowed it and that’s how the world became an active agent in this six-week trial that was livestreamed!

The series based on the trial opens with the duo talking about their first meeting, the rush of love, to soon moving into the first incident of alleged domestic abuse. The three episodes talk of Heard’s claims of domestic violence, including accusing Depp of sexually abusing her with a glass bottle. It was demolished point by point by Depp’s team, which came out with enough evidence that it was Heard who was the aggressor in the relationship. While her claims of being physically abused were put to question with a cosmetic brand joining the very social fray exposing her ‘lie’, Depp came out as the victim than the preparator of physical abuse.

The docuseries puts both testimonies side by side for the first time, along with YouTube commentary, TikTok videos, media coverage and people thronging the court premises, offering unrelenting support to Depp. Amber, 22 years his junior, who should ideally have gotten the benefit of the MeToo wave, turned into a target of online abuse, the subject of countless memes, booed and jeered, while Depp was cheered.

The series brings to fore the case and its major revelations — Depp’s severed finger after an altercation with Heard, the human faeces on his bed to Kate Moss’ testimony on Heard’s audio instigating Depp — “Tell the world, Johnny. Tell them… I, Johnny Depp, a man, I’m a victim too of domestic violence…” From Depp’s attorneys defending their high-profile client to a TMZ ex-employee snapping back at Heard’s attorney, the series packs in all the shocking moments. Alas, there is nothing new that it offers. Unless you were on a longish Vipassana course to have missed the trial, the series offers little. That said, it’s also a significant trial that sure was won by Depp but at the same time raised questions on how domestic abuse is perceived, how the victim could be of any gender. Whether this trial decimated the MeToo movement or reversed its effect or brought gender parity to it, watch it only if you haven’t followed it on news real-time!

Though a well put together series, it has the ‘he said, she said’ vibes, never giving anything more than we already know! The three-part series that’s trending in the top 10 on Netflix is rated A on account of domestic abuse as well as sexual violence references and language.