Emily J

An excellent series, five stars all round. Phenomenal acting by Patricia Arquette (per usual). Definite binge watching material. Loved the Agent Schrader blast from the past as well. Highly recommend.

First, I’d like to point out that neither Wade Robertson nor James Safechuck profited from this documentary. They were not paid to appear in the film and they will not receive royalties from possible future earnings. Secondly, I went into this film with a completely neutral perspective. I was too young during the peak of the Michael Jackson controversies to really understand (or to care) about him. I did not grow up listening to his music (I was in the BSB era) and I never followed the tedious newspaper headlines. Of course in my twenties I knew who Michael Jackson was, and yes I enjoyed his music whenever it happened to come onto the radio. However, prior to this film I’d never had concrete feelings about Michael as an artist or about the rumors that plagued him. I am at a complete loss of words to those who claim Robertson and Safechuck are lying. For me, I could literally see the trauma and the years of harbored self disgust across both their faces. Not only could I see it, I physically felt their distress and confusion. At times, the film became too much and I would have to press pause. Did I just watch the same documentary as those accusing Robertson and Safechuck of lying? I can only conclude that they did not watch the film. It makes no sense to me that any dignified human could watch Leaving Neverland and come to any other conclusion than that these men are telling the truth. This film absolutely shook me to my core. As a parent, it served as a painful reminder that we must always second guess people’s intentions. We must not be so trusting and we must stop assuming that what we would do in a situation is what others would do too. There really is evil lurking around every corner, waiting for a moment of weakness, and sadly it comes from those you’d least expect. Michael’s reasoning over and over again has been that he was just a big kid at heart. He missed out on his own childhood and that keeping the company of children was his own way of rediscovering a lost past. I ask each and every MJ defender if that truly was the case, why was it only ever young boys? Our childhood memories consisted of friendships with both boys AND girls. So then why was Michael only ever interested in little boys?

Strong acting, raw and totally underrated. This is a must.