Review: Netflix Docuseries Is an Exercise in Futility

Long. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/depp-v-heard-review-netflix-1235566384/

Emma Cooper’s three-part Netflix series Depp v. Heard, arriving over a year after Johnny Depp’s defamation trial against Amber Heard reached its exhausting conclusion, is the documentary equivalent of one of those aggregated “first reactions” articles. Using social media responses from the trial, along with pool footage of courtroom testimony, Cooper is able to give an overview of what may or may not have been the first “TikTok trial,” to capture the sloppiness of the legal process and the spectacular biases of online sentiment — and to say exactly what was already evident to everybody at the time.

For viewers coming out of a 10-year coma, Depp v. Heard is sure to be vaguely enlightening and disheartening, but otherwise, it’s hard to know who the ideal audience would be. I’m sure some of the most vocal and flamboyant of online Johnny Depp supporters will be happy to see themselves represented with so little pushback, so maybe it will be a fun time capsule for them? The documentary isn’t wholly without attempted balance, but if you actually were conscious when the legal mess was unfolding, it’s generally pointless.

There’s a lot of “taking everybody at their word” in Depp v. Heard because Cooper’s goal is more about representing this court of public opinion than doing anything tangible with it. The anti-Heard side of the discourse comes from passionate zealots, colorful personalities wearing Deadpool masks or prone to yelling incredulously and profanely into their webcams; the pro-Heard side is conveyed in isolated tweets, brief clarifications of white text on a black screen or the occasional reluctant moderate on online panel shows. It’s less that Cooper wants her documentary to be balanced than that she wants to chronicle the imbalance, which apparently is almost impossible to do without perpetuating more of the imbalance.