New sordid dose of Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died in June 2009. But even before his death, in the last twenty years, every so often a new audiovisual dose has emerged that recovers the most sordid circumstances of his existence. Netflix has added to its repertoire a documentary miniseries that aims to analyze the sexual abuse trial that was held against him in 2005. Cameras were banned in that trial. And now Michael Jackson: The Verdict gathers as many testimonies as possible to explain the circumstances surrounding the judicial process and the reasons that led to the not guilty verdict. The production seems like a way to compensate for the recent Michael, the successful cinematographic biopic that has been recreated explaining childhood traumas to justify any strange circumstance that surrounded his life.The verdict is gripping, but not because it conducts a relevant investigation or brings anything new to the case. The series captivates because the troubled and decadent life of the King of Pop is bound to have a hypnotic effect on anyone minimally sensitive. The material doesn't need to be unpublished. Everything is so murky and grotesque that even seeing images we've already seen in the past still evokes fascination. The miniseries revisits the testimony of Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who recorded the famous documentary Living with Michael Jackson, which exposed the singer's delusional and frivolous life. Bashir, the man who deceived Lady Di with an interview at her home, managed to uncover the hints of sexual abuse later denounced by Gavin Arvizo, the cancer-stricken teenager Jackson had invited to sleep in his bed since he was little. The verdict recovers archival footage from that production and the police recordings from the Neverland raid. The series seeks an apparent fairness by including the version of Jackson's defense lawyers and the voice of the prosecutors in the case. In fact, the documentary recovers as many testimonies as it can: friends of the singer, service staff, Neverland workers, jury members from the trial, police officers who handled the case, and journalists who dedicated years to investigating the artist to squeeze every last drop out of the facts. It's not much because the story has already been told so many times and mulled over so much that it doesn't quite move forward. In no case does it surpass Dan Reed's Leaving Neverland, De Dan Reed. In the future, either new evidence emerges or you end up with the feeling that economic power has always managed to hide something that seems obvious but doesn't quite surface. There is only a small distinguishing fact when this case is explained to you again: the more years separate us from the artist's death, the more you realize how the disturbing and destroyed aspect of the character and his troubled life came to be normalized. Seen now, it is incomprehensible. Michael Jackson died at just the right moment so that current social standards and the evolution in victims' rights and consent would not end up crushing him completely.