Kelly," the Lifetime documentary that aired in January and seemed to do what a mountain of previous reporting and victim accounts could not, resulting in Kelly's Feb. To a certain degree, "Leaving Neverland" is potentially more devastating than even "Surviving R.
What we get this time are disturbing, graphic and wholly consistent accounts of the predation, grooming and rape of two children by a man who wielded considerable psychological control over everyone in his environment - including the boys' parents.
What they are talking about is not just the creepy affection, playful roughhousing and tender hand-holding we were once told was the innocent expression of love between a man (Jackson), who sacrificed his own childhood to bring joy to millions, and the star-struck boys he was thus entitled to enjoy as special pals. Even the outrage feels at last like the real deal, instead of the manufactured byproduct of tabloids and TMZ.Īlready the talk of this year's Sundance Film Festival, "Leaving Neverland" is the story of two men - noted pop choreographer Wade Robson, 36, and James "Jimmy" Safechuck, 41 - who each tell us, with the resolute certainty that they lacked as younger witnesses deposed and questioned in other cases, that Jackson sexually molested them when they were boys, starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s and continuing into their teenage years.
The details are still appalling, but what we see and hear in Dan Reed's riveting and sharply convincing four-hour documentary, "Leaving Neverland" (airing in two parts Sunday and Monday on HBO), supplies the viewer with an unexpected measure of calm. Remove the usual "King of Pop" soundtrack and all that glitters, and things get so much clearer.
It's remarkable what happens when you take Michael Jackson out of the latest Michael Jackson scandal.
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