Depp V Heard Review: Johnny Depp & Amber Heard Turn Lab Rats For Content Creators As Docu-Series Give Voice To The Already Loud Influencers

Cast: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, and Kate Moss.

Creator: Emma Cooper.

Director: Emma Cooper.

Streaming On: Netflix.

Language: English (With Subtitles).

Runtime:  3 Episodes, Around 60 Minutes Each.

Depp V Heard Review: What’s It About:

The Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp got into a series of legal battle with former wife Amber Heard after they decided to get a divorce in 2016, with the last battle being fought recently, where Depp came out victorious. The docu-series talks about the tension inside the courtroom, the cultural movement that a fight between man and wife became, and what it resulted into beyond the court hearing profiting either of the two parties directly involved.

Depp V Heard Review: Analysis:

Even for a film critic sitting here in India, I knew almost everything about this case and the publically telecasted trials even before I got into the first episode of Depp V Heard. So as a viewer, the suspense wasn’t about what happens in the central conflict, but the makers chose to show around it. Because if you have seen the trials when they took place, you are already aware of the big twist of Kate Moss, and the stairs will be spoken about. Amber will accuse Johnny of s*xual abuse with a glass bottle, and so on. Then what is it that Emma Cooper and a team of some prolific people have to offer new?

As the series suggests, it is not an exaggerated statement that Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard and the final defamation battle became a cultural movement. It was more about the fans at war than the two people fighting against each other directly. While the show manages to get that right, it never delves deeper into the fan culture that was not backing a movie but a court-proven ‘wife beater’ and a lady who had made some tall order claims. Instead, the show chooses to deliver into the world of influencers and content creators who earned millions of dollars by only reporting and talking about this case.

Nothing wrong in talking about them and showing what effect Depp V Heard had on the culture and people involved around it. But the show, after a point, lost its own voice and started borrowing it from these said content creators. It was then who were driving the narrative just like the real times. This is like giving voice to the already loud people. It’s a docu-series that is supposed to be unbiased and informative. This one, though, ends up being a series of opinions that have no structure or aim but to only talk.

This leads to Johnny Depp and Amber Heard looking like animals kept in zoo and content creators earning out of their antiques. The two never become humans fighting against each other, but only subjects that could be out of a weakly written movie; you never know.

Credit where it is due, Depp V Heard does get interesting when it decides to take us back in time when Johnny Depp and Amber Heard fell in love with each other. The moment they first kissed, the book and kind of music they first discussed, why this beautiful lady fell for a man two decades older than her. It is such a saving moment to see them beyond the battle they are fighting, and realise that they were in love once, and this isn’t just a legal war of defamation but also past lovers. But unfortunately, that is one redemption amid a pool of noisy influencers.

A more nuanced storytelling centered around Johnny and Amber would have made Depp V Heard a brilliant subject matter. Two grey people are fighting each other even when accepting their love was strong when it sparked. Imagine how interesting it would have been! Because we even know what happened post the events of this docu series already, in that case the series should have been a step ahead of us and not many behind.

Depp V Heard Review: Last Words:

Depp V Heard is more about the noise and less about what happened between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. The intent is not to make things clear but just to show people what is already seen by them.

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