All 4. Leaving Neverland; Michael Jackson and Me. Almost unbearably painful stories of two boys and their relationship with Michael Jackson

https://youtu.be/9KtZ1jWKPzo

This was an impressive and horribly enlightening programme, very powerfully showing the devastating effects of an astonishingly manipulative series of relationships that Jackson had - focusing on two (James Safechuck and Wade Robson) who had, only now, really begin to terms with processing and understanding what had happened to them.

It also showed the toxic effects they had on these people’s families, fracturing them almost irreparably. The parental responsibility - or lack of it - was also one of he most horrifying aspects of this and it showed how horribly easy it was for all to be seduced and manipulated (the adults as much as, if perhaps not more than) the children. I felt at the end that the adults and parents would probably never be able to fully come to terms with/accept what they had allowed to happen, whereas the young people themselves (or at least the two who were the focus in this film) had started on that journey. I think as well that I also began to understand how, in the first trial of Jackson re child abuse, they were able to say that nothing happened - which sounds weird but it was something that was well conveyed by the film as the time taken for the abused to process and understand (or begin to understand) what had happened to them. Also of course, the world in which they were seduced was unbelievably magical -and with a person whom probably the majority of the planet would know or know of. The psychological impact of that must have been indescribable.

A long and traumatic haul, but well worth it.

 

Line of Duty: Series 1. Gripping procedural thriller that unfolds slinkily and grippingly.

A Very English Scandal. Stylishly entertaining account of the Jeremy Thorpe/Norman Scott affair.