Faking It: Tears of a Crime

Brilliant Crime Documentary Explaining the bare Bones of each crime.

I enjoyed & watched Seasons 1, 2 & part of 3 of the 2017 Faking It: Tears of a Crime TV Series. The format is the same throughout so I did get a bit bored & didn't complete S3. I also watched Michael Jackson: A Faking It Special TV Episode from the newer 2021 TV Series.

The Michael Jackson Faking It Special is an inconclusive investigative documentary which is loaded with 'bias' against the Michael Jackson, in favour of a form of 'justice' being served. There is a panel of 3 'experts': (1) Dr Cliff Lansley - The Watcher - Body Language Analyst; (2) Professor Dawn Archer - Professor of Linguistics; (3) Kerry Daynes - Forensic Psychologist & Consultant Profiler.

I think MJ was very much a 'misunderstood' person. MJ was to the music industry what the fictional character Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory is/was to science. MJ was a 'nerd' or a 'geek' as the Americans say. MJ's 'superhero' was Peter Pan & he likened himself to his superhero Peter Pan, so what? In another dimension we just woulda accepted that & called him a 'spastic', or a weirdo or awkward - not rebellious awkward but 'odd' awkward. The problem with being 'misunderstood', is that the more you try to explain, justify & rationalise & reason with 'normal people', is the more 'hot water' you throw on yourself, or the bigger the grave you dig for yourself. Sadly & in the end, MJ chose the latter.

Michael Jackson said it himself right at the beginning of the show, "I AM Totally Innocent Of Any Wrong Doing". The show then goes out to discredit the loyalty of the fans & prove MJ's hypothesis - if you like - as 'wrong', or being 'wrong' or in the 'wrong', - ie: how could a 'Thirty Something' year old grown up man be that stupid that he did not realise that 'his' 'brand' of 'innocence' is tottally unacceptable in 'the real world'? So rather than prove MJ is innocent or guilty of the charges he stands accused of, the experts resort to ridiculing MJ's thought process, intelligence & intellect. This is done by a series of varied film footage, and interviews with Michael & other family members, over the course of his life.

MJ was an exceptional artist which straight away puts us on notice that he is Less' skilled at 'Faking It' & even lesser skilled at facing reality. What I mean is that most of us are very good at putting on a bravado that gets us through the day or gets us through life. We 'mask' our 'childhood trauma' with various addictions, obsessiveness, prayers & the belief in demons, ghosts, ghouls & god.

...And what of the parents of these boys who grew up & jumped on the band wagon of the media circus accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation & child sexual abuse? Where were the parents of these children that MJ is accused of having carnal relationships with? Yep! They were right there with them - what's the word - 'grooming' - they were 'grooming' their children to 'cash-in' on the act, as their 'voice', their truth is not represented in this Mockumentary.

By the same token, I do so hate these celebs & superstars who cry about their harsh upbringing & the current influences & involvement their parents had or still have in their lives. Boo-Hoo-Hoo! The Jacksons - including Michael are all part of that, so I Am really not sympathetic to their 'hard luck' stories, because they've enjoyed every moment of the fame, fortune & notoriety that the limelight has brought them. It's only when their privileged lifestyle is at stake does the media circus become problematic to them.

The presenters talk about body language, speech etc, however, a lot of it seems a strong push. One, they're working with already known facts i.e this person is the killer - oh we know that because certain aspects of their body language betrayed them. No.. we already know they're the killer - a simple shrug didn't portray anything otherwise you'd be used beforehand.

Hard watch for sure. They also seem to have an agenda beforehand. Just watched the Shemima Begum episode - they clearly have their own opinion which they are pushing in this show, instead of dealing with hard facts as it should be.

It's very easy to pick out these tell tale signs in the already convicted..but none of this would be useful without all the other evidence. This programme couldn't be made about suspects because they'd be wrong more times than right...

As another reviewer pointed out, this is nothing more than self-described "experts" pointing at behavioral characteristics and claiming that they are somehow indicative of lying when the subject has already been exposed as a liar. In one case in the first series one of the "experts" actually engaged in the very behavior they claimed indicated lying *while they were saying the subject was a liar*!

It's well known to any investigator worth his/her salt that people behave differently and react to stress differently. Italians are well known for talking with their hands-- does that mean all of them are lying all the time? Of course not!

This isn't science by any stretch of the imagination-- it's the opinion of snake oil salesmen who would be working carnival sideshows if they hadn't scammed their way into a television show. Just as with bite mark analysis & hair analysis, these interpretations of behavior are highly subjective and are certainly not scientific.

Two points because some of the stories are interesting to those of us who haven't heard them before but minus 10 points to the so-called experts for their laughable, transparently bad "analysis".