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I'm a big fan of Michael Jackson and I wasn't in the US at the time of the scandals so I missed all the media coverage and seeing this documentary was an eye opening experience. Understanding MJ's life, however, was not as important as my realization and understanding of sexual abuse and the life long lasting physiological effect it has on people. I feel a little ashamed for defending MJ for so many years as I was convinced these gentlemen were speaking the truth. You can't make this up with so much detail that matches the documented parts of his life. The entire family feels shaken up when they portray their experience and I just can't imagine that all members of two families would be such good actors to make this all up. I am certain there will be much more talk about this documentary but I hope these gents and many other victims who watch this piece will benefit from it on their journey of healing. I wouldn't have watched it, had it not involved MJ and now I am educated about sexual abuse. So some good came out of it. I hope more people watch it.

Legitimately, there's no way to know if this is 100% true or not but can anyone explain to me what is wrong with these mothers? "I never thought anything of my seven year old spending the night with him over me." "He was like a nine year old so it seemed fine." Is it legitimately possible for people to be so star struck that your children's welfare is not even considered. I'm so disgusted in so many ways... the other reviews that I have seen only confused me. Most people say it's either fake or it's sad but no one seems to be outraged at these garbage parents. I hope this is fake because I hope no one would allow this to happen to their children just because the person is famous. If it is true, which I personally think it may be, these two boys went through a terrible childhood. I grew up a MJ fan, I'm mostly disgusted with him now, which makes me sad in a different level. Curious if the majority of these reviews are big fans that don't want to believe these things are true...? Either way, after watching this I'm truly depressed and confused.

I wouldn't consider myself a diehard MJ fan but as a child growing up in the 80's I understood the super star power that MJ had. I get why these families were awestruck by MJ wanting them to be a part of his family. Ultimately it blinded them from the sick realities of MJ's own struggles with pedophilia. This film did a great job at laying out the facts and focusing on the two men and their experiences. Anyone that actually watches this movie will have a tough time denying the stories from these two men.

I feel like this documentary was very well done. I came into this thinking this would be some more BS and it was just a way to tarnish MJ life without him being able to defend himself. Well after watching both parts I 100 percent believe this happened to them. For everyone saying there is no evidence and no proof. Did you actually watch it? How many boys need to come forward with the same exact story? Why would maids and people who work on the property and drivers need to lie on their behalf? What did they need to gain? The workers weren't trying to get any money. Think about this. How do you feel like it is ok for a grown man to have a 7 year old boy sleep in his hotel room alone or all the other younger boys sleep in his room alone? In what shape or form is that ok? Is that not proof or evidence in itself? The maid even said she saw them naked taking showers together. So was it one big conspiracy to just tarnish his name? When everyone keeps saying that they testified on his behalf so they must be lying now. Think about this. Wade Robson was 22 at the time with a gf and had a good career in the music industry. MJ had a relationship with him since he was 7 and had groomed him on what to say and he felt love toawards MJ. He even lied to his family and his gf about everything. He didn't even want to testify but he was subpoenaed. He knew MJ his whole life and even knew his kids. He didn't want to see MJ go to jail. He felt like is was a relationship and friendship and didn't feel like he was abused. This is what abusers do to their victims and their families. They become really close and manipulate the parents into trusting them as well. Both of these men are now in their 30s and finally have the courage to speak up. Some victims never speak up because of the shame and embarrassment they feel. You can feel however you want about MJ or this documentary but when you look at the facts and even court documents and everyone with the same story that's not just a coincidence or a conspiracy. The fact that he had young boys sleeping with him alone is enough for me to believe them. Watch both parts all the way through before you just automatically assume they are lying. Honestly I hope more people have the courage to speak up about this now. Some will take it to their graves and that happens to victims. I commend these two brave men for finally having the courage to speak up and tell their story. I don't feel like they are doing it to hurt MJ I feel like they are doing it to help others who go through or have gone through this type of abuse and are never able to speak out about it.

Broadcast in early March 2019, Leaving Neverland is not about Michael Jackson. It's not about Wade Robson. It's not about Jimmy Safechuck. It's about how paedophiles groom not just their victims, but their victims' families. It's about the complicated relationship that victims can form with their abusers. It's about the myriad of reasons that can conspire to prevent victims from coming forward. It's about how the effects of childhood sexual abuse linger into adulthood. Certainly, fans will argue that Jackson didn't have a childhood, that he himself was a victim of non-sexual abuse at the hands of his father, that he was an innocent who simply liked to make children happy. However, even his most fervent admirers have always found it difficult to rationalise the fact that this grown man chose to surround himself with prepubescent boys, with whom he would hold hands in public and share his bed in private. That's not normal, and no amount of blinkered rhetoric can render it so.

Undoubtedly, the documentary is unbalanced - no attempt was made to contact the Jackson estate, any of his family, or anyone who knew or worked for him, limiting itself instead to interviews with Robson, Safechuck, and their families. It also omits information concerning the ongoing lawsuits each has filed against the estate. Furthermore, it's aesthetically bland, with the majority of the runtime taken up with visually flat talking-head interviews filmed in standard mid-shots and close-ups. However, this is very much by design; director Dan Reed isn't concerned with bells and whistles or smoke and mirrors. This isn't a tabloid depiction of a salacious celebrity scandal - rather it has a troubling story to tell, an important point to make, a relevant theme to explore, and it wants to do so as unencumbered by the trappings of form as it can. It doesn't need to be as long as it is, and the lack of balance unquestionably leaves it open to criticism, but nevertheless, this is an exceptional examination of grooming and the psychological effects of abuse.

The film tells the similar but separate stories of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, each of whom met Jackson in 1987, when Wade was five and James was ten. Over the next few years, each boy became a frequent companion of Jackson, and, as they tell it, a victim of regular molestation. When Jackson was accused of molesting 13-year-old Jordan Chandler in 1993, Wade and James gave statements denying that Jackson had done anything inappropriate with them, whilst Wade, his sister Chantal, and his mother Joy all publicly defended Jackson. In 2005, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation relating to 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo, and reached out to both Wade and James. However, whilst Wade and Chantal both agreed to act as witnesses for the defence, James refused, telling his mother Stephanie that Jackson had molested him. Wade would not reveal to his family that he had been molested until 2013.

Leaving Neverland is less concerned with the actual abuse (although time is certainly given over to that) than with the process of grooming and the psychological aftereffects. Culled from over 50 hours of interviews, the film runs just under 240 minutes, but, despite the runtime, the only interviewees are Wade, Joy, Chantal, Wade's brother Shane, his grandmother Lorraine Jean Cullen, and his wife Amanda, and James, Stephanie, and James's wife Laura. Reed did interview investigators from 1993 and 2005, but as he explains, "I realised that the families' telling of the story was so complete already. You feel like you are inside the family, and I felt that interviews from the public sphere would break that spell and place us back on the outside."

Aesthetically, the film is as plain as possible. Whereas Wade and James's accounts are graphic and difficult to hear, they're never sensationalised, with Reed allowing their words to speak for themselves - there's no cutaways to experts telling us what to think, no graphics or voice-overs, no montages to suture us into the timeframe. Indeed, at times, Reed's camera sits patiently as an interviewee formulates their thoughts - a kind of "dead air" that one doesn't find in most documentaries.

This tendency to leave the stories unadorned ties into the usage of such a small pool of interviewees - this is Wade and James's story, and anything or anyone which can't speak to that very specific rubric isn't featured. Something else Reed omits is any attempt to tie Jackson's behaviour back to his own abusive upbringing - the film makes no attempt to portray him as somehow less culpable because he didn't have a childhood. In fact, it makes no attempt to portray him at all. Again, this is Wade and James's story, and for better or worse, Reed concerns himself with nothing but that story and how the abuse rippled out through the two families.

Within that, it's as much about the complex, often contradictory relationships that victims can develop with their abusers as it is with the abuse itself. This speaks to why both Wade and James lied for so long - they weren't just lying to other people, they were lying to themselves. And ultimately, the film suggests that rather than being indicative of fabrication, such falsehoods are an understandable reaction to sustained abuse - the compulsion to keep the secret is an intrinsic element of that which is being kept secret, with Wade stating, "I want to be able to speak the truth as loud as I had to speak the lie for so long."

Of course, a major theme is the manipulative nature inherent to grooming. As Oprah Winfrey says in Oprah Winfrey Presents: After Neverland (2019), "this wasn't just sexual abuse, it was also sexual seduction." However, it was also non-sexual seduction of the families. This is especially important in relation to Joy and Stephanie, who allowed themselves to be talked into granting permission for a man they didn't really know to take their child into his bed, and who today are working as much to forgive themselves as they are to atone to their children.

However, as much as the film indicts the parents, so too does it indict society at large. Reed continuously cuts from the talking-head interviews to archival footage of young boys in Jackson's presence (as well as Wade and James, we see Macaulay Culkin and Brett Barnes). This allows Reed to wordlessly comment on the collective societal obliviousness and blind hero worship that allowed Jackson to publicly surround himself with children without anyone saying, "this is kinda weird". And just as people such as R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes, and Bill O'Reilly got away with predatory behaviour, Jackson's celebrity was simply too big, dwarfing any sense of criminality; his star power was such that we dismissed what, in hindsight, was textbook grooming, as we put his fondness for prepubescent boys down to nothing more than his young-at-heart idiosyncrasy. Celebrity Trumps criminality (pun very much intended - after all, when Donald Trump literally admitted on tape he could sexually assault women with impunity and get away with it because he's famous, he was subsequently elected president).

Of course, there are problems, several of which I've already touched on. The imbalance for example. I understand why Reed confined his interviews to just Wade, James, and their families, but by doing so, he has opened himself and the film up to a not illegitimate form of attack. And because this makes the film easier to critique, it makes it easier to dismiss, and thus easier to ignore, which is pretty much the opposite of what you want to happen as a documentarian.

Another problem is that it doesn't need to be four-hours long. There are several lengthy narrative digressions that, although they help to flesh out the home lives of Wade and James, do very little to inform the allegations against Jackson. Reed also tends to overuse drone shots of LA, which act like paragraph breaks. It's an interesting idea, but there are far too many, becoming repetitive and, eventually, irritating. And then, of course, there are the omissions, which have proven to be a red flag to a bull for Jackson fans. For example, that Wade is suing the Jackson estate is mentioned once, very briefly, and never alluded to again. That James is also suing the estate is never mentioned.

In the end, the lack of balance is a significant problem, but not to the extent that it undermines the way Reed presents the accusations, the way he teases out the process of grooming, the way he unflinchingly presents the abuse itself, the way he comes to focus on the years after the abuse ended - the film's cumulative effect is startlingly raw and generally persuasive. It looks at the process by which Jackson manoeuvred himself into a position to abuse the boys as much as at the abuse itself and at the psychological effects of telling the lie for so long as much as at the lie itself. In this sense, this is a hugely valuable document, not necessarily in terms of the specifics of Wade and James's stories, but in relation to the broader issues of child sexual abuse, and the misconceptions that permeate the zeitgeist.

It's interesting how people are trying so hard to find an excuse for MJ. They just don't want to beleive anything bad. Imagine if your next door neigbour was walking around holding hands with boys (every time with a different one), and you know that these boys spend nights in his apartment. You know that their parents are not there all the time. Wouldn't you be calling police? And if that neigbour was telling you that what he does that because he loves children and he didn't have a childhood, wouldn't you recommend him to see a psychiatrist? But in case of MJ it all makes sence. All that is pefectly normal. I don't get it! Wake up, people!!!

HBO's Leaving Neverland is one of those disgusting but necessary films. I hadn't heard much about it prior to its Sundance premiere, nor its subsequent two-part broadcast. However, my social media feeds told me that something, somehow, has proven to be the final drop for those who still defended pop icon Michael Jackson - not defenders of his music, mind, but of him as a person, the particular habits he had, and the children who stayed with him. There have been documentaries and reports before, but now, years later, we get to hear the children speak.

Specifically we hear from Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck, who, after growing up and starting families of their own, could stay silent no longer. This isn't squarely a documentary on the late Michael Jackson. The film is very much about the psychological effects of a traumatic past and it gets understandably uncomfortable.

The men and their families explain how it began when they were both kids, idolizing Michael like any youngster in the "Thriller" era would, eventually getting to meet and work with him, which supposedly evolved into a 7-year story of abuse. Some interpret Michael's behavior as childishly oblivious rather than nefarious or predatory. And yes, when your Peter Pan complex is so on-the-nose (no pun intended) that you name your domicile Neverland Ranch, we can all surmise you're not all there.

The pain visible on these people is unmistakable, but you know exactly what kind of tale this is and how some folk react to stories of terrible fates befalling children. I don't doubt a few Sandy Hook conspiracy types will scrutinize the authenticity of this footage when they see shots of the men smiling. "Bad thing happen to them but in this image they glad, whaaa? Why they say things now but not back when they were in a state of denial, whaaa?"

I can agree that the movie could have used more concrete data. At almost 4 hours, Leaving Neverland is a doozy (I recommend watching it in the televised 2-part format) and I still felt hungry for information after watching it. But then, I was already too familiar with the renowned Moonwalker megastar to need convincing that he had a weird relationship with kids.

Despite a few minor filmmaking flaws (a few photographs and still frames last for a bit too long, editing-wise, and drone cameras are comically overused), I do think this qualifies as an "important" movie and I don't necessarily mean in terms of giving a voice to victims of grooming. Instead, I'm referring to how the buzz around the film lets us analyze fanboy behavior; how a person might approach reality when not wanting their sacred musical idol to be the bad guy. The celebrity worship that let this (or something like it) happen once is still quite alive.

The few surviving Michael Jackson apologists have called the film one-sided, saying it provides little evidence outside of anecdotes from Jackson's purported victims. They also note that previous charges against Michael have been dropped, neglecting to also mention that he was able to afford some mighty gifted lawyers.

No matter the case, thinking that "set free = innocent" (automatically) can be a pretty dangerous mindset. How do you suppose these fanboys and fangirls would have reacted if Michael invited THEIR children into his whimsical wonderland?

Dear fans: If you're having trouble, I can provide interview clips, previously used in Living with Michael, that are quite tricky to interpret in a multitude of ways. But since they're already out there and you've no doubt seen them, let me instead share a quote from Bojack Horseman worth considering (although I've obviously altered the context): "When you look at someone through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags".

The Jacksonphiles are screaming like banshees in denial...well they are just that: peripheral extras buying into the illusion for years and now seeing it crumble whilst refusing point blank to accept the evidence, any evidence. I am very concerned about the "reviewers" here saying the testimonies of the two protagonists are not credible: they are amongst the most believable and moving things I have ever seen, The Jackson cultists have crossed the (perhaps thin to start with) threshold away from human empathy and nothing will shake them from their untenable position. Let us hope they will never be called to serve on jury dities. This documentary is a MUST. Let us hope that this and the #metoo movement will signal the turning of the tide and that we will be able to recognise more easily and we will adopt the belief in the victims as our default stance.

Michael Jackson was in my favorite music playlist in the 80's but I was not a hardcore fan. I was wondering at that time why he was with only with kids.

This documentary shed new light on the mega pop-star and his 'dark' side. Interviews of 2 victims and relatives.

Really disturbing. Like the 'dark' side of the Catholic Church around the world.

As someone who followed the trial and all allegations for years, i am honestly not shocked that they lacked evidence. The documentary relies more on emotions. Not shocked their lawsuits got dismissed.

As an adult who grew up in the 80's and remembers Michael and his influence very well, I watched this documentary with my own experiences with his music in mind. When he first began being accused of various acts of pedophilia in the late 80's and early 90's, it seemed clear that he had some extremely disgusting proclivities. As a survivor of molestation myself, I watched this documentary and went right back to my own experiences and found their stories very believable. This movie was not about providing evidence, although I believe that they did with their personal testimonies, witnesses to his behavior and faxes, videos, and recordings. This movie was about their experiences with him personally and what they went through. There is no situation wherein it is appropriate for a grown man to keep a young boy in his bed unless it is a father/son. I give this movie a 10. I hope that they can someday heal.

Just saw all of "Leaving Neverland". I grew up watching the Jackson 5 in the 70's and it wasn't a secret how the father raised the kids to perform like circus animals practically depriving them from a normal childhood in the name of fame and fortune.

The reports about their abusive father and how hard he pushed them was a black cloud for the Jacksons.

Maybe the doc should have started there. That, however, is certainly no excuse for any hurt MJ caused these families.

With that said, Michael's music was, is and will always be the work of genius.

After watching "Leaving Neverland", I wish peace for all of the families involved. There's a lot of pain and raw hurt on display in the doc. The kind of pain you often see when ppl come to Hollywood & things don't work out. Many people end up homeless, on drugs, prostitution, jail etc. People you will never get to meet because they are not famous enough to have a documentary made about their plight.

Lots of issues going on in the doc.

It was heartbreaking to see the results of what happens when good intentions go wrong when the moral compass is compromised.

Whether you are an MJ fan or not, is irrelevant, when you are capable of research. There have been so many parts of this film shown to be false that it is unbelievable it is still being shown anywhere. True - the story of it is shocking. It plays on the viewer's natural and right revulsion when they are presented with abuse. But it is precisely that - a shocking story. Proven to be nothing but. I suggest watching Danny Wu's "Square One", or "Chase the Truth", or "LeavingNeverland: The Aftermath" amongst others, where ACTUAL EVIDENCE of these men's lies is given. These men have done so much damage to real victims of abuse it is crazy - they should not be given the time of day, let alone a platform.

I was once an obsessive Michael Jackson fan who had long since sadly concluded he was a paedophile.

I sat down to watch Leaving Neverland expecting to believe James and Wade - what I didn't expect was to be so profoundly moved by their harrowing stories and brutal honesty. They are without a doubt telling the truth. (To those who demand absolute proof: there's unlikely to ever be a smoking gun, but that's not unusual in sexual abuse cases - however, there's a mountain of circumstantial evidence (including court documents freely available online), compelling witness testimony, and a long pattern of textbook paedophile behaviour by Jackson.)

I feel like this is a hugely important and influential work that will change not only how we think about Michael Jackson but how we think about child sexual abuse and grooming. It (and the accompanying Oprah special) is a must see for every parent who wants to be educated about child sexual predators and how they operate. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about the subject but my eyes have been well and truly opened by Leaving Neverland.

Thank you to James and Wade and their families for their bravery and honesty, and to Dan Reed for creating such an important work. Leaving Neverland is not an easy watch but I thoroughly recommend it.

10/10

Dot point time; I have too many thoughts and no coherent way to connect them:

• It's crazy to me how people believe or don't believe Michael Jackson is innocent. It's really an opinion, unless you were directly involved as a victim or someone claiming to be a victim. There is no way of knowing for sure. That's a scary thought but in a case like this, I think that's just how it has to be.
• This documentary provides a good reason to question his innocence. The interviews are compelling and emotional. If these people are making this all up then they are fantastic actors and probably should be spending their time trying to break into the film industry. But: as convincing as they are, they're not necessarily proof.
• There are documentaries that counter this one that I may check out, but similarly, I don't feel like they can prove or disprove anything. They could expose things in Leaving Neverland as questionable, but to dispute every single allegation would require evidence that just doesn't exist.
• That being said: maybe there is money to be made in exaggerating or manipulating the truth, as a filmmaker. This whole documentary has created a huge buzz and I imagine it was extremely profitable. Profitable enough to make people feel okay with telling nothing but lies? Again, I want to doubt it, but the only truth I can come to is that I do not know.
• What I can offer is my thoughts on how well made this is as a film. The argument presented is compelling, but again: I'm not going to act like it proves or disproves anything. It's very long but is well edited and kept my attention for most of it. Part of me thought it didn't need to be 4 hours, but there are many other 4 hour documentaries I'd tap out of before they were over, so the fact this one kept me until the end means something.
• The biggest missed opportunity: the fact it interviews such a limited number of people. This makes it feel somewhat repetitive in its second half, and makes the film overall slightly less interesting. If they'd gone the OJ: Made In America route of interviewing many people with differing opinions, I think it would have made it stronger overall. And with a 4-hour runtime, I think they could have afforded to add in a few more talking heads.

Typing all that has made me question my positive rating, but at the end of the day: it's a well made documentary. Whether you agree or disagree, I can't make anyone feel the same way as I do. But maybe do think about why you feel so strongly about it, if your opinion is heavily slanted one way or the other, and use it as an opportunity to maybe think about why you are as deadset in your beliefs about something you likely don't know for sure. In divided times, we may as a whole need a bit more neutrality, or at least understanding towards why a person feels a certain way, that's different from the certain way you feel.

This at times is very hard to watch. The supposed victims describe in detail what they went through. They did not get paid for their participation in the doc so I have a tendency to believe them.

Sad that this has a current rating of around 3 on IMDB when you know the majority of people rating it have never even seen it...it has not even had a wide release yet on HBO...all because it shines a bad light on their favorite pop singer. So to the unbiased people out there, sit back, watch, listen, and decide for yourself. I personally don't think its right for a grown man to want to have sleep overs with very young boys, no matter how rich and power they are, which Jackson admitted to doing. There is something that doesn't sit right with me with that picture, and it shouldn't sit well with you either. Peace.

It was obvious that 'Leaving Neverland' was going to be controversial and divide people across the globe, just as this issue has for decades, and that's exactly what it has done. Before reviewing, I would advise everybody to go into it with an open mind and to reserve judgement until they've watched BOTH parts. I'd also recommend watching the follow-up to this, 'After Neverland' which is an interview by Oprah with the victims, James Safechuck and Wade Robson, and the director of the documentary, Dan Reed. As Oprah says this issue is SO much bigger than Michael Jackson, it's SO much bigger than the stories of Jimmy and Wade, it's about the suffering of millions of children across the globe that experience the kind of abuse and exploitation that 'Leaving Neverland' describes. It's about giving those survivors the voices that were stolen from them as children and allowing them to tell their stories and speak candidly about this issue that most of us would prefer to ignore.

'Leaving Neverland' is four hours of ground-breaking television which explores child sexual abuse and grooming unlike any other documentary I've ever seen. The two-part documentary is long and it could've been condensed, but to do so would mean that vital aspects of the story would've been lost and four hours was needed to explore such a complex issue adequately. Some claim the documentary is biased, unfair and misleading because it's so one-sided but its aim is to give voices to the victims - James Safechuck and Wade Robson - since that is a luxury they hadn't had until now. For years before his death Jackson was able to defend himself against the accusations of child molestation and many others stood with him in defending his reputation. This is the other side of the story, the hidden truths that have gone unheard for decades.

As a society, our dedication and love for Michael Jackson as a ground-breaking performer and outwardly sweet, kind and selfless man compels us to want to believe that he couldn't be capable of such horrendous crimes. But I don't know how anyone can continue to believe he was innocent after watching this. In my opinion, anyone that does is blinded by their love for Michael Jackson the performer or is completely ignorant to the realities of child abuse and how it affects the victims.

Those that condemn this documentary as being propaganda designed by two fame and money hungry liars (Wade Robson and James Safechuck) to tarnish Jackson's reputation and extort his estate for millions of dollars say so out of pure ignorance. These men have no motive or reason for going to these lengths for the sole purpose of money and/or fame. Who would WANT to be famous for being sexually abused by Michael Jackson? Who would choose to subject themselves to such public scrutiny and hatred? Wade and Jimmy (and their families) have been torn apart by this, anyone that watches can see that, and speaking out against Jackson in this way has led to them receiving huge amounts of abuse, including death threats. NOTHING is worth putting themselves and their families through this upheaval except the TRUTH.

That's what this documentary is - the truths of Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck and their families. Some complain that this documentary is biased since it only tells one side of the story, but that's precisely the point. These are Wade and Jimmy's stories told in their own voices, in their own way and that's exactly how it should be. The stories both men share are excruciatingly detailed (so much so that it's painful to hear the acts they describe) and they both give similar accounts which corroborate earlier accusations brought against Jackson. Even as they describe the things Jackson said and did, I can imagine him in my mind doing exactly what they describe. It's horrifying and upsetting to watch and to hear the awful manipulation and abuse these men endured and how it has dictated their entire lives. You can see, hear and feel the agony these men still have to endure even today and the devastating impact it's had on their entire lives and their families.

The level of circumstantial evidence stacked against Jackson at this point is undeniable and if he were alive today and this were taken to court I have no doubt he would be found guilty of sexually abusing both Wade and Jimmy. There is only so long we can defend Jackson's love of children and sleeping in bed with them as being as a result of his traumatic childhood or child-like spirit before it starts being an excuse. In reality, there is nothing that can excuse a grown man sleeping in bed with young children, particularly in a room that is filled with pornographic material and that has a series of sophisticated alarm systems and locks. It is NOT normal or acceptable behaviour, and anyone that believes that nothing untoward happened between Jackson and all of the children that he had alone in his room are blind to the truth.

I have no doubt that in years to come more survivors of Jackson will come forward, but there are many men out there who will take the secret to their grave, just as Wade planned to. I hope this documentary will encourage others that may have been abused by Jackson to come forward too and stand with each other to speak to these heinous crimes which have gone unheard for decades.

I admire and respect Wade and Jimmy's bravery and courage to speak out in this way. It takes great strength and I only hope that this empowers other survivors out there to speak their truths and seek justice, if not to serve the perpetrator the punishment they deserve then for the sake of their own state of mind and healing.

The one thing this documentary demonstrates and that Oprah has rightfully pointed out, is that we still have a long way to go in our understanding of victims of child sexual abuse. However, regardless of whether you believe the claims made by Jimmy and Wade, 'Leaving Neverland' is invaluable in opening up discussion on these issues and spreading awareness. As a society we need to learn how to treat survivors of child sexual abuse and instead of condemning Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck as liars to jump to the defence of a potential paedophile and child molester, we should LISTEN to the survivors and show them EMPATHY and UNDERSTANDING. Doubting them and accusing them of being untruthful is exactly the reason why so many victims remain quiet and don't report what was done to them. So stop defending it based on love for a celebrity you THINK you know and open your eyes to the truth, because the truth is right here in front of us in this documentary.

I sat and watched all 4 hours of this disturbing documentary today. I have always been a die-hard fan of Michael Jackson's music. I followed him from his early Jackson 5 days through his death. I knew he was deeply affected by his own upbringing and really wanted to believe that he just loved being with kids because he was emotionally stunted but I wondered if the allegations were true. This documentary handled the stories of these 2 men, Robson and Safechuck with respect and care. The fact they are coming forward knowing they will be vilified in public to tell their truths convinced me. This was very well done and I hope it raises awareness of a very sad social issue.

HBO is continuing to discuss the Michael Jackson allegations which had started in the 90s. News about Michael Jackson's perversions were the subject of some news and special investigations at the end of the last century. However, the public discourse on the subject of child abuse among the celebrities is ready only today. #Metoo and other online movements and related hashtags have reversed the discourse about sexual freedoms and sexual crimes. Most achievements of the 60s now have reverse consequences. If, in the childhood of Michael Jackson sexual behavior and various forms of sexuality formed some false perception of permissiveness, then today's society fix those false perceptions of sexual permissiveness. For instance, the movie Leaving Neverland exposes some false perception of result of the sexual revolution. At the same time, the movie provides a one-sided victimization view. The movie neglects that Michael Jackson is a victim here too - he has health issues, he suffered racial prejudices, he had a hard childhood. The HBO documentary is pretty one-sided and doesn't give the balance of fact and biography of victims of Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson as a victim himself of the society and family wherein he was raised. The main perception of the movie relies on posthumous judgments without any opportunity for Jackson and his family to defend and illuminate the allegations. Hopefully, the discussion about child abuse among American celebrities will not distract from other crimes and culture patterns which exist among unknown people and well known cultures in the East and Africa (child marriage and this alike practices). Anyway, the cultural heritage of Michael Jackson will still be a part of African-American history and an element of the World musical business.

Most of the information in the movie is not true and has been confirmed to be false. For example Michael not wanting Wade be with girls and him hating girls, when in reality Michael set Wade up with his niece when they where kids and they dated for like 10 years during this period. The last scene in the movie where he burns memorabilia is also fake, as Wade sold all his Michael Jackson stuff in 2011-12.

Wade barbecuing with Michael and his kids is also fake as Michael Jacksons bodyguard and others who where there say that never happened. His bodyguard said that Wade did not meat Michael, as everyone who want to meet Michael has to go through him. The scene where Michael, his kids with Wade and family is said in the movie to be before the trial and they use what allegedly happened in dinner there as a reason why he testified under oath. When in reality according to people who where there say that the dinner was after the trial had ended. So you see there lots of lies and manipulation. So this movie can't be trusted at all.

The frankness of the interviews with the main characters, James and Wade, was stunningly raw. Before this documentary , I had doubts as to the validity of their stories but listening to the interviews, I have little doubt this is how it went down. This isn't for kids to watch.