I probably should avoid it too, but I watched the first episode just now, as I suspect it will come up at work.
Dave’s summary of the bias and distortion is accurate, though they represent Woody with audio from his book, in his voice, which seems like they would need his permission to do? Dylan is allowed to tell her story of course, but I would have more respect for this series if it was in fact titled something like “Dylan’s Story” (though, frankly, it would probably more accurately be called “Mia’s Story”) than something implying both sides are being told. The series could go a long way towards redeeming it self if it spends an hour somewhere on what we now know about the suggestibility of human, and especially childhood, memory, and the complications of child abuse allegations in the context of custody and relationship conflict. However, the failure to present this at the very beginning of the series so it could contextualize (to use a favorite word of Ronan’s) the story to come is a major failure. For me the most revealing moment in episode 1 was Mia’s friend saying that Mia was “very forgiving” of Soon-Yi when Mia first found the pornographic pictures of Soon-Yi in Woody’s apartment. Soon-Yi was 21 (or, by some accounts, 19) at the time, having an affair with a man in his late 50s, and to that extent not that different from her mother Mia’s relationship with Frank Sinatra. Woody was never married to Soon-Yi, and never adopted her, and she had an adoptive father, but even so clearly had some form of father figure role for much of her childhood. This is the most obviously shitty behavior on the part of Woody, and is the part that come closest to his avatar in *Manhattan*. That remark from Mia’s friend though suggested to me that Mia is functioning during this period more as a hurt and jealous romantic parter to Allen (and rival to her daughter Soon-Yi) than as a concerned mother. None of that means that Allen did not molest his adopted daughter Dylan. But the documentary assumes an ominous tone of his guilt being inevitable, which it never justifies or earns. I am open to evidence that Allen is guilty- God knows in my own work I have seen enough horrific instances of men doing horrible things to their daughters. But I still have not seen that evidence. We know that several competent agencies investigated at the time and found no evidence, though of course it would not be the first time rich and famous people got favorable treatment (though in this case there were rich and famous people on both sides). I am going to need more than horrified memories from Mia’s friend that Woody let 3 year old Dylan suck on his thumb. On Wed, 17 Feb 2021 at 1:43 AM 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV < tvornottv@googlegroups.com> wrote: > I'll be avoiding this one the way the Farrows avoid the truth. From all > advance word, it's heavily slanted in their favor and damns Allen, who > refused to participate, as did Moses Farrow, who seems to have the clearest > perspective of all. > > What Allen did was, well, shitty, but (from what's on the record) not as > reprehensible as Mia and Ronan would have us believe. > > --Dave Sikula > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/c6aa42dc-3d40-4e66-a40c-fbb83d45f865n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/c6aa42dc-3d40-4e66-a40c-fbb83d45f865n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYJXK%3DaUGzm6mtnjdjTkA5itAQZ0JeTcCzYxUDpHTEhpmA%40mail.gmail.com.
