Title: Sean Combs: The Reckoning
Language: English
Genre: Documentary
Objectional Content: Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault
*THIS DOCUMENTARY DEALS HEAVILY WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE WHICH MAY BE EXTREMELY UPSETTING TO MANY VIEWERS*
My Review
I literally just finished watching this documentary and I have to say I am absolutely disgusted by it. Anyone who has ever experienced sexual assault or any type of domestic violence would be so disgusted and triggered as well.
Over 4 episodes, this documentary goes over the life of Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy, P. Diddy) starting at the beginning of his career as a young fresh faced teen who “just wanted to dance.” As he gains fame and fortune, that fresh faced teen turns into a slimy, manipulative predator, who uses that fame and fortune to get whatever he wants.
I knew very little about Sean Combs before watching this. I had heard about the allegations against him concerning his “freak offs” and other types of parties. So, going in to this, I didn’t have much of a bias. I now think that Sean Combs deserves a lot more punishment than what he ultimately got, in my opinion.
The fourth episode is particularly aggravating as it covers the trial and the outcome. There are even interviews with two of the jurors that really got my blood boiling. I honestly don’t know how he could be acquitted for some of the charges and only receive a 50 month prison sentence. For the record, that is less than 5 years.
The jurors expressed disbelief at some of the testimony of the witnesses, calling it “unbelievable” and just dismissing that it could have ever happened. They said things like “well, she went back” about Combs’ long time girlfriend Cassie, who endured years of abuse at his hands. Clearly, that person has no understanding of the cycle of abuse and how it affects the victim.
Combs’ lawyers said she could have left at any time, had she wanted to. Yet, there is video evidence of what happened when she tried to leave. The poor woman was thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly. Not to mention the amount of influence someone like Sean Combs has. If he didn’t want her to leave, she wasn’t going to be able to with any success without a whole lot of help. That help was basically non existent.
To say that I was fuming by the end of the fourth episode is an understatement. This was a gross injustice to all the people, women and men, who suffered and were traumatized because of Sean Combs. In my opinion, he should be in jail far longer than he was sentenced to.
Every time I see cases like this it reminds of just how little justice there is in this world for victims of these types of crimes. Especially when the perpetrator is someone with a great deal of money. As one of the women in the documentary said “Powerful people can do terrible things.”
Thinking about cases like Epstein and Bill Cosby as well as Sean Combs, it is pretty clear that if you have a lot money, you can do whatever you want and get away with it. And, even if they are caught, their punishment will be light. I can’t begin to imagine the fear the people speaking in the documentary must feel thinking about him getting out of jail. It wouldn’t be surprising if a lot of those people didn’t experience some form of retaliation, in my opinion.
I feel terrible for all the victims in this case, as well as the victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in this world.
Despite it being a very hard watch and it making me so very angry, my rating for this documentary is 5 out of 5 stars and I think as many people as possible should watch it. The awareness of this sort of injustice needs to spread if anything is ever to change.