Take Ava DuVernay’s recent drama When They See Us, which dramatized 1989’s highly controversial Central Park 5 court case, in which five innocent teenagers were convicted and jailed for the brutal rape of a young woman.
Thankfully, most of Netflix’s originals don’t have to worry about any potential legal ramifications whenever people complain about them online.
Since that show’s release, the case’s real-life prosecutor Linda Fairstein has lost a book deal and more over the renewed backlash, and she responded in kind with a scathing Wall Street Journal op-ed.
Something of an opposite effect can happen as well, however.