When Netflix dropped The Truth About Jussie Smollett? On August 22, 2025, it came dressed up as a thoughtful, "multi-perspective" documentary-complete with a question mark poised to signal fair-mindedness. But make no mistake: this film feels more like a cleverly disguised PR vehicle than an honest investigation.
From the get-go, director Gagan Rehill levers the ambiguity of the case-conviction, reversal, competing narratives-to nudge the viewer toward one conclusion: that Smollett's version deserves equal weight. But one can't help but notice the heavy-handed framing. The central tension the doc presents-hate-crime victim or schemer-for-hire-leans uncomfortably toward absolving Smollett, despite the mountain of evidence suggesting otherwise.
Let's be clear on the facts: Smollett was found guilty in 2021 of staging the attack and filing a false police report-convicted on five felony counts and handed a jail sentence. Yes, his conviction was overturned in 2024-but not because the evidence was exonerating. The Illinois Supreme Court reversed the verdict on narrow due-process grounds: prosecutorial misconduct, not innocence.
Yet the film props up Smollett's denial as the moral high ground. One can't help but feel the editing hand gently sets him up as a misunderstood martyr. Meanwhile, you'd expect a fair documentary to weigh the testimonies of the Osundairo brothers-who claimed he hired them to stage the attack-against his increasingly polished defense. Instead, the editing gives Smollett far more sympathy, even as legal documents still imply serious wrongdoing.
And how about that question mark in the title-it smartly deflects criticism. "Oh, it's just asking questions," they'll say. But let's be honest: we all know it's not an open-ended inquiry. It's a Trojan horse for redemption TV.
At the end of the doc, Netflix's armchair detective stance invites viewers to re-evaluate the story of media overreach, police screw-ups, fractured narratives, and institutional bias. Yet what's glaringly omitted in that invitation is the clear line between investigative nuance and sympathy laundering.
Closing Thought (with a wink at Netflix's weakness for edgy doc series): If Netflix is so committed to making every controversial figure "complex," why not go bigger? Maybe they'd like to air Onision's YouTube "documentaries" next-where he claims (with equally persuasive logic and zero evidence) that he's innocent too, because, well... words and feelings.
