TV Review - Lorena

This documentary series premiered early in 2019. I overlooked it. With so much television, it's understandable how something like this can be passed over. The Emmy Awards certainly passed it over. As I consider the best TV shows this past year, I had to go back and finish watching this deconstruction of one of the biggest tabloid stories of the 1990's. The headline that dominated the news starting in the summer of 1993 was Lorena Bobbit being arrested for cutting off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.

Directed by Joshua Rofé, the series features current interviews with both Lorena Bobbitt and John Wayne Bobbitt separately over 25 years after the incident. It becomes an in-depth deconstruction of the multiple trials that followed the incident, the context and culture surrounding them all. Like any good documentaries, it not only provides incredible insight into both people and both sides as it were but also it provides a grander view that goes beyond the individuals and can be applied to the country and the people in it at large.

Lorena Bobbitt, formerly Lorena Gallo, was an immigrant from Ecuador who lived in Manassas, Virginia, which is less than a hour outside of Washington, DC. She worked as a manicurist in a beauty salon. She married John Wayne Bobbitt, a former athlete and marine who idolized action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. There was never any question that Lorena cut off John's penis while he was asleep. The question is why did she do it. What is revealed is her claim that John had allegedly raped, beaten and sodomized her for years. Lorena was the victim of domestic abuse and domestic violence, which led to her snapping and doing what she did.

There were two trials. One was against John for his abuse. The other was against Lorena for severing John's genitalia. Rofé lays out the ins and outs of both trials. He also allows both parties to speak and one can make up his or her own mind about the two of them. Yet, the bigger indictment is against the culture as a whole and the media representations, which certainly didn't help the matter. By the end, it's clear of the level of sexism against women and misogyny in the United States that persisted then and still persists to this day, if one listens to the extreme cases of the Me Too Movement. It makes this documentary very relevant and a must-see.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 4 eps.

Available on Amazon.