Lorena

First-rate film that succeeds in re-working the story we thought we knew into the story we should have known all along.

Some of those series – like Netflix’s 2019 retro-rubbernecking of the Ted Bundy killings – offer little fresh analysis. Others – like ESPN’s 2016 OJ Simpson: Made in America – provide a powerful and disturbing insight into the historic fault lines in our culture. Lorena definitely fits into the latter category.

The four-part documentary Lorena, however, goes beyond the headlines about the woman who cut off her husband's penis, yielding a thoughtful, comprehensive look at domestic abuse and how the media covers high-profile stories.

“Lorena” doesn’t go out of its way indict any single party in the Bobbitt case, choosing instead to allow Lorena, as she is today, to guide us into understand who she really was. ... Part of the messaging here--subtle, but at times as blaring as a pharmaceutically-enhanced erection--is how dominant the phallus as an instrument of patriarchy remains in our culture.

It gets better and more complex as it goes along.

Lorena is compelling not because it’s a well-done look at a wild and notorious true-crime case. It’s compelling because, in a way, watching it involves an examination of our past as well as our present.

All in all, Lorena is a moving portrait of a woman who has reformed her life into a quest to protect abused women.

The laughter in the series is abrupt, nervous, and sometimes even gleeful. Someone becomes a punch line here, but it isn’t Lorena Bobbitt.

It’s fascinating. Going in, it might be hard to imagine how four long hours were needed to explore the nuances and implications of the single act that made Lorena Bobbitt famous. But four hours later, it all make sense.

Intriguing but somewhat scattershot docuseries.

Lorena may not be a perfect work of art, but it’s a solid step forward for empathy in media.

"Lorena" has its problems, but as a time capsule on where we were then and how far the media has and hasn’t come in years since, it is worth wading through the lurid muck for some long overdue reassessment.

A naturally fascinating but slightly overindulged and unevenly paced documentary series

One of “Lorena” strongest attributes is that it features interviews with not just Lorena and John, but their neighbors and co-workers, first responders and medical specialists, domestic violence experts and comedians, judge and jury. ... The series’ attention to detail is painstakingly thorough, which is sometimes to its detriment.

ilmed in a familiar “48 Hours” you-were-there style. ... By turns entertaining, shocking and finally sobering, “Lorena” shows that the only recourse for a woman in those circumstances is her own defense.

While it covers a lot of cultural ground, “Lorena” skims over it too fast and lightly. There are still a lot of dots to be joined and inferences left to be made by a viewer who must already be fairly informed about, and sympathetic to, the issues in order to do so.