• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Film
  • DVD
  • Editorial
  • About ScreenFish

ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • News
  • OtherFish
  • Podcast
  • Give

Bill Cosby

The Cast Against Cosby: Hope After the Horror

January 10, 2023 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

We’ve heard a lot of tales of male toxicity and abuse in Hollywood over the past few years. But maybe none have hurt more to the general public than the truth about Bill Cosby.

As the star of such benchmark television programming as The Cosby Show and I Spy, Cosby was a fixture in American living rooms for decades. However, after allegations from an endless parade of other women revealed the truth about Cosby’s actions, ‘America’s Dad’ drew public ire yet was only found guilty of allegations made by Andrea Constand. Now, in the new CBC documentary, The Case Against Cosby, Constand shares her painful and abusive journey with Cosby and the extraordinary road to healing that she has taken.

Directed by Karen Wookey, The Case Against Cosby is unflinching, horrifying and brutally honest. It’s also one of the best documentaries in recent memory. With each scene, Wookey puts the emphasis where it needs to be – on the voices and stories of the victims that were devastated by Cosby’s serial violence against women. Although the narrative voice is primarily through Constand, Wookey never shies away from the endless parade of women who were damaged by Cosby as well. In doing so, she focuses the viewer on the lives and souls that were damaged by his criminal sexual recklessness.

At the same time, Wookey also juxtaposes these traumatic tales of sexual abuse with clippings from Cosby’s innumerable characters from television. In doing so, she creates a distinction between his public persona and the reality that was taking place behind the scenes. Beloved by millions, Cosby’s character was an icon to the point that people believed that they could trust him as a person. By inviting him into their homes every week, there was a certain warmth in the relationship between viewer and actor that developed over the years. But, in this Case Against Cosby, we understand that the man we thought we knew was never real. Instead, his fictional persona only allowed him the opportunity to hurt innumerable others. (And the doc does not shy away from the fact that his repeated actions were intentional.)

Even so, despite the horrific realities that it shares, Cosby still feels like a story that’s rooted in hope. By framing Constand’s journey through the lens of therapeutic exercises and conversations, Wookey embeds her tale with a sense of healing and a desire to move forward. Conversations about the nature of trauma, abuse and self-actualization serve to acknowledge the past while giving hope for the future. (“My life has never been the same but I believe and have faith that it will be better,” one victim states.) As such, Cosby becomes more than the story of one predator’s prey and becomes an opportunity for all women who have been victimized to be encouraged.

In other words, this Case may be Constand’s but it could also be anybody else’s.

It’s this lens that makes The Case Against Cosby such an alarming and poignant narrative. While this focuses on the damage of a high-profile public figure, Wookey acknowledges that Constand is far from alone in her story. But that’s why it’s also so powerful and fearless. This is a tale meant to empower women who have been victimized to speak up and share their stories.

In doing so, perhaps they can make a Case for themselves as well.

The Case Against Cosby is available to stream now on CBC Gem.

Filed Under: CBC Gem, Featured, Film Tagged With: Andrea Constand, Bill Cosby, CBC, documentary, Karen Wookey, The Case Against Cosby

Regarding We Need to Talk About Cosby

September 21, 2022 by Chris Utley Leave a Comment

I was just trying to get to Thursday nights. 

Fall 1985. New to California. A week into 7th grade at a rough and hardcore inner city middle school, my dad was killed by his brother. Take that insurmountable pain and grief and add to that being a Black nerd knee deep in puberty and the emotional whirlwind that goes with that…and THEN add the fact that I was l surrounded by mini gangbangers, thugs and 13 year old girls growing up way too fast. 

I was just trying to get to Thursday nights. 

After spending day in and day out trying to manage grades, grief and absolute chaos from my classmates – slapping me in the back of my head for no reason, nerd insults, jokes about the way I walked, (false) gay slurs, etc – I had one job: Get to Thursday night at 8 PM CT on NBC 4. For, at that time every single week: BLISS. RESPITE. ESCAPE via the trials and tribulations of Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable and his family. 

Those 30 minutes watching Dr. Huxtable and his family was a release valve for me. All that stress I was under disappeared in that moment. When we got our first VCR, I began recording each episode and played them all on repeat on a daily basis. 

I needed that bliss. That respite. That escape. 

Imagine how I feel right now after binge watching We Need To Talk About Cosby and finding out the depths of suffering and pain that Bill Cosby inflicted upon those women…and lied his ass off calling it “consent” for dropping date rape drugs on his innocent victims…some of whom appeared on my TV on those Thursday nights! 

Were my Thursday nights a lie? What was BLISS to me was PAIN on countless numbers of women through the entire run or the show. 

The Cosby Show was my favorite TV series of all time. I still watched it regularly on Prime and other apps. 

Can I enjoy it again? Can I separate the character known as “America’s Dad” from the real man who was a stone cold sociopathic sexual predator?

Helluva tension to sit in when all I was trying to do 35 years ago was just survive and get to Thursday night. 

☹️😢

Filed Under: Editorial, Featured Tagged With: Bill Cosby, We Need to talk about Cosby

Primary Sidebar

THE SF NEWS

Get a special look, just for you.

sf podcast

Hot Off the Press

  • Arctic: Our Frozen World – Baby, It’s Cold Outside
  • Dear Edward: Sitting in Sadness, but Never Alone
  • 80 for Brady: Silly & Sweet and an Absolute Score
  • Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls: Fresh Take, Same Quest
  • Knock at the Cabin: Knocking on Heaven’s Door
Find tickets and showtimes on Fandango.

where faith and film are intertwined

film and television carry stories which remind us of the stories God has woven since the beginning of time. come with us on a journey to see where faith and film are intertwined.

Footer

ScreenFish Articles

Arctic: Our Frozen World – Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Dear Edward: Sitting in Sadness, but Never Alone

  • About ScreenFish
  • Privacy Policy

© 2023 · ScreenFish.net · Built by Aaron Lee

 

Loading Comments...