- Network: Peacock
- Series Premiere Date: Jun 24, 2021
Critic Reviews
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Ghislaine Maxwell was brought up by a monstrous, rich, powerful man, so the terrible things that monstrous, rich, powerful men do were normal to her. For anyone seeking a theory for her alleged collusion with the foul crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell: Epstein's Shadow packaged this one persuasively.
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A grimly fascinating portrait.
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Some of the material will be familiar to viewers of the Netflix documentary series “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich,” but whereas Maxwell was the alleged accomplice lurking on the fringes in that series, she’s under a harsh and deservedly unforgiving spotlight this time.
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It’s fascinating stuff – the writers of Succession would struggle to come up with juicier details – but this first episode seemed too interested in painting Maxwell as a victim herself.
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For all its redundancy, Epstein’s Shadow feels like a perfectly competent profile of a person for whom that isn’t necessarily a straightforward task. ... With so much time spent fleshing out what Maxwell was like, and how she got that way, Epstein’s Shadow leaves questions about the societal and systemic factors in their alleged crimes hanging.
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A three-hour documentary should do more than competently marshal facts (even if, as this one did, it gives decent consideration and screen time to the survivors). It has room to theorise and it should take it, rather than pad the time with the likes of Pasternak (and her assurances that she is “appalled” by Maxwell’s alleged behaviour, as if the rest of us are sitting around thinking of butterflies and marshmallows) and former friends with nothing personal or perceptive to say.