At a time when the true-crime genre has reached a creative nadir, as streaming services churn out assembly-line products that prioritize shock value over victims’ stories — and even stoop to paying perpetrators for exclusive access — Surviving R. Kelly stands out.
Premiering in January 2019, Dream Hampton’s docuseries painted a damning portrait of the R&B legend’s decades-long pattern of grooming and abuse via interviews with survivors, journalists, enablers, and eyewitnesses. The Lifetime program was a Greek chorus of grief indicting not just Kelly but an industry that went to great pains to protect him, and a media and public who turned horrifying child-rape allegations into comedy fodder. It also got results. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Hampton, as well as journalist (and docu subject) Jim DeRogatis, the public finally turned on Robert Sylvester Kelly,…
