Americans might be more divided than ever right now, but one thing all can agree on is Peacock devoting three and a half hours to a Casey Anthony “confessional” was 2022’s worst idea.
For those too young to remember or lucky enough to have forgotten, Anthony was the OJ Simpson of her day – a twentysomething Florida woman accused of killing her two-year-old daughter, Caylee. On 15 July 2008, Cindy Anthony, Casey’s mother, called 911 to report her granddaughter missing for 31 days and that the trunk of Casey’s Pontiac Sunfire smelled like a dead body. If there were such a game as Karen Bingo, Casey would have covered the whole card. She misled investigators, pointed the finger at a made-up Afro-Latina nanny and showed more concern for her own self-preservation than for recovering her daughter. Finally, in October, Casey was charged with first-degree murder. Two months later Caylee’s skeletal remains were discovered, blanketed, inside a laundry bag in a wooded area near the Anthony family’s Orlando home. The autopsy further noted the presence of duct tape at the front of Caylee’s skull and on the mouth – grounds enough to pronounce the death a homicide.
Anthony’s trial held the nation in thrall for six weeks in early 2011 and was a trending topic online. (Time magazine dubbed it “the social media trial of the century”, in an OJ callback.) People whipsawed from being gaslit by Anthony’s not-guilty plea to captivated by the sight of a young woman flexing her white privilege, her pretty privilege and tears – and her kid was cute, too.
Ultimately, the prosecution, which had sought the death penalty, failed to convince jurors that Anthony killed her daughter to free herself from the buzzkill of parenthood, and she was acquitted. Whereas in 1995, the country was split in its reaction to the OJ verdict, this time it was unanimous in its disappointment. A throng that gathered outside the Orange county courthouse chanting “justice for Caylee” was frozen with outrage. The legal analyst Nancy Grace, whose star was truly born during this case while giving Anthony the nickname “Tot Mom”, was resigned in defeat. “Somewhere out there,” she sighed, “the devil is dancing tonight.”
Since then, the case has been vigorously rehashed. But the Peacock docuseries – Casey Anthony: Where the Truth Lies (get it?) – is the first on-camera interview by Anthony, who did not testify during her trial. Still, she was found guilty of lying to police and walked free two weeks later after receiving credit for the three years she had spent behind bars.
Even while emerging from seclusion, Anthony still looks over her shoulder, linking up with showrunner Alexandra Haggiag Dean and her crew at a rental house to keep the spotlight away from her own. To make the safe house more homey, Anthony brings along framed photos of Caylee, many of them ripped back from the tabloids. “Some of the most priceless things that I have,” she says, unpacking them. “Why? [They’re] some of the only things I have left of Caylee.”
The show doesn’t just make the case for Anthony’s innocence all over again. Parts of it play like a dating show sizzle reel, complete with shots of Anthony garbed in athleisure wear snapping nature photos while out for long walks in the wild – as if we’re not all watching because her kid was found dead in a wood.
Eleven years later, Anthony, now in her mid-30s, still lives with the tragedy, apparently. By day, she works with the private investigator who helped win her acquittal. At night, she wrestles with a range of painful memories – which the docuseries takes pains to animate as a police case library in her mind. She reiterates a claim her defense made in court – that her dad George and brother Lee sexually assaulted her as a child – before pinning Caylee’s death on George, painting him as a liar and kidnapper. George, who along with Lee had denied those abuse claims, is said to have told a People magazine source he “knew he was going to be thrown under the bus, but didn’t expect her to run over him so many times”.
The docuseries has reignited popular rancor too, with moms decrying its tastelessness and behavioral experts sleuthing for signs of Anthony in thespian mode. (“Imagine making a six-hour documentary to convince everyone Casey Anthony is innocent and instead it makes everyone go, ‘Oh, I believe she did it even more now actually,’” wrote one Twitter user.) Meanwhile, others take sport in finding the inconsistencies in Anthony’s latest version of events. Grace, who turned down an invitation to participate in the project, struggles to even call it a documentary. “Because when I hear the word documentary, I think of something that is truthful,” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “This is just Tot Mom talking about herself and the airbrushed version of what happened to her daughter that she should’ve been taking care of.”
Among other sins, Dean (whose previous credits include docs on Hedy Lamarr and Paris Hilton) doesn’t interrogate Anthony hard enough about why it took so long to report her daughter missing and why she never asked her dad – whom she purports was in charge of Caylee at the time – to see or speak with her girl during that time. What’s more, with no one from the prosecution participating in the series, Anthony’s defense team gets more airtime to disprove their narrative. But nothing frustrates quite like Anthony’s assertion that she kept the lies going out of fealty to her father, when you’d think he’d be the first person she’d dime out if it would solve the mystery of her daughter’s disappearance. And you’d think her claimed history of abuse (which she further alleges included Caylee as well), not to mention her already facing the death penalty, would make her that much more motivated to take the stand and scream it to the world.
Predictably, many of the principals in this sordid melodrama re-emerged this week. “The entire defense was that Caylee drowned in the pool, but now she’s saying she didn’t,” one juror told People. “So either the defense was a lie or she’s lying now.” Belvin Perry Jr, the presiding judge on the Anthony case, dismissed Anthony’s Peacock story as “crap”. The ladies of The View were triggered all over again. “Eleven years,” moaned co-host Sunny Hostin, who won fame through the Anthony trial too, “and that’s the crappy story that you came up with?” Joy Behar compared the doc to Netflix’s scripted Jeffrey Dahmer series, scorching both as plays for ratings.
Only Rosie O’Donnell was moved to give Anthony the benefit of the doubt after watching all three episodes. “Listen, it kinda made sense to me, what she was saying,” she said in a TikTok, after an earlier video slamming the doc. “Everyone said she was a great mom. I dunno. I know this is gonna be a controversial opinion.”
Sure, one could go into Where the Truth Lies with an open mind. But most, from miles away, will see it for what it is – a soft-focus vanity project from a world-class narcissist – and tune out altogether. Some nostalgia trips just aren’t worth the bother.
