John Bickley

This is a weekend edition of Morning Wire.

Joining us now to discuss the controversial legacy of Michael Jackson is Dan Reed.

He's the director of the documentary Leaving Neverland, which chronicles sexual abuse allegations against the pop star.

Dan, thank you so much for joining us.

No worries.

Pleasure to be on the show.

So look, this new Michael Jackson movie is making big waves.

It's a huge success at the box office.

The critics' reviews aren't great, but the audience loves it.

Rotten Tomatoes, I think it's something like 96% approval.

It's a real crowd pleaser.

Did you see the film, and what do you think about the film, if you did?

We've heard there were earlier drafts of the movie.

I think the director talked about this, that would have addressed the abuse claims more directly.

What do you know about that?

What changed here?

You know, in terms of the critical backlash, you're certainly not alone in saying this is a sanitized or a sort of whitewashed portrayal of Jackson.

So what should his legacy be?

He is a superstar, right?

He's somebody that did rise to fame in a way that's really remarkable.