wtf PTSD

Dirty John is an American true crime television series, based on the 2017 Los Angeles Times podcast of the same name. Outside the United States, it has been made available through Netflix.  See the official trailer here.

 

Dirty John tells the true story of Debra Newell, a beautiful and successful middle-aged interior designer who meets John Meehan on an internet dating site and, after a whirlwind romance, finds herself swept into marriage. She has no evidence for what he tells her about himself and it does not take long for her family, the audience and, reluctantly, Debra to realise that John has a dark past; rather than a wealthy, property-owning anaesthesiologist, John was in prison up until two days before meeting Debra, and is in fact a homeless, opioid-addict with a track record of scams, stalking, crime and violence.

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Although it is impossible to not feel perplexed at Debra, a strength of the show is that it helps the audience to understand how it is that she came to overlook so many red flags. It depicts, with scenes of carefree, romantic moments suggestive of how love-swept Debra feels by John's charm and attention, that John was actually skillfully love-bombing Debra from the start. At the same time, he was working to drive a wedge between Debra and her daughters, likely because John's plans are threatened by their close relationships. Because the daughters’ hostility towards John comes across at times like brattish entitlement, you can honestly begin to see why Debra ignores their warnings. At least for a while, you can see the appeal of John.

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Even after finding out about John’s dark past, Debra stands by her man to the disbelief of her family. She seems like an unbelievably gullible and unfeasibly forgiving person. But the show finds the sweet spot of believability between the gullible fool and the optimistic love-hopes of a mature woman. It honours Debra's past and her current decisions while also showing the naivety that allows her to be caught in John’s web.

 

John's backstory is vital to the story and this is told by knitting together past and present scenes.  The only criticism that we have is that, on reflection, the frequent jumps in time can be confusing for some (especially those that had not first listened to the podcast). 

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Jackie and Terra Newell eventually emerge as the heros of the Dirty John saga; they listen to their gut feelings telling them that something is ‘not right’ about John and go looking for evidence. Staying true to their feelings in this way is impressive to those of us that have experience of hitting the off switch on these valuable gut instincts that are signalling for us to listen.

 

Since the podcast and TV drama, Terra in particular is receiving attention and is using a newfound confidence to help others. She speaks openly about her struggle to move on from her trauma and encourages others to embrace the happier side of life. She uses her social media pages as sites of positivity,  talking about PTSD, travel, her love of animals and her Walking Dead obsession. For anyone suffering from PTSD, her sites are a source of advice on how to travel and deal with triggering symptoms.