Silk: BBC's very law drama; contains spoilers.
I'm watching the BBC program Silk on iplayer. I really liked the first episode - it s legal drama, with office politics thrown in. I found the first few minutes very jarring as it's Twinkle from dinnerladies, but really enjoyed the emphasis on the importance of a fair trial even when they have offended in the past/ victim is an adorable old man.
But the second episode is about a rape trial. I tried to watch it last night, but found the court scene far far too triggery. I'm trying to finish it today, but it's still hard going. It is a very upsetting portrayal of a women having to testify about being raped (and that's with the lawyer deliberately holding back from discussing her sexual history. Halfway through the trial, and the woman is talking about dropping out of the case because she can't cope with the evidence.
I think it's an important thing to show - how difficult rape trials are for the victims (especially compared to how the victim in the previous case was treated), but I'm really scared they are going to fuck it all up. So far the (young, white, male) character has been saying things like "she's not a victim she's an accusant" (something they didn't feel the need to say in the previous episode) and "but some women do lie about rape", and "there are grades of rape, from in the dark, serious rape at one end to this at the other" (where this is your ex-partner raping you in your own house). Also the person prosecuting the rapist is very much getting portrayed as bad/competition for the lead who is defending him (he's been rude, and sneaky and takes cocaine while condemning drug mules) . And there is (so far) nothing contradicting these views, except how upset the victim is getting and I'm worried it's going to be "proved" that she lied and just.. arg.
Also, did I mention massively massively triggery, so I'm worried I'm not going to get to the end and I want to know what happens.
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