Why would anyone want to watch Girl in the Picture after reading this?

I’ve already picked up enough information from skimming reviews to know that as the mother of a soon-to-be six-year-old, there’s no way I want to bask in another child’s pain

“Leaves watchers horrified,” The Independent’s Jacob Stolworthy warns here; ”the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen”; “proceed with caution”. For some, that would be a clear green light to go forth and binge-watch Girl in the Picture – the new Netflix true crime series everyone is talking about – but nope. Not me. Not now I know what it’s about (and you might want to look away now if you don’t want to know either).

In brief: the show follows the disturbing true story of Sharon Marshall; a woman found dying on the side of the road from an apparent hit and run. But closer examination of the circumstances of her death reveals she’d been living a lie for years and years, thanks to a man who was, in turn, her abductor, her father and her husband.

The documentary is directed by Skye Borgman, who previously directed 2017’s Abducted in Plain Sight – and one review did praise her for taking the focus away from the perpetrator and putting the victim first, which is one tick in the box for the show. But I still won’t be watching.

Not when the same review warns “the scale of the true-crime monstrosity will leave you reeling”; as well as this standout sentence: “The picture referred to in the title is of six-year-old Sharon sitting on her father’s knee with an expression that is indescribable except to say that it should never be seen on a child’s face.” Ugh. No thanks.

I’ve already picked up enough information from skimming these reviews from my colleagues and other writers to know that as the mother of a soon-to-be six-year-old, there’s no way I want to bask in another child’s pain, or the tragic, traumatic backstory that gives the series its title.

The official Netflix synopsis reads: “In this documentary, a woman found dying by a road leaves behind a son, a man claiming to be her husband — and a mystery that unfolds like a nightmare.”

But it gets far worse than that as the tale unravels – as Stolworthy writes: “Many have been left feeling ‘horrified’ by its events, with many calling it the most ‘messed up crime documentary’ of all time.”

According to one viewer: “Girl in the Picture on Netflix is absolutely one of the most horrific, sickening, frightening things I’ve watched. I’m at a loss for words.”

I don’t want to share any salacious details, or leave too many spoilers for those who are determined to get their fix of harrowing sadness, torture and despair, but suffice to say the series (and I say this without watching or intent to watch) promises the following: rape, abuse, incest, abduction, kidnapping and death. And at the centre of this cornucopia of misery? A child.

I can’t bear it, I am sorry. In the same way as I can’t bear any film that centres its narrative around the rape and sadistic harm of a woman (because women are so often subjected to real life violence, we don’t need to make it up); and the same way that I struggle to cover news stories that involve the severe mistreatment of a child or young person. It hurts too much. I simply cannot see it as “entertainment”. And I don’t understand the appeal.

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To me, it is nothing but misery memoir or torture porn – why would anyone want to watch the dramatisation of the worst of humankind, to soak in the details of a horror so complete that you could, quite literally, wake up with nightmares about it?

After all, the world is swimming in enough barbarity – you only have to look at what’s happening in Ukraine, Yemen or Afghanistan to realise that. Children are being hurt and killed all over the world. We don’t need to dramatise it – it’s happening. Read any newspaper headline and you’ll have your fill.

Perhaps I’m more sensitive to stories involving kids because I have young children; two fragile beating hearts I have sole responsibility for; two tiny lives I do my utmost every single day to protect – from a grazed knee or a banged elbow, as well as the graver ills and most horrific possibilities (just this week, to give one example, the local police in east London have warned mothers like me to be careful when walking in our local park, because of warnings of a man preying on women and girls).

We live it, it happens – for many of us, it is our reality, as well as our greatest ever fear. Now why on earth would I want to sit down with a bowl of popcorn and watch that?