Anatomy Of Scandal: Consent And Rape Dissected In This Courtroom Drama

Anatomy of a Scandal review: There are always two sides to a sexual affair – consent and rape. Anatomy of a Scandal deals with this topic. Add to this ‘privilege’ and ‘power’ and you can almost see the accused getting away with it. But no there’s a twist! Based on Sarah Vaughan’s renowned novel of the same name, Anatomy of a Scandal exposes the privileged and powerful verse it is set in.

Curiosity got the better of me and I got caught in this Netflix courtroom series made by David E. Kelley and Melissa James Gibson to know more about consent and rape. As #MeToo has brought these concepts to the forefront and still has a level of scandal around them.

The story

In ">Anatomy of a Scandal, James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend) is a high-profile British minister and a close aide of Prime Minister Tom Southern (Geoffrey Streatfeild). He is shown as a “family man” and father of two, but has had an affair with his researcher Olivia Lytton (Naomi Scott), which he ends subsequently. But now Olivia threatens to expose him, so he confesses to his wife Sophie (Sienna Miller).

There was no dispute that the relationship had been consensual, but after James had finished the affair there was an incident in a lift in House of Commons and the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted to rape. As no-nonsense lawyer Kate Woodcroft (Michelle Dockery) is pitched against the disgraced politician, Sophie must accept that much of what she knows or has come to accept, at least about her husband may not be the full story.

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There’s another character that we need to remember, Holly Berry. Her dad drops her off at Oxford where she makes friends with Alison Jessop and also meets Sophie, who is also Holly’s tutorial partner. Holly secretly has a crush on James, who is from a privileged class and seems interested in Sophie only. But her character turns everything upside down.

The theme

What I liked was the primary theme of the show - which is how the past often foretells the future (that’s a hint for the twist). The series raises topics as serious as consent, patriarchy, privilege, and male entitlement, and takes an effective look at the unfair power balance between men and women, even in the highest and the most polished spaces. You will hear “boys will be boys” on more than one occasion. Haven’t we heard that before in India? Also, the series shows us that these themes are universal in nature.

The privileged club

The series flashbacks to James’ past in his years as a student at Oxford University. James, in his younger years, is part of the Libertine Club with a group of colleagues including Tom Southern (PM of UK in the present of the narrative). These libertines, a group made up of males, do nothing but generate excesses and damage, while they get drunk and consume toxic substances.

All this was included by the author and then the director of the series to show James’ background and upbringing. This club is loosely based on the Bullingdon Club of Oxford, which was created in 1780 as an adventure club. Centuries later, only the children of the nobility who had a large income were members. Being part of this club gave prestige and superiority. This portrayal is important because it also shows that male privilege and excesses have been around for ever and that prestigious intuitions even harboured them.

The wife’s predicament

One can sympathise with Sophie as she is in a difficult spot, wanting her husband to be proved innocent, but with a gnawing doubt that the events under discussion did not quite happen as her husband says. Most of the time Sophie’s got to put her hurt and anger to one side and be publicly supportive(mostly pushed by her husband to do so), regardless of what she thinks.

In the end it’s the step she takes that rounds up the series. Sometimes a novel, movie or a series comes along at exactly the right moment when sexual abuse in high profile professions has been in the headlines recently all around the world and there's no reason to suppose that there aren't more revelations to come. This is what hooks you to the series.

Views expressed by the author are their own.