Sean “Diddy” Combs is back in the news this week because a Netflix documentary put him there. But should streaming services really dictate which crimes we talk about — and when?
With more than 300 million subscribers worldwide as of early 2025, Netflix is the most popular streaming service by a wide margin. True crime dominates with Netflix’s audience, too, reaching significantly more viewers than established network true crime programs like “Dateline.” Netflix’s true crime popularity is so great that the streamer consistently creates new headlines, effectively warming up even the coldest cases for audiences to feast on for weeks at a time.
In “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” Diddy faces even more public scrutiny following his explosive criminal trial from over the summer. Not much is happening in court for the disgraced hip-hop artist right now. He’s serving a four-year prison sentence in New Jersey, having been found guilty on two charges of “transportation to engage in prostitution” earlier this year. Combs was cleared of the other charges (related to racketeering and human trafficking) and otherwise faces ire online and in the press today.
But the four-part “The Reckoning” stokes the Diddy controversy regardless of the legal calendar, thrusting the wreckage back into the spotlight on Netflix’s timeline and terms. Executive produced by 50 Cent (Diddy’s longtime rival, stemming from a decades-long feud), the series connects one version of the Diddy narrative back to broader questions about media and the power imbalances that exist throughout the entertainment industry. The streamer’s role in illuminating that scandal seems personal to Diddy.
“For Netflix to give his life story to someone who has publicly attacked him for decades feels like an unnecessary and deeply personal affront,” read a statement from the defendant’s counsel, per Variety. “At minimum, he expected fairness from people he respected.”
Combs has been accused of orchestrating a years-long pattern of sexual abuse, violence, and coercive control that hinged on exploiting his influence in music. The reaction to that unmasking has been big, and “The Reckoning” makes a sweeping assessment of his life, spotlighting the stories of alleged victims and demonstrating the scope of the damage they say was done. Diddy’s team named Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in the defendant’s public response to the series and further claimed the project was retaliatory in a cease-and-desist letter sent to the company on December 1, as reported by Deadline.
“In or about 2023, CEO Ted Sarandos proposed that Netflix produce a documentary about Mr. Combs,” it said. “However, Mr. Combs rejected the proposal when Mr. Sarandos insisted he give up creative control.“ The four-page letter further characterizes “The Reckoning” as “Netflix’s vindictive response to that rejection — an attempt by Netflix and Mr. Sarandos to ensure a one-sided character assassination, rather than a balanced and accurate portrayal.”
Combs further claims the streamer stole his personal footage to make the project, helmed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Alex Stapleton. Most notably, “The Reckoning” includes clips of Combs looking panicked and speaking on the phone with one of his attorneys just days before he was arrested in September 2024. In a public statement from Netflix, Stapleton vaguely addressed the origin of the footage, and said, “It came to us, we obtained the footage legally and have the necessary rights. One thing about Sean Combs is that he’s always filming himself, and it’s been an obsession.”
Combs isn’t the first celebrity to see their “personal” content become unflattering evidence to the public. But he’s the biggest name to question Netflix’s part in platforming true crime. Journalists and documentarians often run into rights issues when they rely on images or videos they don’t own to depict real events.
Netflix is no exception, and the streaming service, which denied any misuse and said Diddy’s claims were “false,” has faced similar accusations on other unscripted projects. From the 2018 Sundance documentary “Wild Wild Country” to the salacious “Tiger King” in 2020, the streamer has largely defended its storytellers and ethical practices while settling those cases out of court.
Diddy is appealing his two criminal convictions, and with somewhere between 80 and 90 additional pending civil cases against him, the ex-superstar seems to have bigger problems than who owns which videotape. But delivered from behind bars, Combs’ intense reaction to “The Reckoning” underlines Netflix’s ability to deliver a profound PR blow — theoretically, to anyone, at any time. That’s powerful and convenient if you trust the company’s programming and judgment, but also cause for concern if cable-cutting and social media continue to prop up entertainment as a real source of news, or the truth itself.
When the true crime subgenre first boomed for Netflix in 2015, the docuseries “Making a Murderer” made it all the way to the White House. A petition with nearly 130,000 signatures asked Barack Obama to pardon the show’s subjects, although the former president ultimately said the issue was outside his purview.
Still, the response formalized the impression that Netflix is powerful enough to impact the justice system. The trend continued through last year, when the Ryan Murphy-produced docudrama “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” reignited two cases from the ’80s in Los Angeles federal courts.
Like “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” these revisitations happened because of Netflix — and in some cases, that’s inarguably been a good thing. In 2019, “Don’t F**k with Cats” put the spotlight on some internet sleuths who actually helped investigators catch a killer. And with the “Unsolved Mysteries” anthology, Netflix routinely asks viewers for their help finding suspects still at large. But without the traditional guardrails of a real newsroom, and no public standards or practices explaining the company’s overall approach to informing the public, the streaming service essentially decides the docket for real issues in a digital pop culture bubble with no external checks and balances. (IndieWire has reached out to Netflix for comment, and will update if and when the company responds.)
Decades of schlocky unscripted offerings on broadcast TV tell us FCC regulations can only do so much to separate documentary storytelling from serious frontline journalism. But even protected by the leeway inherent to a straight-to-streaming publicly traded media company, Netflix has released every caliber of true crime caper. In 2023, the streamer came under heavy fire for forwarding baseless conspiracies in “MH370: The Plane That Disappeared.” But this past summer, “The Perfect Neighbor” made pioneering use of police body cam footage to produce a singular work that demands to be seen.
And yet, swinging between exploitative and innovative projects, Netflix’s approach to deciding which crimes its customers should “care” about bears a striking resemblance to its embattled stand-up comedy stage, which has repeatedly divided its consumer base. Whether Diddy’s complaints about “The Reckoning” carry any weight with the public remains to be seen. He’s fighting from a weak position and, perhaps unintentionally, giving his adversary more authority. But Diddy’s striking and strident objection suggests a legitimate fear.
When Netflix chooses to cover a case, its version may be the only one that survives in a court of public opinion where the service is judge, jury, and executioner.
“Sean Combs: The Reckoning” is now streaming on Netflix.