Writer of ‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ responds to backlash
(Credit: Sabrina Lantos/Netflix)

Netflix News

Writer of 'Luckiest Girl Alive' responds to backlash

With the recent release of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as well as Luckiest Girl Alive, Netflix isn’t short of controversy, with the writer of the latter coming out against the backlash against the show for its trigger warning. 

Based on the book of the same name by Jessica Knoll, Luckiest Girl Alive tells the story of Ani (Mila Kunis), the editor of a New York magazine who finds herself facing up to her traumatic past when a documentarian asks her for her side of the story after a shocking crime. The trigger warning at the start of the show mentions “violent content, rape and sexual material,” although many believe that this doesn’t go far enough.

Featuring three graphic rape scenes as well as a shocking school shooting scene, viewers were surprised to see details of such triggering events omitted from the warning at the start of the show. Responding to criticism, writer and creator Jessica Knoll told Variety, “We talked about it extensively. In the end, we gave it the strong rating that it has. It doesn’t just say ‘sexual violence’, it says ‘rape’…We made the decision to include that word in it”. 

Continuing, she added, “In the script, we decided to reveal in the first act that she was part of a school shooting, which is not the way it is in the book. That also gives people ample time to be like, ‘Oh, there’s school shooting in this? It’s not for me’”. 

Passionately defending the series, she explains, “We’ve done a lot to be sensitive about all of the very sensitive issues that are in the film. I am a little surprised by it, honestly, because there’s so much violence against women in a lot of things out there right now. I just don’t see people in an uproar about that. We’ve gone to all these lengths in all these other ways, and I’m happy to do it. I want there to be resources for people”.

Take a look at the trailer for the new Netflix series below.