In the first episode of this four-hour docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs, his former business partner Kirk Burrowes has a Come to Jesus moment. He had ignored a troubling incident back in the Nineties, dismissing it as a passing dark moment for Combs. “Does that make me part of the Sean Combs cult?” Burrowes asks himself in a to-camera interview.
It’s a question he and others in the Diddy camp have probably asked many times, after dismissing glaring signs of this man’s full harmful potential. “I may have been the first disciple, believer and then overall protector against all odds,” he admits. But Burrowes didn’t just turn a blind eye, he was a victim himself.
Burrowes’ journey echoes the stories of other interviewees in Netflix’s Sean Combs: The Reckoning. People fall under Diddy’s spell, then get unnerved, then dismiss the worst of him as he dangles carrots to seduce them further, until they can’t see a way out from under his boot. It’s surprising just how many interviewees The Reckoning production team managed to secure, as we hear again and again how scary it is to speak out against someone this dangerous and this powerful. He’s in prison right now, which may be why people feel safe to open up, but this series alleges that the music industry gatekeeper is someone who can take revenge if you cross him.
While The Reckoning is a well-crafted series about the rise and fall of Combs, it is relentless. By the time it finishes, you’ll be exhausted by the seemingly endless list of misdeeds, of all the terrorising and manipulating, which paints a portrait of a terrifying individual with far too much power.
The problem with Diddy, we learn, is that he is so rich, he is “the 1 per cent of the 1 per cent of the 1 per cent”, and believes he’s “Black Superman”. He had everything, so what else was there to do but control everyone around him? The series lines up and explains accusations of manipulation, abuse and violence, some we know and many we don’t. They go on and on and on – and on. While much time is spent on the past, the most uncomfortable scenes arrive when we get to the near-present. The many months of drug-fuelled confusion experienced by Lil Rod while inside Diddy's whirlwind producing the rapper's most recent album, The Love Album, feel chilling in a different way.
But the smaller twists and turns of Diddy’s criminal activity and alleged abuse become suffocating and a little hard to follow. This is clearly the aim of this series: to build the ultimate case file against this man. It’s achieved that, though it would have benefited from more narrative-building. 50 Cent, a bonafide Diddy troller since initial allegations from ex-girlfriend Cassie broke, is the executive producer. They have been feuding for more than 20 years, but he says the project isn’t motivated by any kind of personal beef. He announced early on that he intended to make a doc exposing Diddy’s alleged connections to abuse and death, and you have to admire his follow-through. No stone is left unturned.
It’s disappointing not to see more time spent on the 2025 mammoth legal battle that ends the series: United States of America v. Sean Combs. Diddy was found guilty of transportation for prostitution but cleared of more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Frustratingly, at least one juror lacked understanding of the nuanced dynamics experienced by abuse victims and perpetrators. “You cannot have it both ways,” this juror says in a talking-head interview, of Cassie repeatedly going back to Diddy. Clark, who was present in the courtroom, explains that jurors seemed to be charmed by Diddy in a way that would impact their neutrality. “They were starstruck,” remarks Clark, damningly.
Has the cult of Diddy been broken up? Not entirely, but The Reckoning – and any of the other documentaries that are inevitably in the works – will be part of just that process.
