Citizen Rose

The show is a meant as inspiration, as corrective, as empowerment, as a cri de coeur, as proof of struggle, as proof of survival, as validation, and as a PR strategy, and it is pretty successful at all of those things at once.

All things considered, there’s a core of truthfulness about the processing of pain and the search for connection that gives a solid foundation to the many splintered, whirling parts of Citizen Rose.

It's a mixture of hagiography, quirky character study and, at its best, confessional expurgation that would have been neither the best nor worst documentary of a similar type that I saw at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this month.

Even though there are moments in the pilot that feel orchestrated, its stylistic approach leans more toward indie film than True Hollywood Story. It is more compelling the more organically it allows its story to unfold.

The cameras follow behind her on the journey, giving the show a real-time feel. The docuseries is a mixed bag of selfless activism, self-promotion and gut-wrenching accounts by McGowan and other women about the indignities suffered at the hands of those who abused them.