The documentary focuses on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused as children by the American singer Michael Jackson.

The film received critical acclaim, winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special,[4][5][6] but mixed reviews from viewers.

Director Dan Reed described Leaving Neverland as a "study of the psychology of child sexual abuse, told through two ordinary families ... groomed for twenty years by a pedophile masquerading as a trusted friend.

Jackson allegedly sent the two men love letters and set up security systems at Neverland to prevent other people from witnessing the abuse.

[3] In February 2017, Reed and the assistant producer Marguerite Gaudin flew to Hawaii to interview Robson, who agreed to tell his story chronologically and without omitting details.

Wondering how Robson's and Safechuck's mothers could have allowed their sons to be abused, he returned to Los Angeles in November 2017 and interviewed their families.

[46] In the US, Part 1 drew a 0.4 rating and 1.285 million viewers, the third-largest audience for an HBO documentary in the decade, behind only Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.

[49] Dutch broadcaster VPRO referred viewers to the MIND Korrelatie organization for victims of sexual abuse, and attracted callers in large numbers.

Its consensus states: "Crucial and careful, Leaving Neverland gives empathetic breadth and depth to the complicated afterlife of child sexual abuse as experienced by adult survivors.

[59] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post thought the documentary was "riveting" and "devastating", ending his review with a plea: "Turn off the music and listen to these men.

"[61] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote that the film was not "particularly imaginative", yet he admired how it chronicled Robson's and Safechuck's emotional narrative: "It accounts for every stage of their respective recoveries, which are still in progress, including their darkest feelings of fear, denial, and shame.

"[63] In The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg wrote: Leaving Neverland is "about the 20+ years... Robson and Safechuck [held secrets, lied, covered up] — and the damage that can do — as it is about the alleged crimes."

"[66] IndieWire's David Ehrlich wrote that the film was "dry" and "hardly great cinema", but a "crucial document for a culture that still can't see itself clearly in Michael Jackson's shadow".

[77][78] Commentators suggested Jackson's music could fall from favor, similarly to the work of convicted child sexual abuser Gary Glitter.

[92] The American gymnast Katelyn Ohashi removed Jackson's music and Jackson-inspired dance moves from her floor routine at the 2019 PAC-12 Championships.

[100] On February 7, 2019, shortly before broadcast, Howard Weitzman, attorney for the Jackson estate, wrote a letter to HBO chief executive Richard Plepler criticizing Leaving Neverland as journalistically unethical.

The letter asserted that HBO is "being used as part of Robson's and Safechuck's legal strategy [both of which are currently seeking appeals]", and that Reed intentionally did not interview anyone who detracted from the story.

The suit sought to compel HBO to litigate the issue in a public arbitration process and claimed that the estate could be awarded $100 million or more in damages.

[107] The sex abuse lawsuits Robson and Safechuck filed which were based on the allegations they later described in Leaving Neverland would eventually be dismissed as well.

[110] On May 2, HBO lawyers Daniel Petrocelli and Theodore Boutrous filed an opposing motion arguing that the contract had expired once both parties had fulfilled their obligations.

They argued that such interpretation would "run afoul of the public policy embodies in numerous California statutes to protect children from sexual abuse" and "legitimize the creation of a category of wealthy, powerful or famous individual who could... preserve for themselves via contract posthumous control over how they are portrayed and described in a way that ordinary citizens cannot."

The Jackson estate called this argument "classic tautology" and that it "assumes the very conclusion that HBO wants an adjudicator to reach in this dispute, i.e., that there are no remaining obligations under the Agreement".

[112] On the recommendation of Judge George Wu, HBO filed a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) motion against the estate on August 29.

[117][118] In January 2019, the Jackson estate issued a press release condemning the film: "The two accusers testified under oath that these events never occurred.

[37][123] On March 13, Transport for London announced it would remove the adverts after the charity Survivors Trust complained that they could discourage victims of sexual abuse from coming forward.

[124][125] On 27 February, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference wrote a letter asking HBO to reconsider airing the film, calling it a "posthumous lynching".

[128] Feldman told Rolling Stone that his relationship with Jackson was "the standard grooming process that [Robson and Safechuck] describe ... everything was similar [to what happened to me] up until the sexual part".

"[136] Joey Fatone of the pop group NSYNC, who had worked with Robson at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, also expressed skepticism: "[At the time] it seemed like nothing was going on, that's the whole thing.

Reed responded that the accusers had misremembered the year the abuse ended, that Safechuck was present at Neverland before and after the construction of the station, and that it was "just one of the many locations where James remembers sexual activity taking place".

[138] Smallcombe dismissed Reed's response,[139] and criticized the documentary for omitting the debts Robson and Safechuck allegedly owe Jackson's estate in court costs.