I think the NXIVM HBO doc was way better than The Vow and I'm tired of pretending it wasn't
I watched both back to back last month after a friend in Phoenix kept pushing The Vow on me, and the HBO one got to the actual court stuff in like 4 episodes while The Vow spent forever on Mark Vicente staring at trees. The HBO version laid out the DOS branding and the Keith Raniere recordings so clearly that my wife, who knew nothing about any of it, followed the whole thing without pausing once. Am I the only one who thinks the slow personal journey angle actually hurts these cult docs when there's real court records sitting right there?
Watched The Vow first and kept waiting for them to actually explain the branding and the court stuff, then the HBO one just did it in a few hours. My wife had the same reaction, she was lost during The Vow and totally fine with the HBO version. There's something about a doc that just shows you the evidence instead of making you sit through someone's feelings about it for six episodes.