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Rant: I called the NXIVM docuseries 'overhyped' at a meetup and got corrected by someone who was actually there
I said the whole thing felt like a cash grab with dramatic music and dragged out episodes to a group of about 20 people at a meetup in Portland 5 weeks ago. A woman named Dana sat quietly through my rant, then mentioned she grew up in the Albany area where the group operated and knew two families who lost members to it. She said the show was the first time her neighbor, who never talked about any of it for 12 years, finally opened up to her own daughter about what happened. I felt like a jerk, and I stopped grading these shows like they are movies. Now I ask one question before I dump on any survivor doc: did it help anyone actually get out or speak up. It changed how I watch all of them, not because the pacing is good, but because I was missing the point. Curious if anyone else here has gotten checked like that by someone with a real tie to the case.
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violag8016d ago
Just a small thing to add but the show mostly covered the self help stuff up in Albany and the Clifton Park area, not really Albany itself, though you're right that the group started there. Dana's story is the kind that matters more than any review. My cousin was in a different group years ago and a bad Lifetime movie is what got her mom to finally ask questions, so yeah, sometimes the cheesy thing is the thing that works. Grading docs like movies is fine for fun but it's a whole different job when real people are still picking up the pieces. Glad you took the check instead of getting mad about it, most people just double down.
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