The Garden: Commune or Cult

This show is a ride from the very first episode. While many "cult" docs as of late have been focused on the manipulation of the members by some evil leader, this one really gives you insight to their everyday lives and the natural struggles that come living in an ungoverned society.

If it is a cult... sign me up!!! There are clearly a lot of pros and cons to living off the land and even more barriers when it comes to living with each other peacefully but the community and bond that is formed as a result looks so fulfilling.

There's some level of leadership, sure. But this isn't how I think of cults. There's no one major leader at the top trying to profit or be a master manipulator. Patrick owns the land and has some level of authority but these people crying that it's some horrible cult need to go study/watch the NXIVM cult and some of the other crazy ones where a ton of crimes and financial/emotional manipulation is taking place.

Wtf did I just watch? Why can't I stop watching? Oh bc it's junk food and junk food is addicting. I don't, for a second, believe a single solitary event or person in this FICTIONALIZED series is legit. This goes double for the girl with the lashes. Hon, we ALL know you took the first callback that came your way to get on TV and try to quit your day job to be a full time influencer.

This series makes me disgusted to be a millennial and have to be grouped in with these complete and utter morons. If you hate people who coin themselves "Tree," or - wait for it - "VIBE," this will be utter rage fuel. Idk what made me laugh harder - the girl who uses moon water to try and cure someone's severe back injury, or the Tree guy throwing a child-level temper tantrum over BeING aBLE tO PaRtY. This isn't a cult. This a group of privileged morons who think they are CHANGInG thE WoRLd by not taking a shower.

And don't even get me started on Narayah.

Coming off actual documentaries on harmful cults like Love Has Won, , this one was framed from the start as something shocking, teasing at violence and coercive control.

Instead we get a semi-scripted reality show where it appears that actors responding to the casting call were structured around whatever roles as "the Viking", "the outcast who hates hippie nonsense", "the out of water influencer", "the citizen detective investigator" etc etc, offered talking head moments and given childhood camp-like "survival training".

The production company doesn't appear make documentaries but reality shows about sexy Amish people or whatever Discovery exploitation du jour, replacing actual HBO documentary content with this will be the future of your subscription budget.

Back to the series!

There's a plot of land, a general misunderstanding of collective decisions, a disdain for people who live as they want to, and a wacky cast with roles that primarily involve disgust for the way some people choose to live.

The legacy of this show for me is how lazy it is in reinforcing xenophobia and small-mindedness through the usual reality TV lens. Was it a mistake for the commune to make any deal with Discovery? I hope it paid for some infrastructure so they can live freer.

But jeezy, I don't know how it'll be seen by people (it'll just be seen since it cost very little for Discovery) but I did look up the general response on Reddit and I had a hard time finding anyone who thought it didn't do the commune a disservice with this sloppy, boring fiction, people mugging for the camera and causing distress to their hosts who for any flaws of prepper skill didn't ask to be harassed and intimidated.

I don't usually leave reviews! I think this is really what the old HBO sub budget will become, slickly filmed (I'll give field sound / video workers props, BEGRUDGINGLY) but Discovery will sell us these trash true crime "series" with pretense of content and end up with cheap "freak show" exploitation and ironically perpetuating small minded paranoia a lot more than the actual outcasts that.

I thought that I was watching a docuseries, what I got was a bunch of petty drama typical of a reality show. It's like The Real World, only off the grid. These people are insufferably disagreeable and sanctimonious. They're basically the kids that hated taking baths as children, only a few decades later. Now they live in the woods and mock the rest of us as "conformists. " I get the impression that the whole cult question is nothing more than marketing to hook people into check out this series. That Carrot Top looking mofo with "Tree Forrester" (so much cringe) as a sobriquet is also the last person that I would nominate as a spokesperson for any organization.

Is there more to come? This documentary ended without an ending. I feel frustrated about the whole thing. I wasted hours watching this just to have it end, abruptly. In my opinion, I felt that nobody in this documentary was appealing in any way, or was a sympathetic character. Everyone came across as self-indulgent, narcissistic, and egomaniacal, to some degree. I wish HBO would add a warning that this is an incomplete documentary, so people don't waste their time if they are expecting a wrap-up at the end. I really thought there would be more episodes. Why didn't the question asked in the title ever get answered? 👎