The Ashley Madison Affair

Really enjoyed this series. Really interesting story, and a good telling of that historical time. I remember this period well and seeing the hack on the news- fascinating to see what really went on behind the scenes. Ashley Madison was hacked in 2015, but also they were at the forefront of monetizing the internet in the early 2000s. This laid the groundwork for what we see today.

I also thought the analysis of the data from the hack was really well thought-out, and the graphics and archive were good too.

There was a real range of interviewees, from those having affairs, played by actors, to tech experts and journalists. They gave an overall rounded version of the story. Recommend.

This is not...very good. Like I don't mean the subject matter is bad or troubling or whatever (which it is), I just mean the quality of this docuseries is poor.

The thing with the actors reading for Ashley Madison users is weird and confusing. But for me the worst part of this is the sheer amount of stock footage this docuseries has. Like hold of the interview subject for more than 2 seconds. Stop cutting to barely related stock footage.

It's really obvious to me that the filmmakers did NOT have enough footage to make this series.

Idk I remember when the Ashley Madison leak happened. I was in high school, and it was all over the news and social media. It was kind of...exciting...in a sick way, or at least it was the thing that everyone was talking about. This docuseries makes this huge scandal feel like watching paint dry.

The idea of this docuseries is great. Give information about the Ashley Madison scandal, done. The way it's done however, is so incredibly poor. You'll get 10 seconds of talking followed by 30 second of garbage stock footage to pad out the episode. This reals like a way to just stretch 1 episode for 4-5 episodes as a way to pump out more content.

On top of that you get awful actors that are trying so hard to make this their "big break" instead of real people that suffered because of this site.

This should be an example of how NOT to make a docuseries. Slow it down, stick to only the facts and stop jumping to stock footage. We arent 2 year olds that need constant pictures shoved into our faces.

Bad Actors instead of Real People

Woo boy did I turn this off fast!

Don't know about you, but when I settle in to watch a documentary, I look forward to hearing from the REAL victims and all those affected by the scandal.

I appreciate the rawness and vulnerability of real people. Welp, on this one, instead of hearing from the actual people involved, they opt to have actors read testimonials as though it were their own.

They are set up in front of some corny looking props with their names in quotes.

On top of that, they are baaaaaaad actors.

I really hope this is not a trend here to stay.

If you can't get real people to participate in your doc, shelve it and wait. Don't insult the audience with this clownery.

From the 'actors' supposedly retelling the stories, to the 'experts' to the storytelling, itself, this is just horribly done.

The actors, dear God. Absolutely horrible and so desperately trying to be seen. Between all of them there's not a single one that brings script reading ability- it's horribly bad and cringe inducing.

Every few minutes there's lurid AM-type ads, salacious, grotesque footage, the same nonsense over and over, used as filler, but turns an one episode story into three.

The story itself is so impossible to watch/follow; it's scattered, unpalatable and unintelligible. The story makes no sense and then is constantly interrupted with horrible acting, nonsensical ad-like pieces, and ridiculous commentary by someone like Sunny Hostin and the harpies from The View.

We struggled through 20 minutes of the first episode and had to shut it down. We went to the 3rd to see if there was any discussion of the Anonymous hack, and there was none. No discussion of the database that was brought to light that exposed the disgusting behavior by married people using this site to find opportunities to cheat- only one of the AM reps that constantly makes excuses as to why this behavior is totally fine.

Either way, this whole thing is just badly done and a poor excuse for documentary filmmaking. How it's hitting anything above a rating of 2-3 stars is proof that the attempts by this site to get rid of bots is clearly not working.