The Vow

There is a lot of good footage, audio recordings, and interviews that help tell the story. The subject matter is fairly interesting, and I do think it's a story worth telling. The problem is that it's disorganized and could use a heavy edit.

Like so many modern docuseries, this feels stretched. The time jumps are odd, and often the scenes feel random and disjointed. You can watch a scene and be left to wonder, "So when did that happen?" because it will be following some footage from 2005 or a phone call recording from 2010. It still works, sort of, but you know it could be so much better if they dropped the fluff and told the story in a direct way.

I read a lot of the NDA reviews complaining how this series was drawn out into 9 episodes and should've been much less but I disagree.

The creators bring you along and groom you like the cult, NXCM, did their followers. They start with the intellectual and helpful parts and bring you along until you're in and then they start to reveal the uncomfortable stuff until they finally show you the evil.

Just like the cult, if they showed you the evil day one everyone would leave and the viewer would never understand the lure of the cult and, thus, not sympathize with these people.

I understand people want everything fast, and I get that, but if you've got the time this slow burn is really great.

This was necessary, I am on episode 8 and I can see why some people feel this has been dragged out , but is it ? No; the point is that these people are still in this and it's all about the how , how they got there happen. How can this happen to sophisticated people with resources. I don't feel it's been stretched out , in fact, the issue for me is binge watching which creates tedium ( it's probably why it's been released weekly) Anyone who walks away thinking it can't happen to them had missed the point imo. This is happening now the fallout is current events , it's no tiger king this involves thousands of people across the globe and i am not expecting resolution by episode 9. I am hopeful but I believe this was meant to take us in the journey of how they got to where that are and the frustrations and obstacles of getting out . There are still people in right now . I

While the series has plenty of recorded phonecalls, recordings and interviews with people who were involved with - and since escaped - the organisation, the series lack of proper pacing trips it up. There is no straight timeline being followed, but instead it steadily introduces more people and might then go back to previous events we have already seen because these newly introduced figures were also involved in that. This leads to topics switching quite randomly. As such the series might struggle to hold your attention past your innate interest in seeing where things go in the end. In conclusion the series seem to portray events accurately enough, however it meanders too much and doesn't have a defined 'thread' you can follow that will keep you in suspense. I would put this slightly above average 6 episodes in.

Its true that the series sometimes repeats itself and its not very chronological accurate, but i actually didnt care i enjoyed all the episodes. I never find it boring for one second, and believe me when i find something boring i never insist. I liked the fact that they gave time for everyone to tell their story. They were relly concerned with having the most "pawns" as possible.

They could be even darkerer, they could have made this orderly in terms of time framing, but i really enjoyed it how it is. Plus the music is good, the directing and editing are great, i liked a lot the cinematography...is a really well made series that will go deep in terms o why these people enjoyed such a nefarious organization. Please give it a watch.