Come diventare leader di una setta

Witty, striking narration! I don't think that there is a better way to explain the 'boring' cults.

But I want to draw attention to the last part of the series. Look at people's lives! When you ask them, they will tell you: 'Of course we hate the cults that blindly follow a leader.' I am sure that they use at least three different social media platform. They have their own Cult leaders (social media celebrities). Their speech and photos are not different from a cult leader. People are worshipping them in modern ways (like buttons/ comments). If you don't believe me, just check the million-followers fan pages.

All in all, This not just a story of some 'devotee's' but it is a story of human nature, our need to aggrandize leaders whom we believe more glorious than us.

As the playbook says: 'Just remember, in this world, you are either the predator or the prey.'

I have been interested in cults and brainwashing for a while. Good show but agree that it missed out one of the most famous cults - the Branch Davidians. Probably because Netflix has a dedicated show about Waco which is excellent. I think it should have also focussed more on how people managed to get sucked in by these charlatans. I think the animations work really well too. The episode on the Moonies was interesting also. It would be interesting if the looked at why so many cults originate in the USA and Japan. I believe this may be due to the prevalence of spirituality and religion in these countries.

It shows a very partial picture of things. Includes some supposed cults (because easy targets, visually, e.g. Osho) while leaves out some real and active cults (e.g. Scientology) out of fear and general opportunism. Just easy or obvious targets without goung deep into why cults exist and how come people nees them in this consuneristic world. Shallow overall and kind of an exact copy of what Explained had already done (still shallow). To give it intelletual depth they should have shown more points of view and not only people piling up with such an absolute predetermined and similar outlook on things. The creators act with the same absolutism of cults themselves!

The series is not original but still entertaining. It starts strong and the best episodes to me were the first trio. The narrative is great because the characters are quite interesting if you're into psicology or love series like Mindhunter. But it is far to be a masterpiece.

First, it can become monotone after watching the fourth episode. To add, the last cult leaders are not interesting or intriguing.

Second, last episode is terrible. And the ending is as important as the start. A big flawn. The series sinks by itself because it follows the same pattern all the time. Kind of boring.

Anyway, it is overall watchable but not great. If you want to maximize the time, skip the last episode.

As a fan of cult documentaries, movies and podcasts (e.g. The Vow, Martha Marcy May Marlene), I was excited to dive into this series. To say that I was disappointed with HTBACL would be an understatement. I didn't make it past the first episode, in which viewers are bombarded with various examples of cult leader strategies in a sensationalistic and sarcastic tone. The tone is basically: look at all these silly and quirky cult leaders who manipulated and harmed their followerz, LMAO; and like OMG some peeplz died; isn't that, like, so crazy?

I appreciated the interviews of former cult followers describing their experiences and current perspectives, but we receive these interviews as brief clips in a piecemeal fashion that doesn't allow us meaningfully connect with them and their subjective experiences.

The pace of the first episode was intolerable for me, as were the narrative and editing choices. I understand that HTBACL's focus is on identifying and communicating the tactics used by cult leaders, but I would have appreciated a more slowed-down and focused approach. In one episode, you'll hear examples from 15+ cults, offered to you at a frantic pace alongside random video footage, photos, as well as illustrated reinactments. The result (in my opinion): a superficial, meandering, emotionally bereft docuseries from which I learned absolutely nothing of significance.