Come diventare leader di una setta

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.

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.

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!

This is a great idea for a tv show. It is very interesting and I am learning a lot. I will try to use this stuff when I try to set up my own cult. My favourite thing about the show is that it is literally a step by step guide for how to start a cult which is brilliant. There are some good animated sequences which tell the story of these creepy cult leaders. Peter Dinklage is great as the narrator and he produced it too. As long as you don't take it too seriously this is a fun and entertaining show. The best way to view it would actually be to study how these cult leaders manipulate people so you can start to identify when people are manipulating you. Sadly the world is full of psychopaths and so it is good to know what you are up against.