Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet

When virtual becomes reality, crimes that have one thing in common, all done behind the screen of an online shield.

It can be hard at first to see how the series fits, to piece it together, and to be honest there's no need to.

It will evoke several different emotions, disgust, shock, awe and definitely curiosity. Two episodes revolted me for different reasons, I'm sure I don't need to highlight which they are, if you've watched the series, you'll know the ones.

Prepare to meet some hideous, awful human beings, again I don't need to say who, but how on Earth these people get attention, and a following is beyond me.

For me, the highlight was The Stingray, a mind blowing two parter, which I found truly jaw dropping.

It's very well made, it's so well put together, it's one of those shows that you could easily binge watch over a day or so, I did.

7/10.

I started out on this one very sceptical due to the ratings and the first episode with the music and all the drama felt very exaggerated. But things definitely picked up a notch from the second episode onwards and episodes 5 and 6 were absolutely incredible. It's a 7 from me but I wanted to balance out the negative reviews on here (unnecessary in my view -and politically motivated) which don't seem to be about the quality of the real life documentary at all.

If they'd done away with the tacky recreations where they had the people themselves telling stories, it would have been a solid 8 from me. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and the truth is stranger than fiction quality keeps you hooked. I can't help but wonder how some of these criminals are so incredibly smart and what they stand to achieve if given a constructive and positive start in life.

Internet hoaxes and disinformation are not abstract ideas or victimless crimes. From the deaths of innocent people because a disaffected loser decided to "swat" a family (and the idiot police department overreacted) to to the election of Donald Trump after glutting social media with BS about Hillary Clinton, the series shows just how slowly human beings are responding to a virtual world where lies are as believable as the truth. It's scary stuff.

The scariest part is that we have no real way to control it. The internet has become our agent of everything from love to depression. The message of the series is that we ignore its influence at our own peril.

Interesting that so many reviews point to "left-wing" propaganda when only one of the episodes in this well-made anthology focuses on the Alt-Right's use of the Internet to spread their...propoganda. The other episodes don't involve politics, but shows actual cases of the use/misuse of the World Wide Web for criminal behavior that is difficult to investigate for smaller law enforcement agencies, and overwhelms larger agenies because it's so extensive. The point that the platform of the Internet which is so intertwined with modern living is also a place where dark--even deadly--forces lurk is very well illustrated. (Note: the cries of "bias" in reviews here never cite one exxample of what they feel is a misrepresentation.)

Nothing much to see in this. Just bunch of people handed a mic and then asked to give their opinion. Literally Netflix has gotten so woke that even their "documentaries" are just a smash of fake news, false narratives, and leftist disinformation campaign.