User reviews

Where to begin with this train wreck? Chad Daybell, a grandiose narcissist mediocre in every way, finds an enabler in Lori Vallow, a covert narcissist who is as unhinged as he is, to help him carry out his fantasies of being god and executioner. These people are narcissistic because they have never cared about anyone else but themselves. They would not otherwise have played those around them like a chessboard and decreed who was worthy of living; note how someone was a light or dark spirit depending on their utility to them.

Ironically, when they accuse other people of being zombies, they are the ones with empty and soulless eyes, hiding behind masterfully crafted disguises as faithful man and dedicated mother to conceal their voracious appetites for admiration and validation that can never be sated, and a deadening void that can never be filled. These people are prime examples of why we should always pay attention to what people do, instead of being beguiled by what they say. In this instance, doing so could have saved a few lives.

It amazes me that there are people in the world who think they can be the voice of God. Lori and her friends supposedly believed that God was talking to them and telling them to kill demonic spirits that were trapped in the human bodies of their family members.

It's frightening to realize how insane these types of people can be. The show even interviews a woman who claims she hears from God personally. As if this small town hillbilly is so important that God would speak to her before anyone else. Just shocking how delusional some people can be but I suppose it happens all the time, sadly. Great documentary. I never followed much about this case and the series caught me up to speed. What a nutcase Lori and her followers are. None of them had any logic or critical thinking. Yikes.

I put this on to kill time before bed, but then got sucked into the entire series. There are a lot of names getting thrown around, and because i was hardly paying attention i was confused for a bit. After a while i was so gripped by the story i hardly blinked. This kind of stuff really gets to me because of how insane it is and how insane humans can actually be. I feel like netflix tossed in some things for dramatics and that irritated me, but overall this was worth the watch. Getting the whole story was better than having a fraction of the story. I do believe that this is a one and done type documentary for me. I cant sit through this story again.

In my opinion this documentary came way too early. I'm writing this review as somebody who has been trying to follow the case since 2020. I remember when the kids were still missing and that lady was found just chillen in Hawaii... and then later it was just such a heartbreaking discovery after those poor kids were found in Idaho. The details however have not been made public and most people who are following this case have already known what was put into that documentary. It seemed more focused on the brother's feelings towards his mom (which is fine) but it's shocking that the mom of Lori Vallow had the nerve to be in the documentary. Was she paid after that? Not sure how that works exactly but if so, that's ridiculous cuz she already made a fool of herself doing early interviews defending Lori. That family is twisted. We wanna know what happened exactly to those kids, to Charles, and to chads wife.

Also... Melanie Gibb is a 2-faced liar and I really think she knows waaaaay more about the plans chad and Lori had concerning the children. She tried to look like a naive friend during that recorded phone call but that woman knew what Lori and chad believed spiritually, agreed with them, fed into their conspiracies, and was a member of their little cult! The podcast was made from her too! They trusted her for a reason as a person who "had JJ." Something isn't adding up there so although the documentary shared a lot about the case, it wasn't enough. I guess we'll learn the sad horrific details next year during the trial. It's very, very sad.

Another documentary about cults and "religious" groups showing that a mothers love can be shattered by these weirdo's. How can people be so gullible?! I'm an atheist but I truly respect other people who believe in a god as long as they don't try to preach to me, but these groups take it too far. So sad that there are people out there who feel so much of a void in their own life that they get hooked in by these nutters. A decent documentary but once again Netflix feel the need to chop up what could have been an hour and a half documentary, not two 50 minute episodes and the last 39 minutes. I guess they just want to have the words "true crime series".

Such a sad and heartbreaking story. This lady is a loon and how she destroys her family is insane. I've been waiting for this Netflix documentary since the news reported the missing kids. I wish they would've played more of the evil woman's phone calls to her son from jail. Really showed how she has no care in the world for her family. Feel so sad for the grandparents and the other siblings. This trial starts in 2023. This was very well written and glad they didn't drag it out to eight or ten episodes. Look forward to the follow up documentary after the trial. Verdict should take about thirty seconds.

....for those who followed this story when it happened. Some interesting texts and phone call recordings that I hadn't heard, but for the most part just a regurgitation of what was in the news if you followed the case.

Per usual with Netflix, the production value is there. Presentation, timeline, interviews etc were all presented clearly.

Good quality documentary but wish it would've delved deeper into Lori and Chad's background and what drove the doomsday beliefs that made them go off the deep end. Easy to blame it on religion, but there's nut jobs in all religions as well as out. I've had 40+ years in the LDS church and I could tell in the first 15 seconds listening to Lori that she was going completely contradictory to most of the faith's main tenets. (Thou shalt not kill??)

All I saw was a self-indulgent narcissist who knew more about manipulating people to get what she wanted than anything resembling Christianity. Chad also comes off as someone who fell in love with the sound of his own voice and the power and trust he could garner by fanning fanaticism. I'm truly curious if he started to believe his own rhetoric or if he was simply a conman trying to get as much money/sex/admiration as he could before his time ran out.

Did I miss one line somewhere that explains the bizarre connection between Adam Cox and his sister? He is implied to have committed at least one murder at her behest, married someone within her group, and turned up dead, but nothing is offered to explain this deep connection. I don't think that it was ever officially mentioned that he was part of her sect, or how.

That's a big gap of interest that makes me question what else is missing.

Apparently, I have to keep talking so that this review can be posted, so...I'll leave you with-, it's just a bunch of narcissists, some related, some who found each other by chance, who fed off each other like teenage girls who think they're special because they proclaim that they're witches.

This was one of the best docucrime's I have ever viewed. Every moment was gripping. Other ones have been unnecessarily dragged out, but I felt this particular one was phenomenal.

I was aware of who Lori Vallow was but did not know most of the details; absolutely insane.

Lastly, how utterly delusional and wacko are these people? Not Lori and Chad, they are just evil, but some of the others depicted are insane, wow. They actually believe this nonsense, how sad.

I also in part blame the grandparents- Lori's mum and dad, brainwashing and raising their kids as they did, I mean, they got it from somewhere. Disgraceful.

Respectfully, Mrs. Janis Cox, I don't think so. The way Lori Daybell's parents give interviews makes me too uncomfortable. Lori killed her children for her selfish reason to make the marriage with Chad work and covered the real motive for religious reasons. Religion surely played a part but it is the coping mechanism for her to justify the horrible deeds she's done and the channel to alleviate her guilt. Her parents are doing the same thing. Barry and Janis blame Satan for her daughter's moral corruption right from the start. No wonder Lori and Alex turned to be fanatics who give spiritual meaning to all of their wrongdoings and take no responsibility for their actions.

A few advisory panels and guest speakers of the series undermine the credibility of the whole series. Julie Rowe - who says the same bs as Chad Daybell does - criticizes him and tells how his belief is different from hers or traditional LDS. Are you for real? What is the role of Justin Lum, an Arizona-based journalist? All the facts and information are clearly organized and delivered from the producer while he says stuff like 'Lori was smiling when the police came.' We can see that with our own eyes and make inferences based on observations. Those are the roles of friends or witnesses. For god's sake, he's the journalist, and the only thing he does is to make assumptions.

Making Colby a main narrator of the story is a hard but wise choice. He is the victim of the case as well but misunderstood as an accomplice by stupid Internet. He is the one who is most affected by the crimes and who can tell the most accurate story in the most convincing way.

If you have anyone around you that claims to be special in the sense that they can talk to god or spirits , please stay away from them.

These are super delusional and manipulative people.

They are extremely dangerous and can harm you emotionally and physically.

This documentary is just one sad and scary example. There are several cases (watch House of secrets on Netflix) where such people have taken lives. What amazes me even more is that there are people who fall for these people's stories and get manipulated.

This particular case also shows the inefficiency of the local police, the murder of her husband should have easily been identified as a homicide and not self defence.

Sins of Our Mother: Interesting documentary series, deals with all of the murders. Much of the footage is from police bodycams, news reports and courtroom recordings, supplemented with interviews of family members and friends. How extreme the Cult's beliefs were is made all too clear, especially the effect they had on Lori Vallow. In the UK or RoI such a documentary series would make any prosecution virtually impossible because the show essentially convicts Vallow and Daybell. The story could have been told in 100 minutes instead of 141 minutes running time. Directed by Skye Borgman. On Netflix. 7/10.

True crime documentaries are the new next thing as we seem to be bombarded by them. I'm not going to complain though as I find it very entertaining to watch. Certainly when you see what kind of completely crazy people are surrounding us like Lori Vallow in this case. What is completely crazy is that she is not alone in her fantasy world. This crime drama involves more than one person, all as disillusioned as each other. Of course they're all religious. You have to be a bit of a lunatic to believe in any religion. I'm probably not going to make friends here but in my opinion, for a better peaceful world, they should ban all religions. The documentary is well made, with a lot of interviews from people involved in the story, a lot of them be nice crazies to say it nicely. There are not enough mental institutions to fit all those mentally sick, although lifetime prison is the only good solution for the murderers here. A real drama but certainly entertaining if you like true crime documentaries.

If you enjoy true crime, this is a crazy story from recent times that gets crazier as you progress into the show. You've gotta check it out if you have no clue about this case and it'll have you rolling your eyes. I didn't and it had me like...👀🙄 For those familiar with the case, I don't know if it provides any new information but it'll surely give you the story in a cinematic way. The show's been filmed well, music adds to the intensity.

Stuff like this makes you think how delusional and gullible people can be, even in this day and age, but gives you a sense of what is happening out there.

The show's got 3 episodes, decent storytelling (could have been more intense) doesn't make it feel long, but Netflix really needs to reconsider documentaries vs documentaries as limited series.

It's always because of one crazy aspired self proclaimed cult leader that time and time again the poor victims and their families get sucked into these sad real life horrors. How powerful are our beliefs yet we are not ever taught how to safeguard these, to know when we are manipulated and remove ourselves.

This short series is a thorough depiction of how vulnerable humans can be and the awful consequences that are brought about by trusting blindly one source of "truth" without self-reflections and discovering one's own blindspots.

It's the second series that I watched relating to cults that were spin offs from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I begin to wonder what the reasons are behind why some of these LDS followers deviate from their original faith and grow into monsters? Perhaps to active are their imagination and this quote from the series Severance kind of says it all: "The good news is hell is just the product of a morbid human imagination. The bad news is whatever humans can imagine, they can usually create."

All three episodes are just a train wreck you can't like away from- Colby is just frustrating to listen to, since he was aware of his mothers sanity slipping away by Charles, yet chose to ignore the giant red flags waving in his face because he claims it's just marital issues and Charles was obviously cheating because his mom told her whole family to avoid Charles.

Loris' mother is a complete and utter moron, in serious denial, while her grandchildren are buried in her latest husband's backyard! She's so delusional that she's still somewhat defending her daughter to this day.

There's so many police departments that dropped the ball and more importantly, failed Charles, failed Tylee, failed JJ. Had any one of them done their job and listened to the desperation from Charles, 3 people would still be alive today. But she was so pretty!! But she was so normal!! But she had a right to act like a lunatic!

There's a sincere lack of any sort of pushback to this nonsense- from the lunatic who sincerely claims to be a 'good prophet' and calls Chad an 'evil prophet', and not a soul to offer any sort of evidence to the contrary. It happens on multiple occasions and she even claims people will say she's crazy.

There's just this odd stringing together lately of documentaries with no one offering factual information or details and just sensationalizing dramatic events according to people with a vested interest in the outcome. It's gross and an obvious conflict of interest.

I'd love too see a documentary that holds people accountable and demands all these people explain their utter failures and complete ignorance regarding the wellbeing of innocents who were begging for assistance every single day.

This is just another poor example of salacious exploitation of innocent people who were failed by so many.

I have followed this story on You Tube beginning with it unfolding with the missing kids. The information though seems sporadic and scattered that I really couldn't make sense of the events and the various relations from the ever expanding characters. All I know is that the kids were ultimately found after some time and the perpetrators appear to be the triumvirate of Alex, his sister Lori and her husband Chad.

This documentary succeeded in making heads and tails of the events at least for me especially with some of the not so known details. Also, it would be my first time to hear from Kelsee (Colby's wife), Vaisia (Tylee's friend) and some other relatives and friends.

If there's anything I could comment on it would probably be that there's too much of Colby here. I'm not sure if he's the one readily accessible from the cast of characters, but there are others who I was waiting to hear more from, like her friend Melanie Gibb and niece Melani Boudreaux. I guess if his screen time had been abbreviated somewhat more details could have been pushed in.

All in all I could say I have enjoyed this documentary series, albeit without the satisfaction of knowing that Lori and Chad had been served what they truly and justly deserve.