The Synanon Fix

As "The Synanon Fix" (2024 release; 4 episodes of about 60 min each) opens, it is "Los Angeles, 1958", and Chuck Dederich, himself a recovering alcoholic, opens Synanon, intended as a drug recovery center with a couple of basic rules: no drugs, no alcohol, no violence. Given the utter lack of drug treatment options offered by the courts in general at that time, it was quite revolutionary, and a success. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from accomplished writer-director Rory Kennedy (yes, the sister of Robert Kennedy Jr., whose presidential campaign she has widely and loudly denounced). Here she look at how Synanon, a 501(c)(3) non-profit started with good intentions and initial great results, slowly but surely descends into a cult. I must admit that I had never heard of the Synanon before watching this mini-series. It reminds us yet again how dangerous these movements can become under the charismatic leadership of one man. The film makers make great use of the thousands of hours of video and audio footage that exists on the Synanon, and were able to snag interviews with plenty of former Synanon members, including those closest to Chuck Dederich.

"The Synanon Fix" premiered on HBO in early April and is also streaming on Max, where I caught it recently. These 4 episodes fly by in no time. If you are in the mood for assessing how a movement that starts with the best of intentions goes off the rails and becomes a cult, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

I thought this documentary was very flawed and often had too much cheerleading for this terrible cult and its psychotic leader. Ending with former residents waxing nostalgic about how great it all was and how they miss it was a real kick in the teeth after seeing the degradation of it all. I'm surprised the filmmakers didn't close on a former resident sighing about how much he misses beating children. Maybe the filmmakers were afraid of getting a rattlesnake in their mail. Four hours of hogwash by cowardly, schizophrenic filmmakers who can't draw a line between right and wrong, don't waste your time.

I wish you had interviewed some of the kids of people who lived at Synanon. It was crazy seeing my dad in the background of some of the old videos in the first episode.

Now that I understand what The Game is, it explains why he's such an a**hole. All my life, I was raised with my dad screaming at me and my siblings whenever we did something wrong. One day I broke down and asked him why he was like that, and he said, "It worked for me."

My mom called herself a square. She said she went there with a friend of hers, and that's where she met my dad. Wow-what a great place to meet people. Seems a bit crazy to me.

A novel drug rehabilitation program devolves from a well-intentioned social experiment into a dangerous cult in this four-part documentary. The group's charismatic leader was able to exert increasing control until the cult members abdicated independent thought and free will. It's nothing that many other cult documentaries haven't already covered but it's disturbing nonetheless. Unfortunately the documentary's pace is plodding, the subject-matter is often repetitive, the series hammers every point ad nauseum and it takes a very long time to get anywhere. Pared down to 2 hours or so this could've been harrowing; but at a tedious and self-indulgent 4+ hours it loses a lot of its potential impact.

I'm a theologian which is why I love studying cults. It's not often I come across a series that explains this well why people go into cults, how they start, and why they usually end in horror.

A cult needs a strong charismatic leader to hold everything together and create enough faith in them that people are willing to go along without a question. The positive aspect of that is that you create a very united social group with meaning, unlike the outside world where people are lost and lonely. The dangerous side of a charismatic leader is that he will almost always go crazy and abuse his power (usually within 20 years).

Synanon was a fascinating group because it was not a religion (even though they formed a church for tax reasons). This gives us a chance to investigate a cult without having to deal with people's belief in God and so on. It's just a group of people united in their admiration of a brilliant but very flawed and sick man.

This was not the worst cult out there but it could easily have turned so much worse if it had been based on religious writings and a belief in a higher power. That being said, there is more than enough insanity here for those who love watching series like this for that reason. There are better and more shocking examples out there but this will still give you your kick. If you are however like me and want to understand why people join and how groups like these work, then this is as good as it gets.