The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker

Everyone who came into contact with this vulnerable, profoundly unwell man should be ashamed of themselves. How did any of these blood-suckers think participating in this documentary was a good idea? If I participated in the exploitation of this young man, you better bet I would hide that fact from the world until the day I died. The unbridled glee that all these media figures have when recalling their time with Kai is disgusting. There is no self-reflection. No sense of responsibility. No question of what kind of role they played in Kai's downward spiral. NOTHING. They just cared about how they can monetize his existence and enable his dysfunctional behavior. If all of that doesn't sound stomach-turning enough, there is also an overwhelming amount of stigma and disdain for unhoused people. Half of this documentary is remarkably tone-deaf exploitation and the other half is your standard, unreliable Copaganda garbage. I almost turned it off as soon as the East Cost cops show up. Everyone was so quick to embrace Kai as a Meme Hero and then immediately wash their hands of him. Shame on you, random Fresno Nobody Sports Reporter for riding a mentally ill man's coattails to a career you don't deserve.

So this is a much ado about nothing situation. All this people who are trying to make a buck off of this neuro-atypical kid are disgusting. Of course they pretend to be looking out for him and to want to make him rich, but they could not care less about his well being. They just want to ride the wave of his viral moment. That is not a surprise. In fact nothing is a surprise in this doc, and all the moments that are presented as cliffhangers and mindblowing events are so predictable and ultimately uninteresting, because from the point of view of the ugly people trying to exploit him. If it had been a doc about him, his mental health, the relationship between that and his life choices, or the absence of such relationship, it would have been a much better doc. But the bottom line for this is "we could have made so much money out of him, but he is troubled for real, not just to entertain us."

It seems like an unintentional documentary on how the kid could have been rescued or helped with many chances to do so but all the people he kept crossing paths with only saw how they could benefit from him or cast him aside when they were done with their intents for him. Fairly crazy to look at these many people just act as if they don't know what they are doing, fairly mesmerizing, really. The pattern just keeps repeating from different people and even from the same people he crosses more than once, noone wants to see past themselves and face the reality that is in front of them basically screaming for help. What a sad society.

I'm not sure I knew about Kai before watching this. It's a watchable documentary but the participants in it make all sorts of irritating biased claims that suit their angle. To begin with I personally did not think of Kai's behavior as heroic even for a split second. He seemed chaotic in his speaking, was showing how he hammered the other person with way too much enthusiasm and just showed signs immediately that he's someone to beware of. The fact that so many wanted to see him as a hero (and are still speaking as though he had that great charisma factor) and how the media sensationalized him should be a deeply disturbing commentary on the state of what society values at any time and how media plays a role. Since the story is real and interviews are somewhat interesting it was watchable. But unlike many other documentaries, I don't see much of a lesson learned or any critical discussion to stimulate ideas that are useful. The underexplored murder also cast a shadow on the elderly victim, and I felt that the victim may be victimized again. I don't know what happened but we're only hearing the side of the murderer. Not the best doc. And certainly a real story that none should be proud of particularly the media. Face up to the consequences of your decisions.

This documentary is heartbreaking and deeply disturbing to watch, but certainly not in the ways that it was intended to be. It was clear from the get-go that Kai was delusional and needed psychological help. Instead, the media sharks descended upon him and took advantage of him because they thought they could make money off of him.

What if they had looked at him as a human being with a horrendous childhood who was desperately in need of help, instead of only seeing him as their next cash cow? Would things have ended differently? They had an opportunity to really make a difference in this kid's life and they squandered it.

This isn't an indictment of Kai so much as it is an indictment of the bloodthirsty media who exploited him. And this documentary doesn't even have the self awareness to see that. Shame on every single person who chose to ignore the warning signs because they were so focused on the dollar signs! Disgusting!