Wife put this on last night. I believe it premiered last Friday.

I struggled whether to post to Politics, Religion, or here, ultimately choosing here since it was consumed on an entertainment platform and shares elements of both.

I'd never heard of this group.. "The Family", as I suspect most people haven't. I watch things like this with as unbiased an eye as possible, and I seek to learn more so as not to limit my perspective. I consider myslef conservative, but this didn't seem to be a conservative vs liberal slant.. even though reviews and critics have tried to paint it as an "evil republican" thing.. despite the documentary clearly stating multiple times that this organization did not care what side of the aisle you were on and had members and friends on both. I can say for certain that I have no idea if the intentions of this "organization" are good or bad, but being a Christian, I don't see in any way how anything I've read about them is veering toward the good. This, to me, seems like one of two things..

1. Attempt at good by using evil means (false prophets, limiting access to the full bible, using Jesus to prop up men, both good and bad, as "chosen" - evil.
2. Attempt at power and influence - evil.

It might even be both.

I feel this is going to be a heavily debated thread, so can I ask everyone remain civil? I didn't post this on politics because I wanted to debate the documentary, book, theory, and topic without anyone coming at it from "their side".

I will add, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I don't follow Q or the like, and I take most things with a grain of salt, though some do seem believable.

The one thing that I do believe is that the "swamp" as has been referenced in politcs lately is real, but not slanted to one side. I believe it's a political and business elite underbelly of our culture and influences a lot of what we think happens organically. Watching this only reinforces that belief. In a country as large as ours where people can literally pay to be able to influence politicians, I find it hard to believe that there isn't something out there pulling a lot of the strings. I'm not sure if its this "family", but they could be a part of it, and I fully believe they aren't the only entity operating they way they do. Go ahead and condemn me as nutjob now.

I've considered watching it.

So, politics aside, entertainment/intrigue value is high?

I would say so.

It attacks the inner "conspiracy" in you but does it in a factual, illustrated storyteller kind of way. Even has actos act out some of the experiences of the book author, while still providing actual photo and video. It does forward on some highly disputed theories as fact, and at times tends to lean toward "those evil Christian republicans" at times. It is also little slow at times, but I found the general concept weird and fascinating enough that the pace didn't bother me.

good luck slugging through this- Poorly made, terribly boring and just bad

So the majority opinion is "no big deal", these guys are just being blown way out of proportion?

I was tending to lean that way, but as said earlier, it's fascinating to see things come to light that show who has had influence on high level government officials.

I thought the dad was a racist, the mom was a total ditz, but the meathead son-in-law was the worst. Politics aside, I've never been a big Reiner fan.

I watched the trailer and I figured if any of it was true then The Family would be powerful enough to keep this documentary off Netflix, therefore it must not be true and not worth watching.

I watched an episode last night. Terrible.

Which sucks because it is a really interesting topic and one that I would love to see explored but just explored by someone competent in telling a story and in a compelling way.

This felt like something made to fill the Saturday 4-7 slot on cnbc.

MookieBlaylock said:

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good luck slugging through this- Poorly made, terribly boring and just bad

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Agree. Made it through the first episode somehow. I'm sure it's a compelling story, but not interested if the storytelling is slow or crap.

Your quotes are on the wrong place.

Ypu should have posted:
Raical "christians", not "radical christians"

Lemme guess...they put a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence and only Nicolas Cage is the one who can decipher it?

Nicolas Cage was in a remake of the Christian-themed film 'Left Behind'...

Trump made business deals in Russia...