Anybody else watching this. 3 episodes so far and they finally got into how/why the sex cult happened. Super slow build, but I'm holding out hope.
So far it feels a lot like the McDonald's Monopoly docuseries in that it is super drug out for no reason. I didn't know much about NXIVM headed into this though, and I'm sure I'm not alone, so they may have needed to give good backstory.

I like it a lot! It could have easily been a podcast since it's mostly audio, but I haven't minded the slow build.

All I know is that two of the Smallville chicks got wrapped up in it and one got out, the other got arrested. Watched Episode 1, haven't been back yet.

Podcasts and docs love to stretch things out in a big way past few years

It's ridiculous

My media feeds are very tightly curated for this reason. Streaming tv very close to being 100% out

I'm hopeful it gets really good soon, but reading that they will have 9 episodes is nuts. So far, it seems like the first 3 could have been done in just 1. It started to finally pick up steam though.

Though, like I said, I don't think I'm alone in knowing next to nothing about NXIVM though, so maybe this in depth backstory is necessary.

It's largely watching the same videos over and over and over while reading phone call captioning because the sound quality sucks

Counterpoint said:

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I like it a lot! It could have easily been a podcast since it's mostly audio, but I haven't minded the slow build.

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There is a podcast. Lol
Was out a year or two ago.The guy works for some Canadian company and was friends with the chick that was featured a lot in the last episode. Sarah I think her name was. She is married to Nippy.

Very enjoyable so far...I personally dont mind the slow build up...

Scary how many women were willing to brand themselves with that dudes initials and the whole master/slave mantra...

Yeah. these people had to have some deep seated issues before joining, because who in their right mind would play along with that master/slave stuff. It's insane. A normal person would respond LOL GTFO on repeat to those texts

Master, may I have permission to consume 45 calories?

And I get the feeling Mark Vincente is a closet homosexual in love with Keith. Or was in love.

Watching ep 4 now. I like how they've presented each episode so far.

I think this was a perfect storm of a bit of a wannabe cult leader who struck gold with some Hollywood people who were able to recruit d or e list struggling thespians into a group that was tailor made to exploit fragile, creative minds.

Makes perfect sense that type of person not only would buy in but be willing to play make believe.

Anyone stick with this? I've been in and out.

It has dragged out so long. And I eventually found all of these people to be insufferable. They all kind of deserved each other

The pace doesn't really pick up. Rolled my eyes real hard when I heard they were doing a season 2.

I didn't know a season 2 had been announced. WTF.

Seriously, all of these people are self-important damaged asshats.

Couldn't even finish the first episode. It was so boring.

Had this one DVR'd and finally got around to watching. I thought it was an interesting story overall but agree that it should have been edited down heavily. There were a few times where I had to check to make sure I wasn't re-watching an earlier episode because they repeated footage or conversations. Hard to imagine a 2nd season being very compelling unless it is only an episode or two wrap-up.

Very much a Scientology vibe to this guy. It's always surprising to see how invested people will become when following these supposed gurus.

Agree these are people looking for a religion to fill the voids in their life and they or should have turned to a more conventional one. Way to drawn out and slow but amazing so much audio and video was available.

I just started the equivalent documentary on Showtime and was more intrigued by it than the Vow. It is more from the perspective of the Oxenbergs and makes it seem like if not for Catherine, India would have walked away earlier but mom encouraged her to go to the cult. Catherine seems more involved in this one than she does in the Vow.

Yeah watching the showtime one,
I know it's not fair, but I always get angry watching these cult cult docs. I just can't grasp the personality type that would allow,yourself to be controlled by another human being in such a complete and degrading way, especially with all of the clear warning signs.
At least through episode 1, I do respect India though being willing to tell her story honestly though and hopefully help others though.

Showtime one seems better than HBO one so far

They're looking for a deity and how much cooler is it when you find him and can walk, talk and play volleyball with him?

I can't find it on showtime

Sorry my bad it is Starz/Hulu and it is called Seduced: Inside the NX.... Cult.

I think the HBO version suffers from a couple problems:

It wants the two folks (Mark and Sarah) who left to be the heroes, so it glosses over the fact that they were part of the cult for 10+ years and presumably made a bunch of money on the pyramid scheme side. They offer passing explanations that they wanted to do good things, the cult was doing mostly good things, but they didn't know about the bad things, which I find difficult to believe. At best, they ignored the bad things because the money was good.

It provides little background on Nancy Salzman, who obviously is a big part of the cult. Also, there was alot of very unpleasant info about Raniere that came out at trial, most of which has not been addressed (although I assume will be addressed in season 2).

As others have said, the documentary overall moves slowly and makes the same point over and over.

Agree about Mark and Sarah. They spent way too long feeding the beast to play dumb. I don't buy it at all. I think what is more likely is that they found themselves out-of-favor/at-odds with Keith and the other power players and decided to turn on it. All of these people are pathetic.

I agree, wanted to know more about Nancy since she was obviously Keith's chief lieutenant but they kind of glossed over her while showing her extensively in the classroom and other events.

What was super creepy about the series is how many women fell for the charms and control of that chubby, pasty and creepy dude Keith...the branding part was particularly creepy. Remarkable.

West Point Aggie said:

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What was super creepy about the series is how many women fell for the charms and control of that chubby, pasty and creepy dude Keith...the branding part was particularly creepy. Remarkable.

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Seriously. The dude should probably be put in some sort of hall of fame as far as most p***y slain by a goofy looking creep. And a lot of it was not half bad.

As far as Sarah, I think she was fine with all of it, but then the brand was what went too far and set her off. But that's why I don't have much sympathy for her - she had to know it was a ponzi scheme and knew a lot of creepy stuff was happening for years yet kept bringing people into it, and she was all good with it until she realized she had a KR on her cooch

Well spoiler alert,

But Keith was just sentenced to 120 years in prison.

I'm just now watching this series. I'm struggling with understanding how this is "sexual abuse" by a legal definition. It appears that he just manipulated a bunch of gullible, self-indulgent people.