In the battle of NXIVM cult docuseries, Starz's Seduced puts HBO's The Vow to shame

The A.V. Club

At first, HBO's nine-part-and-counting The Vow and Starz's Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult seemed like "dueling Fyre Fest documentaries, with nefarious characters on both sides attempting to profit off of a story that had already been talked about in detail," says Ashley Ray-Harris. "But The Vow and Seduced are two documentaries with completely different goals. The Vow, which premiered in August, spends most of its time trying to convince viewers that Keith Raniere really was saying something his followers thought was worth believing in, and that’s why they got so lost. The producers, directors, and those involved with The Vow are mostly former NXIVM members who seemingly still have some need to tell themselves that some of what they did as part of the cult was good. The Vow is as much them telling the story of NXIVM as it is an attempt to justify the money they made off of NXIVM. It’s long and tedious, as most overly explanatory excuses tend to be. If you want to understand how Keith Raniere was able to break down so many young women, The Vow won’t explain that. It exists so those who were involved can point to something in order to make sense of their actions as they try to get back to their old lives—old lives that often involved famous friends and positive attention. As more details of Raniere’s crimes come out, it makes sense that high-profile ex-members would want to get ahead of the curve with their own narrative, which is what The Vow does. But when you finish The Vow, you’ll just wonder why you wasted nine hours learning about some pervert who stole money from rich white people and made filmmaker/NXIVM member Mark Vicente cry....Despite The Vow’s length, if you want to actually understand Raniere’s crimes, you’ll have to watch Seduced. Through it, you’ll learn that Dynasty actor Catherine Oxenberg wasn’t just one of many rich white people to get involved with NXIVM; she had the resources and fame to go up against Raniere and the Bronfmans’ wealth and actually did it...Seduced also reveals some startling details about India (Oxenberg's) time in NXIVM, when she helped normalized the group and boosted their reputation. Raniere viewed her as a commodity he had to hold onto. This is an important dynamic The Vow doesn’t address; in fact, the docuseries doesn’t seem ready to address any of the ways Raniere used people."

ALSO:

• The Vow is more like a cannily produced reality show than a docuseries: "In lieu of unpacking the layers of conspiracy, manipulation, and profit that allowed (Keith) Raniere to carry out genuinely monstrous acts on NXIVM members — apparently, for years — The Vow zoomed in on the self-flagellating Scooby Squad that’s assembled, on camera, to take him down," says Kelli María Korducki. "We see their remorse and emotional catharsis, disbelief at their own naivete. What we don’t see is the depth of their complicity in the master’s sins (all but Oxenberg had been longtime, high-ranking members) though we get a few hints. And we’re shielded, to great extent, from the master’s sins themselves. The end result is a kind of redemptive group hug among chosen family, drawn out over nine hours. To paraphrase one observation from Twitter, The Vow lets us watch a group of wealthy white adults as they effectively swap out one cult for another. It isn’t always what you’d call 'good TV,' or even successful storytelling. But in a time of crisis and isolation, as a depiction of purpose-driven bonding, the series scratches a primordial itch. It delivers a vicarious experience of indoctrination in a moment of collective weakness."
• The Vow directors Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer wanted their docuseries to go past the "sex cult" headlines to tell a deeper story
• NXIVM founder Keith Raniere apologizes, says "yes, I am innocent" in a Dateline NBC interview