Season 1 |
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Episode Guide
Episode 1: Here Come the Dopefiends
Episode 2: A War on Convention
Episode 3: What in the Hell is Happening?
Episode 4: Strap Yourself to the Mast
The existence of cults looks like a tale of the ancient time but cults do exist in the modern-day as well. A cult is formed when a group of individuals are typically led by a charismatic and self-appointed leader, who tightly controls its members. Such is the case with The Synanon, a rehabilitation centre that was initially formed to help people with drug and substance abuse.
This 4-part HBO Documentary narrates the story of people who started as members of a rehabilitation centre that ended up being controlled and abused by the self-appointed leader of the group – Charles “Chuck” Dederich. The show narrates harrowing testimonies from victims of the cult as well as the children of these victims.
The Synanon movement originated in 1958 in Santa Monica, California, United States of America and mainly aimed at drug rehabilitation. The group evolved to include more and more people with substance and drug abuse issues wherein celebrities from the time also openly associated with the club. With time, the community expanded vastly and people who did not suffer from any addiction also attended the group meetings to feel a sense of community.
As the episodes of the documentary – The Synanon Fix: Did The Cure Become A Cult? progress, the victims narrate troubling details about Chuck Dederich’s inhuman ways of keeping the victims free of addiction. The documentary features original clips from the Synanon where the members attended a meeting at the community.
The show tries to explain to viewers The Synanon Game, an attack-therapy game that became a popular game that was played at the meetings. The clips from this game show how Chuck forced these people, who were already suffering from addiction, to degrade people in the group and humiliate them to the point of tears.
This community was eventually turned into a cult led by Chuck Dederich and we hear about the atrocities of the cult leader in the final two episodes of the documentary. We see how Chuck badly treated the people who were a part of his cult as he maintained a military boot-camp-like environment and made vasectomies and abortions mandatory for the members of the cult.
Moreover, the show highlights testimonies from former members of the cult who talk about Chuck forcing the members to split with their partners and remarry other people – something that they regretted. The final episode of the documentary focuses on the 9-day kidnapping of Frances Winn, a 25‐year‐old Californian housewife who approached the cult after feeling severely depressed.
The show highlights Chuck’s reaction to being sued for the kidnapping and his reaction to the negative attention on Synanon. We also learn about Chuck being diagnosed with mental illness and going back into his alcohol addiction before eventually dying in a nursing home. With Chuck gone, the members of the cult are left to navigate their lives on their own.
As these members find their paths, they are also forced to come to terms with the fact that they were exploited by a religious leader and his cult. The Synanon Fix: Did The Cure Become A Cult is an enraging show with distressing testimonies of victims who were former members of the cult, making this documentary a compelling watch.
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Verdict - 8.5/10
8.5/10