The Vow (2020)

What’s so chilling about The Vow — HBO’s immersive new docuseries about NXIVM, the New York-based “self-help group” brought down by charges of sexual slavery — is how vividly it illustrates the seductive and insidious ways these groups lure intelligent, well-meaning people into servitude.

A stunning expose of the self-improvement group NXIVM and its downfall.

The fact that Raniere took what could be seen as a calculated, logical, scientific approach to his program fascinates us even more. When you hear him talk, he sounds less like a motivational speaker and more like a college professor or a wonky tech CEO. ... The Vow benefits from access to people like Vicente and Edmondson, plus lots of footage from various NXIVM organizational videos, meetings, and other insightful stuff.

The generous peppering of insider NXIVM videos throughout The Vow renders the dorky, soft-spoken Raniere, who appears not to have participated in the documentary, a thoroughly unimpressive figure, while providing visual relief from the many talking-head interviews. Overall, the production is handsome and well-structured, with new episodes unearthing new layers of viciousness and manipulation.

The filmmakers have an immense treasure trove of footage to draw from, but only a few defectors willing to be interviewed on camera. At times, the whiplash between the banality of the source material and the extreme nature of the allegations is striking. ... One thing The Vow does well is break down the techniques of emotional abuse Raniere and his inner circle used to manipulate lower-ranking members, so we understand why they stuck around—if not why they were devoted to this man in particular.

While The Vow Part Two gives viewers a front-row seat of the federal trial against founder Keith Raniere, it’s a more fragmented exercise that feels unduly stretched over six parts.

Nine hours of this story crosses from exhaustive to exhausting in “The Vow.” The amazing access to personal stories as they unfolded likely led directors Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer to err on the side of inclusion, but the repetitive, unedited nature of the series actually diminishes its intended impact. ... Still, there’s power in each episode of “The Vow,” even if it’s assembled in a manner than never completely worked for me.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Why is it always actors who join these cults? Do they need that much attention? Anyway, yada yada, of course it's a cult. The jargon alone in the first episode is a dead giveaway. It's also a pyramid scheme. I'm not saying the master/slave **** didn't happen, but I really saw how contrived even the statements in the doc are. This is scripted reality. I have to wonder whether these folks (apparently mostly out of work actors) arent scamming us a little with this pseudo-doc. If they are, well-done!

I enjoyed The Vow until I read more about NXIVM, Keith Raniere and watched the Starz documentary Seduced. The Vow is a timid showing; it defends the high level actors in the cult who are just as responsible as Raniere. And surprise, the Vow was made in part by those high level actors. They are victims too, but they need to be held accountable for the damage they caused as well, not get a free pass because they made a sappy docuseries about it.

Both seasons of this documentary series spread a dearth of material over many hours, making it feel hollow. In fact, I find it quite puzzling how little material is actually covered, the showrunners seem to massively understate the crimes perpetrated by Raniere, Salzman, and other co-conspirators.

At LEAST twice as long as it needed to be. A bit miffed I invested 9 hours of my life on this and didn’t even get a reasonable conclusion.