it discusses the Synanon cult that was born out of AA, how it related to MKULTRA and 60s psychiatric research, and how it birthed the modern troubled teen industry.

also i finally learned what the fuck Deleuze meant when he talked about rhizomes

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Its a little confusing, because I feel like Brace and Liz tried to really hype what amounts to a deeply personal story because it felt cathartic to them personally. From the outside looking in its not really clear why this is worthy of such a deep dive.

    But Synanon is basically why Brace is who he is as a person. It would be like Peyton Manning doing a podcast tell all about the origins of the NFL. Or Pete Buttigieg doing a long-form piece on the history of the United States Army Ordnance Department.

      • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I much prefer this deep dive than the few weeks they were randomly talking about Utah politics even setting aside the extra production they’ve been putting in this series.

        The real problem with the Utah series, as they admitted, is they didn't even really know what they were looking into until they brought that Recluse guy back on to bend your ear for 2 hours about modern Mormon mythos. If they had known that is where they were going before doing 3 baffling episodes on the court case, or did one more capstone episode after that, it might have turned into one of the better episode arcs.

          • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            For sure for sure, just a bit of yes-and-ing you there.

            perhaps I should have added a last line about how much of a difference it makes with a proper plan to tie it all back around.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I mean, everyone deserves a vacation. But I feel like this particular series was intended to be more personal than - say - the Elon series or the Utah series.