‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ evaluate: Netflix’s Belle Gibson collection is compulsively watchable, however at what price?

On the prime of every Apple Cider Vinegar episode, characters break the fourth wall and inform us, “This is a true story based on a lie.”

The true story in query? The rise and fall of Australian influencer Belle Gibson (Booksmart‘s Kaitlyn Dever), who used her mind most cancers analysis to construct a wellness empire. The lie? That she ever had most cancers within the first place.

Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar examines how Belle’s lie got here to be, putting it within the context of the rise of Instagram and influencer stardom. The restricted collection additionally dramatizes the lives of key individuals in her orbit, from a rival wellness influencer to a most cancers affected person who hangs onto Belle’s each phrase. These story threads ought to assist flesh out the complete impression of Belle’s actions, however in actuality, they flip Apple Cider Vinegar into an odd paradox. The present is a flashy examination of so-called wellness influencers, nevertheless it’s additionally a really upsetting most cancers story — and neither facet will get fairly the depth it deserves.

Apple Cider Vinegar brings scammer Belle Gibson’s story to life.

Apple Cider Vinegar takes a nonlinear strategy to Belle’s story, starting together with her 2015 assembly with a disaster administration PR agency following the publicity of her lies. Then, the present jumps again in time to indicate us how she first lied about having mind most cancers, how she claimed she had mitigated the most cancers by way of wholesome consuming and a pure life-style, and the way these fabrications spiraled into the favored app The Complete Pantry. The present’s jumbled chronology has little impression although, seeming extra like a device to present Apple Cider Vinegar the guise of status TV sheen than an precise significant narrative gadget.

Belle’s is not the one story on the coronary heart of Apple Cider Vinegar. The present additionally introduces us to Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey, It is What’s Inside), a fictionalized model of “wellness warrior” Jessica Ainscough. In contrast to Belle, although, Milla truly has most cancers. At age 22, she was recognized with undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma in her arm. However as a substitute of amputating her arm, as really useful by her staff of medical doctors, she selected to pursue a “natural” remedy path involving juicing and low enemas. Her weblog on the topic earns her fairly the next, together with an obsessive Belle, who sees Milla because the blueprint for who she needs to be.

Rounding out the primary forged of Apple Cider Vinegar are breast most cancers affected person Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), who hopes to comply with in Belle’s footsteps and cease medical remedy, and Milla’s shut pal Chanelle (Aisha Dee), who turns into entangled in Belle’s enterprise. Every represents a special form of sufferer. Lucy’s perception in Belle’s lies ends in nice bodily hurt. Chanelle, on the opposite, realizes she’s been caught up in a predatory monetary rip-off.

Based mostly on the scam-heavy nature of Apple Cider Vinegar, it is laborious not to attract comparisons to a different Netflix true crime present: Inventing Anna. Like Anna Delvey, Belle has her justifiable share of horrendous girlboss moments that boggle the thoughts and can preserve viewers urgent play on additional episodes. However her rip-off additionally includes most cancers, a deeply painful subject material that’s at odds to Apple Cider Vinegar‘s frothy strategy to parts of Belle’s story.

Apple Cider Vinegar‘s flashy Instagram aesthetics are at warfare with its cancer-centric story.

Kaitlyn Dever in “Apple Cider Vinegar.”
Credit score: Courtesy of Netflix

Apple Cider Vinegar is bursting with stylized sequences. In a jam-packed opening, Britney Spears’s “Toxic” blares whereas Dever, Debnam-Carey, Cobham-Hervey, and Dee carry out a choreographed dance in gold sparkly attire. All through the present, throughout scenes involving social media, feedback and posts pop up on display screen, whereas glowing thumbs up and coronary heart emojis swirl round Belle as she will get the eye she so craves. With all these parts, in addition to a nonstop parade of big-name needle drops and beautiful stars, Apple Cider Vinegar co-opts the aesthetics of aspirational social media posts so as to spotlight simply how massive a job these platforms performed in Belle’s rise. However in making use of this visible language, is it actually commenting on how shallow and synthetic influencers’ posts may be? Or is it falling prey to that exact same artificiality?

Each issues may be true. Apple Cider Vinegar‘s flashiness is undoubtedly an effort to critique Milla and Belle’s strategy to social media. A number of scenes present them painstakingly drafting their posts within the hopes of strolling that good line between relatable and unattainable. In spite of everything, it takes numerous effort to look easy.

But Apple Cider Vinegar barely dives into how social media can truly perpetuate dangerous messaging round well being. We do not perceive what led Milla or Belle to be so “naturally” centered within the first place past some nods to obscure “research,” so their strict adherence to their existence feels hole and considerably unmotivated. In the meantime, Lucy’s character turns into the stand-in for Apple Cider Vinegar to elucidate how what Belle and Milla are doing is dangerous, however she’s so typically sidelined that that messaging simply falls away.

Belle’s manipulation is what most viewers might be conversant in, and what spawns probably the most cringeworthy sequences of the present, all at her expense. But it surely’s Milla’s storyline that’s the hardest to look at. Her refusal to deal with her most cancers — together with forcing her relations to partake in her “all-natural” life-style — is a number of the most upsetting TV I’ve seen shortly. It borders on physique horror, not within the sense that Apple Cider Vinegar is displaying us gore, however within the sense that Milla is violating her personal physique so as to attempt to uphold an not possible normal of well being. To observe anybody purchase into it within the present is nothing in need of nauseating.

But how a lot of this response comes from what Apple Cider Vinegar is definitely displaying us, versus viewers members bringing their very own emotional experiences with most cancers to the present? Regardless of robust efficiency by Dever and Debnam-Carey, I do know that my important response to Apple Cider Vinegar was much less tied to Belle and Milla as characters, and extra as a result of projecting my family members and pals onto the most cancers sufferers within the collection.

Apple Cider Vinegar tries to sort out true crime, with blended outcomes.

Alycia Debnam-Carey and Aisha Dee in “Apple Cider Vinegar.”
Credit score: Courtesy of Netflix

On prime of juggling advanced matters in regards to the beginnings of social media, wellness grifters, and the emotional weight of most cancers, Apple Cider Vinegar additionally will get meta about its personal standing as a real crime present.

Not solely does every episode start with the aforementioned warning, they typically include one other reminder, both spoken or written, that Belle Gibson was not paid for the recreation of her story.

These moments showcase Apple Cider Vinegar‘s efforts to distance itself from claims that it is glorifying its true crime story, claims which have impacted different Netflix collection like Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. However in drawing consideration to Apple Cider Vinegar‘s roots in actuality, the collection feeds the hearth of awed disbelief that makes individuals wish to preserve watching true crime within the first place.

Apple Cider Vinegar chides the viewers for that intuition too, at one level asking whether or not we even care about whether or not some names and characters have been fictionalized. (At one other level, we’re informed we will simply Google what occurred subsequent, as if the collection will not be held answerable for our continued curiosity within the topic it knowledgeable us on.) That scolding perspective is a double-edged sword. Sure, your viewers could wish to preserve watching, however who made the collection within the first place? Who introduced extra notoriety to Belle Gibson and glammed up her story with Instagram filters?

Apple Cider Vinegar‘s reflection on the true crime style continues to be considerably fascinating, however in the long run, like a lot of the present, it simply lacks the depth or focus to get on the root of the problem.

Apple Cider Vinegar premieres Feb. 6 on Netflix.