The Garden: Commune or Cult

Coming off actual documentaries on harmful cults like Love Has Won, , this one was framed from the start as something shocking, teasing at violence and coercive control.

Instead we get a semi-scripted reality show where it appears that actors responding to the casting call were structured around whatever roles as "the Viking", "the outcast who hates hippie nonsense", "the out of water influencer", "the citizen detective investigator" etc etc, offered talking head moments and given childhood camp-like "survival training".

The production company doesn't appear make documentaries but reality shows about sexy Amish people or whatever Discovery exploitation du jour, replacing actual HBO documentary content with this will be the future of your subscription budget.

Back to the series!

There's a plot of land, a general misunderstanding of collective decisions, a disdain for people who live as they want to, and a wacky cast with roles that primarily involve disgust for the way some people choose to live.

The legacy of this show for me is how lazy it is in reinforcing xenophobia and small-mindedness through the usual reality TV lens. Was it a mistake for the commune to make any deal with Discovery? I hope it paid for some infrastructure so they can live freer.

But jeezy, I don't know how it'll be seen by people (it'll just be seen since it cost very little for Discovery) but I did look up the general response on Reddit and I had a hard time finding anyone who thought it didn't do the commune a disservice with this sloppy, boring fiction, people mugging for the camera and causing distress to their hosts who for any flaws of prepper skill didn't ask to be harassed and intimidated.

I don't usually leave reviews! I think this is really what the old HBO sub budget will become, slickly filmed (I'll give field sound / video workers props, BEGRUDGINGLY) but Discovery will sell us these trash true crime "series" with pretense of content and end up with cheap "freak show" exploitation and ironically perpetuating small minded paranoia a lot more than the actual outcasts that.

I just have to provide a retort to Tyler, from my neck of the woods here in (rural) Colorado, not too far from Colorado Springs: You are an ex-military person, a self-proclaimed end-of-days "prepper" who claims that when "the time comes," we'll all be begging for you to help us. And you'll just tell all of us, "F-- you!" So my response to that egotistical load of your b.s. Is this: I, for one, will never, ever ask for any sort of assistance from you. Sure, I might perish in this so-called "end-of-days," as many, many other people might, as well. So, no Tyler, F-- you man! Those sharing your fear, have said and will continue to say our prayers.

Wtf did I just watch? Why can't I stop watching? Oh bc it's junk food and junk food is addicting. I don't, for a second, believe a single solitary event or person in this FICTIONALIZED series is legit. This goes double for the girl with the lashes. Hon, we ALL know you took the first callback that came your way to get on TV and try to quit your day job to be a full time influencer.

This series makes me disgusted to be a millennial and have to be grouped in with these complete and utter morons. If you hate people who coin themselves "Tree," or - wait for it - "VIBE," this will be utter rage fuel. Idk what made me laugh harder - the girl who uses moon water to try and cure someone's severe back injury, or the Tree guy throwing a child-level temper tantrum over BeING aBLE tO PaRtY. This isn't a cult. This a group of privileged morons who think they are CHANGInG thE WoRLd by not taking a shower.

And don't even get me started on Narayah.

The editors of the show should be ashamed. This is in no way a documentation of what happened. It turns out half the drama contained in the show was completely fabricated by the editing team The cast (and I used the term cast because the people in the show were in no way represented accurately so this is more like acting than anything else) have come out and pointed out how horribly this was done in other to make them look like nut jobs. If you want to watch a silly drama filled show, this might be for you. But if you actually want to learn about intentional communities, there are far better resources on the internet than this show.

Is there more to come? This documentary ended without an ending. I feel frustrated about the whole thing. I wasted hours watching this just to have it end, abruptly. In my opinion, I felt that nobody in this documentary was appealing in any way, or was a sympathetic character. Everyone came across as self-indulgent, narcissistic, and egomaniacal, to some degree. I wish HBO would add a warning that this is an incomplete documentary, so people don't waste their time if they are expecting a wrap-up at the end. I really thought there would be more episodes. Why didn't the question asked in the title ever get answered? 👎