An Update on Our Family

I feel like instead of a proper documentary, this is one of those obnoxious YouTube video essays. It DRAGS and truly could've told the entire story in an hour. There's a good 30 minutes' worth in the first episode alone where they're just saying the same things over and over and over again.

We get it. People feel community by vlogging. Yes, we get it - YouTube can be lucrative. Yes, we twigged 10 minutes ago that this woman really wanted to be a mom and seemed authentic about it.

It's really frustrating because this doco touches on some actually interesting topics, but it feels a little bit like HBO asked them for an episode count and they had to pad for time. You're better off reading the article the entire thing is based on, because there's no particularly new insights here either (the family they're all discussing declined an interview).

The documentary uses many editing cliches that have been overdone by the big streamers for about 10 years now. The ticker showing a video's view count rising rapidly. The breaking of the 4th wall when people are being interviewed. It's extremely boring. The first episode take roughly 50 minutes to say: 1) Vloggers are a thing. 2) People really like this particular family vlogger. 3) They might have enjoyed the attention from vlogging too much. That's it. You just saw the first episode. It is a sad reminder that many YouTubers these days can craft better documentaries than Netflix and HBO, with .1% of the resources.

This series is great if you know of online drama but need it to be condensed into an HBO style documentary for you to actually care about any of it. Hannah Cho is the perfect person to lead everyone through it because she explains what's going on through the lens of a fan who had been there from the beginning, but also from the perspective of someone who also lives and breathes social media for her own livelihood. It's like when your bestie is explaining really great controversy happening outside of your social circle that doesn't affect you but is fascinating nonetheless. The perspectives of the journalists covering it vs social media responses in the last episode are part of a larger picture that I'd love to see this documentary team explore more.

As Episode 1 of "An Update on Our Family" (2025 release; 3 episodes ranging from 43 to 50 min) opens, we are introduced to Myka and James Stauffer, who painstakingly vlog on the YouTube family channel, going back to 2013. After 3 kids of their own, the couple decides to adopt a special needs boy from China. At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the work of director Rachel Mason, who just recently directed the outstanding (if tragic) documentary "Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna". Here Mason examines the phenom that is family vlogging, and as it turns out (wait for it!), things are not quite as they seem. This is not the first documentary looking at this issue. But as it turns out, all of it is just an appetizer for what plays out in Episode 3, when the Stauffers adopt a young boy from China. I won't say more about it so as not to spoil. I must admit I have never heard of this story before, nor am I all that familiar with the multiple family vlogs that apparently exist out there, all hoping to get enough subscribers that YouTube and sponsors will pay them handsomely, but raising the obvious ethical question of what these parents are thinking about making so much of their children's lives available to the public at large without the children's conscious consent. Apart from the interesting ethical issues raised by the documentary, in retrospect all of this could've been handled in far less that the almost 2 1/2 hrs. Running time of the 3 episodes.

"An Update on Our Family" started streaming on Max not too long ago, and I stumbled on it the other night, I watched all 3 episodes in a single setting. This mini-series is currently rated 100% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which is far too generous in my opinion. If you are curious about the phenom that is family vlogging on YouTube or about adoptions of special needs kids from overseas, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

While watching the first episode all I could think was "this has to be satire". There's no way these people are actually this cringe, right? The bizarre woman who sorta narrates even tries to use the Kardashians as some measure of "normal". Then the influencer with the Big Dumb Hat showed up and it officially jumped the shark.

This is just a bunch of self-described "influencers" with no talent and no substance at all. Based on the show description there's eventually going to be a story about an adopted kid, but the entire first episode has nothing to do with that. If you want to watch a documentary on the downfall of society, this is the one.