On Becoming a God in Central Florida

So many conversations in this show brought back memories of being involved with a multi-level marketing company. It rang so true with the ridiculous motivational recordings and the up-line sponsor pushing you to quit your job and spend more money with the MLM even though you are already massively in debt because of it. And of course the spline sponsor only being concerned with the royalties they will lose if you quit while pretending to be concerned about you.

Brings back memories of all the people I knew who looked, and acted, successful on stage talking about the MLM business opportunity, yet in their real lives they were dead broke and about to lose their homes and marriages.

The MLM motto of, "Fake it, till you make it!" was definitely shown in this show.

Great, satirical look at how many (all?) MLM companies take advantage of hard-working-but uneducated-upwardly-mobile-striving Americans without other resources. I thought the writing and acting was superb. Dunst is fantastic as a single mom widow determined to get out of the deep financial hole her husband dug for her. I loved the portrayal of the DS FLR (dominance-submissoin female led relationship) with the baby-faced Cody character in the second hand of the first season. To whomever found this unbelievable, she tells us why. She doesn't love him, but she needs him, and that she had been faking it to accomplish her goals. She has a kid and needs help! I totally get this ... remember this is 1992. There's no Match.com for her to easily find another life partner willing to help her raise Destinee. He adores her, which is easy to see why. She's cunning, creative, sexy, determined and fun. I think a lot of women settle for an imperfect relationship so that have help raising children when they find themselves unexpectedly alone.

The title ... well I felt that it finally made sense to me in the final five minutes of the first season. Then think back to how the audience at a rally cheers for the upline top of the pyramid at FAM. After I watched this season I watched a YouTube video of an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that detailed MLM companies and why they are so bad. It's a fantastic watch and I recommend everyone watch it ... in fact if I recommend five people watch it and they each get five people to watch it then it will only take 14 cycles before the whole world has seen it! (And that's why pyramid schemes don't work ... there aren't enough people to put underneath you to pay back everyone who gets onboard when the bottom line is compensation by signing people up and not by selling product.)

I expect the second season to be a hoot and can't wait for it to be released!

Excellent series with an extraordinary Kristen Dunst, I love this actress of a magnificent talent who raises the whole series, an excellent screenplay and a nice sarcastic vision of money. A black sarcastic comedy, where we laugh in certain situations and we stoke the underlying plot of the dramatic side, the whole is very coherent and with this main actress who shines there, she alone ignites the whole series.

A great start to the series about an early 90's mother determined to thrive despite her late husband's ties to a pyramid scam. Kirsten Dunst and cast are dynamic and the script & setting is so far a winner. In my personal opinion Dunst is a fantastic actress and I'll watch just about anything she's in. Despite being passed over for her phenomenal performance in Fargo here she is again nailing yet another role. I'm hoping this show continues to deliver because I am hooked to see what unfolds next for her character. And yes I will be very suprised if she is not nominated and given her long awaited & well deserved Emmy win. Watch the show. You will not be disappointed.

If you like Fargo the TV series, you should enjoy this show. While not quite as over the top as Fargo, it does capture the craziness of Florida as well as the pseudo-religious fervor and false hopes that MML schemes engender. At first I thought I could predict the direction the series was going to take but by Episode 3, Kirsten Dunst's character makes a decision that sets up a more delicious plotline. The characters are eccentric but still believable and the actors are great. I cannot wait to see how this funny, dark, bizarre and very American story progresses.