The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman

How on Earth can one man have such an influence over people, and how can people allow themselves to be taken over by someone, this revealing three part series explores the concepts.

Perhaps a little guilty of being over long, but there is a fascinating, but very sad story here. Part one is a little drawn out, but stick with it, as the other two installments are very satisfying.

Yes it's focused on one man's crimes, but it's so much more than that, it's a real exploration of human nature, the good and bad sides.

One thing you'll come away with, is a certainty that monsters aren't just in fairy stories, they are real, and two of them are explored in this series.

Well produced, well made, it's definitely a crime that'll have you bemused at how he got away with it for so long. Heaven knows what is brewing next for some poor unfortunate. I'd love to know what it was that they saw in him.

It's sad, surprising, entertaining, well worth your time, 8/10.

I see a lot of reviews here talking about how crazy it is to this to think or discover that this man is who he is.. I study criminal psychology and I can tell you not only has he done this before, but given a chance he'd do it again.

Never ever underestimate anyone anyone. Learn the signs and learn to profile.

Robert Freegard may well and truly be one of the greatest conmen ever to walk the face of Earth. The series unfurls in a non-linear fashion, making it a true-blue thriller where the makers cleverly leave clues for the audiences to connect the dots. Moreover, all the interviews are spot-on. And the RIGHT set of people is given all the weightage, i.e., the victims and their families. This docu-series runs roughly for 2 hours, taking us through details of Freegard's well-known cons while subtly telling us that the list of victims is a lot larger than we can imagine.

Another feather in the cap for Netflix in their true-crime section, The Puppet Master, is fantastically shot, crisply compiled, and stays rooted to its emotional core even when it thrills and leaves us frequently bewildered.

P. S - Would you believe me if I say that there are genuine nail-biter moments? That's right. You wouldn't want to press the pause button! I also hope his latest victim realizes what she's going through and acts upon it sooner than later.

Well, it is the first time I have heard of the story so I was pretty intrigued. However, now after finishing it I am left puzzled at how he managed to trick the people into believing all this crap. They just said that he was very convincing but I just don't buy it. And the story fails to give any explaination on how one person manages to do all this by himself, how he could possibly handle different people during the same time while also going to work. It must have been a lot of planning. The whole storytelling is not 'round'. I feel sorry for the victims and I do not want to do victim blaming. However, that is what the whole story fails. It just doesnt give answers. Like the tinder swindler gives a good explaination on how he was able to pull his thing off and make them all fall for him. I mean, of course, the 90ies were different and people didnt have much access to information and maybe people were more gullible back then. But nonetheless. What does it take to be as convincing to make people believe you were actually working for MI5 and hand over all their money??? How can someone not realize after a short time that this was only about money??? I still have no answer. Above all, every little kid knows that nobody really working for an intelligence service would ever disclose this information at any time. Now somebody comes around the corner and keeps on bragging about it. How can you fall for it? I still don't know since I havent got any answer. This documentary is a nice time pass, however, I will now have to look the story up online in order to find out more about it, which is actually a bad sign after just having seen a documentary on it.

Wow... just a big surprise how easy some people can be tricked into a completely crazy play. I don't want to be rude to the victims as they had lost enough already but man... how can you believe such a story and don't get to the police to make a simple double check. These people were just waiting to be exploited by someone who can give them hope or any meaning in live, pretty bad that they seem to have such a bad family background or education standard to realize what other people are possible to do just for profit.

The simple documentary is a little too long and is leaving out some interesting facts from previous reports and docs about this topic.