Con Mum

Con Mom had potential - the story is wild, the production isn't bad, and it's the kind of show that should pull you in easily. But there's one thing I just couldn't get past: Heather Kaniuk.

She plays one of the main characters, but her voice is so painfully forced - like this fake, low, raspy tone that sounds like she's trying way too hard to be intense or mysterious. It's not natural, it's not engaging... it's just ugh. Every time she speaks, it completely takes me out of the story. It feels like a parody of a true crime character rather than a believable performance.

I'm sorry, but it's genuinely one of the most irritating and frustrating vocal performances I've ever heard on a show. It's killing the vibe entirely.

I wanted to like it, but I just can't sit through it with that voice constantly dragging things down.

We are used to seeing Romance scams and other types of scams but this, is different. You have to put yourself in Graham's shoes just as one would for people who were given up for adoption and yearning for that missing part of them. Unlike romance, this, is biological and hard to understand unless, you have grown up without one or both biological parent(s).

Cannot believe that woman at that age is still scamming. Certain, has done so all her life. Poor Graham.

As for those wondering why Graham seemed so non-chalant narrating the story, he has been through a lot and i wish him and family well.

Graham and Heather are excited about the imminent birth of their child, but their world it rocked, when Graham gets a message from Dionne,who claims to be his long lost mother, and a relative of The Sultan of Brunei, a woman who's apparently hugely wealthy. Dionne is quick to buy gifts for Graham and Heather, but bizarrely she's soon asking for money.

It is a very well made and fascinating documentary, in this day and age where there isn't a single day where there isn't a story about some sort of scam or dodgy scheme, it seems so odd that it can still be happening, but it continues to happen.

The way Dionne manipulated poor Graham was cruel, she really took advantage of that need in him to find love, to find a place of belonging. It took Graham some time to realise what was going on.

I don't know why, but when I think of scammers, I think of attractive, younger people, I don't often think of old ladies, it just goes to show, you should never trust anyone on face value.

It's so incredibly sad to learn that the couple split, they seemed so much in love, so happy, Graham man you should have gone to your wife and new born at Christmas, you can understand why Heather got so angry, mum or not.

What an evil woman, Dionne has done nothing but take from Graham, from start to finish, karma, one can only hope.

It's a fascinating watch.

9/10.

Wow...what was that forced, fake, vocal fry affectation all about? It ruined the whole thing for me, and that's saying something considering what a naive, greedy, selfish dick Graham turned out to be. How could he have really fallen for it all? The answer seems to be that his head was turned by his mum's lies and deceit. I know he was put through the wringer, but look at the pain his little boy, greedy naivety caused. He was so stupid and gullible. Ach, maybe we all would get taken in, by this kind of thing supposedly dropping in your lap, who knows. I like to think, though, that I'd smell a rat quite early on.

Well. This is a toe-curlingly agonising watch!

Con Mum is an above average con story documentary.

A vulnerable man and his partner are expecting a baby, when an old woman comes into their lives seemingly out of nowhere. What unfolds is a story of mind-boggling amoral manipulation, greed and financial destruction. No spoilers.

The power of this show comes from the honesty of the real-life protagonists in front of the cameras. All of them, except one. We really feel for those on the receiving end, especially and particularly the vulnerable man and his family. It's appalling to watch. Shredding. Chilling.

Even so - we learn a whole lot about one of our human conditions: the need we have to want to believe. Once a scammer knows this vulnerability about us - they have us.... That's what's happened here in Con Mum.

Recommended.