My feed

Viewed: All four episodes

With the slick, polished production values of a Netflix docuseries (why the hell didn't Netflix snag this instantly?), and featuring tonnes of archival footage & photos, in addition to interviews with a variety of participants, this is a borderline definitive profile of Jim Jones and the events leading up to the Jonestown massacre. The series delves into Jones's upbringing and initially starting his own church, examining how he manipulated people into joining his People's Temple...and then not letting anybody leave. His terrifying tactics are revealed, and the appalling mistreatment of members is discussed. Yet, you grow to understand what the fanatics saw in Jim Jones and how they were ensnared in his trap. The wealth of archival material is truly astonishing, showing Jones's (fake) healings, his sermons, the construction of Jonestown, and the events when Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown - which directly prompted the tragedy. It's astonishingly comprehensive, though a few details were left out that I previously learned from the Casefile podcast on the case (the peaceful life at Jonestown before Jim came there full-time, the extensive "White Night" drills when people were fooled into thinking they were drinking poison, and the food situation got so bad that bugs infested it and people didn't even want to see what they were eating, just to name a few). Nevertheless, this is highly recommended viewing for anybody interested in true-crime documentaries.

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 23rd Via: Blu-ray Plot: A damaged ex-special forces soldier navigating London's criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man's identity. Rating: 6.3/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 22nd Via: iTunes Store Plot: War photographer W. Eugene Smith travels back to Japan where he visually documents the devastating effect of mercury poisoning in coastal communities, seeking to share the images with the whole in Life Magazine and raise awareness. Rating: 7.6/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 22nd Via: Blu-ray Plot: A bush pilot is hired to go to Mexico to free an innocent American prisoner. Rating: 6.4/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 21st Via: iTunes Store Plot: Skip tracer Tommy looks for bail-jumper Lou Ann. Her crime is marrying Roy, who left counterfeit money in their mobile home and got her arrested. She leaves Roy, and steals his pink Cadillac full of money, but his criminal friends want their money back. Rating: 5.7/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 21st Via: iTunes Store Plot: After a remote diamond mine collapses in far northern Canada, a ‘big-rig’ ice road driver must lead an impossible rescue mission over a frozen ocean to save the trapped miners. Rating: 6.4/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 20th Via: Paramount+ Plot: Margot, a young woman who was abandoned by her mother as a baby, travels to a secluded Amish community with a documentary film crew seeking answers about her mother and extended family. Rating: 5.3/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 19th Via: Blu-ray Plot: After being wrongfully imprisoned for thirteen years and having her child taken away from her, a woman seeks revenge through increasingly brutal means. Rating: 7.1/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 18th Via: Cinema Plot: An aspiring fashion designer is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something darker. Rating: 7.7/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 18th Via: iTunes Store Plot: A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped. Rating: 7.5/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 17th Via: Amazon Prime Video Plot: John Deakin is being transported, as a prisoner, on a train with supplies and medicine to Fort Humboldt, Nevada. But things onboard begin to go awry and corpses begin to pile up. Rating: 6.3/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 16th Via: 4K Blu-ray Plot: The rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, only heats up when one gang member kills a member of the other. Rating: 7.4/10

First Viewing Viewing Date: November 16th Via: Blu-ray Plot: A recently laid off factory worker kidnaps his former boss' friend's daughter, hoping to use the ransom money to pay for his sister's kidney transplant. Rating: 7.6/10