The HBO Original Programming Thread

[Brian]

"Class Action Park" was about this insane amusement park in NJ designed by amateurs, run by teenagers and very few rules. Pretty entertaining.
As someone who grew up in the 80s, it made me a big nostalgic for the good old days where we jumped on our bikes and went out for adventures.

[Donuthole]

Also reminded me a little of the "reparative therapy" industry, which in hindsight really looks like a similar "self-help cult" in many ways. I never got involved with that stuff, but one of the guys that founded one of the leading "reparative theory" groups lived in my stake when I was in law school and I had a bishop that recommended that I talk to him. My bishop was a great guy and probably had no idea what it really was, so I don't fault him at all for it. I did some research on it after getting that recommendation though and never ended up contacting the guy because it creeped me out. I've since concluded, from having encounters with others that did attend some "reparative theory" camps led by the same group, that I made a good decision. Everyone I encountered that was involved in the group at the time was super secretive about it and behaved very weirdly. They'd talk about how going to these camps changed their entire lives and would act overly spiritual and "fake happy." Many of them got married to women at a very young age, despite acknowledging that they were gay, and several had kids and claimed their marriages were amazing. Now, I don't know of a single one that isn't divorced and in a gay relationship. And now that I know a little more about what went on at those "camps," its pretty clear there was quite a bit of abuse.

Tl;dr: Stay away from self-help cults.

Not sure of it counts as reparative therapy, but the Tony Robbins doc on Netflix is pretty interesting. The amazing thing to me about it was how Robbins approved and thinks it paints him in a good light.

[UVACoug]

Binged the first three episodes of The Vow, which is a docu-series about the MLM/Ponzi Scheme/sex cult NXIVM/ESP that included several celebrities. It's batshit crazy and I suspect it is going to get even crazier in the coming episodes. It's very well made. Much better than most of the recent HBO documentaries I've seen. I think the thing that's stuck out to me the most is how closely the MLM model fits with the typical characteristics of a cult. I've seen people make that comparison before, but I've never taken it seriously until I watched this. This organization really just looks like a typical MLM at first, until you find out what was going on behind the scenes. The members refer to it as a business and it became their career to recruit new members, who had to pay quite a lot of money to get involved. I think it also says a lot about the "self-help" industry in general, and how it can be abused to manipulate people. I realize they didn't show everything the guy behind it was teaching, from what they showed, it sounded like pretty basic self-help concepts that you'd find in a Covey seminar from the 90s. Yet, people were duped into believing this guy was some kind of mega-genius that had the secrets of the universe locked up in his curriculum that you could access for the low price of $500 a day.

Also reminded me a little of the "reparative therapy" industry, which in hindsight really looks like a similar "self-help cult" in many ways. I never got involved with that stuff, but one of the guys that founded one of the leading "reparative theory" groups lived in my stake when I was in law school and I had a bishop that recommended that I talk to him. My bishop was a great guy and probably had no idea what it really was, so I don't fault him at all for it. I did some research on it after getting that recommendation though and never ended up contacting the guy because it creeped me out. I've since concluded, from having encounters with others that did attend some "reparative theory" camps led by the same group, that I made a good decision. Everyone I encountered that was involved in the group at the time was super secretive about it and behaved very weirdly. They'd talk about how going to these camps changed their entire lives and would act overly spiritual and "fake happy." Many of them got married to women at a very young age, despite acknowledging that they were gay, and several had kids and claimed their marriages were amazing. Now, I don't know of a single one that isn't divorced and in a gay relationship. And now that I know a little more about what went on at those "camps," its pretty clear there was quite a bit of abuse.

Tl;dr: Stay away from self-help cults.

[Bo Diddley]

Probably 4-5 years. You’ll be dead or have full-blown dementia by then. Better just pay up now and enjoy. Or maybe JL will let you use the plan he illegally shares with his adult kids who live in other homes. But if you go that route, you better believe he’ll VenMo bill you for your 1/8th of the bill every month on the first of the month. And he has enforcers all throughout the Morridor. Now you know.

[Donuthole]

The HBO Original Programming Thread

So, how many years until I can watch these shows on Hulu?

Probably 4-5 years. You’ll be dead or have full-blown dementia by then. Better just pay up now and enjoy. Or maybe JL will let you use the plan he illegally shares with his adult kids who live in other homes. But if you go that route, you better believe he’ll VenMo bill you for your 1/8th of the bill every month on the first of the month. And he has enforcers all throughout the Morridor. Now you know.