DanaK

You know, there is too much padding, and when they focus on Sarah and company, it’s not as interesting. But when they focus on other members like Toni and the other lady tonight, I’m riveted

I wonder if Bronfman Senior can cut his daughters from their money now that they are legally proven to be part of a criminal enterprise? Man, what cult doesn’t ultimately have criminal activity and a sexually inappropriate guru going on underneath? Of course, abuse can happen anywhere, from teachers and coaches to religious institutions, to insides families. I guess the commonality is the grooming of vulnerable people

The dates and times for the 3 Doctor Who panel at New York ComicCon have been confirmed https://cultbox.co.uk/general/doctor-who-at-new-york-comic-con-dates-times

What happened to Barbara and Susan getting crushed by all the legal actions and siccing the police on them was horrifying, but it seems to me the ladies made the mistake of threatening to go to the media to get their money instead of the usual route of suing. It gave the group ammunition to claim extortion, or seemed to. I wonder if the ladies talked to lawyers before writing those demands That video of Keith explaining to the group at the time that people have left and are making threats was all kinds of wild as it certainly seems Keith was admitting to them he was romantically involved with several members and it’s like the group didn’t really bat an eye to that

Nancy’s birthday party was a bit much with the sexual appliances, unexpectedly so. And it does appear that she recruited former therapy clients for Nxivum. It also appears she too was in a relationship with Keith being she was on that first board of women sleeping with Keith and we had all that video of the various women, including Nancy, kissing him. But for some reason, the filmmakers don’t seem to want to say it explicitly out loud Does the New York Times just release their big exposes without telling the people they interviewed after stringing them along for months? It really does feel though that the Weinstein case and the subsequent MeToo movement broke the logjam of getting the story out to the mainstream and having it resonate with the public And yikes with Keith saying similar inappropriate things to Barbara (and she back at him) that he said later to Allison. Poor Barbara just wanted a normal boyfriend that loved only her (and only slept with her). And what is with all these women so willing to have sex with this scummy guy who is having sex with multiple women? The ratings don’t seem to be catching fire, with viewers under 400k for premiere night, but I guess we’ll see what DVR ratings bring

Poor Barbara Bouchey and the other lady sued into oblivion. Damn I too wonder if Nancy was also in a relationship with Keith. She was on that initial board where they were all sleeping with Keith, but I think they would have explicitly said so if she was

That was fascinating. As several questioners and the reporter commented, it's amazing yet not that these kinds of stories can take so long to break into the national mainstream. It also sounds like local Albany politicians and police were possibly on the take to look the other way early on if I understood the reporter correctly, thus making it hard to get local authorities to take action. But I suppose similar things happened with Weinstein and Epstein where people were bought off to look the other way and silence stories for a long while

I’ll miss the show, but it’s time for it to end. Six seasons is a pretty good run for any scripted show

I’m sorry for Tyler having to forgo the job due to Covid, but I’m not going to miss her whispery voice that drove me to distraction. Hope she and her family stay safe

This episode showed the nasty, litigious nature of the group, a la Scientology. Hats off to the people who talked over the years in spite of the nasty threats against them. I would be on pins and needles waiting for the New York Times to decide if they wanted to do the expose or not. That clearly caused a lot of stress. I was confused about the meeting with the Dalai Lama. He seemed both open to going ahead with the official visit because of the way the Chinese treated him and pissed or annoyed that they came to see him to beg for the official meeting

I should also add to my sad tale that my dad has dementia, so Mike's story, at least in the last few weeks, has been hard to take on several fronts

My elderly mom passed last month so Mike’s dying was harder to take than it usually would be plus I couldn’t be with her or be at the service because of Covid so all the people gathered kind of bothered me. I normally would say it was emotional and touching and it was, but my own grief was a little new to really enjoy it. It also bugged me that it went on for so long. But what really bugged me was Sonny constantly haranguing Mike to let go or tell him what he needed in order to die I briefly thought maybe Courtney would be the one to usher Mike into the light and she was

Wasn’t Catherine the one who went to the New York Times which did the expose that blew the cult’s dirty stuff wide open? At the very least, I think she went public about it to try to get her daughter out I kind of felt she was feeling very emotional about her daughter’s plight but was just managing to keep it together

I recently re-watched this first episode and paid full attention and it’s surprising how much of the plot I missed the first time around

That scene really resonated with me, which leads me to confess something. I'm Catholic, but I started to get involved in a different church at some point when I was in college (it may have been my freshman year, but I don't recall for sure as it was nearly 40 years ago). It was inadvertent at first. I started to do some Bible study with my Resident Advisor (college student who was basically the floor mother for the students on her floor) and pretty quickly she was basically telling me Catholicism was bad and that her church was the only one with the right answer. I got pulled in deeper and actually thought about joining because I guess I was searching for some spiritual guidance at that point. They were a breakaway Conservative congregation from a larger church so I wouldn't call them a cult, but they certainly had sway over their members' lives, including making sure they went to church (more than once a week as I recall) and their way was the right and only way. My parents were certainly alarmed and that and other things made me realize this church wasn't right for me and was hinky and maybe too controlling in a few ways. The above scene reminded me especially of the early Bible study meetings with my RA who made me feel the Catholic Church and any other church but hers was the wrong way (yes, I know the Catholic Church has its own issues, but that's not the point here). I recall my Mom afterwards spoke to someone at the school about the RA recruiting naive college students to her church, but they basically shrugged their shoulders and said freedom of religion or something

Man, Episode 4 had me glued. From “Jane” to India and Catherine, I just couldn’t look away. And Keith bedding the various women like each was the special one is just so infuriating

The Mirror is reporting that Series 13 is scheduled to start filming next month with Jodie and Mandip, though they have their usual clickbait way saying it may not be broadcast until 2022 with the usual 10 episodes due to Covid mitigations. Like that’s not an obvious possibility https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-fans-wait-until-22663588

Perhaps this has been revealed already in previous legal stuff or we'll hear more about it in the rest of the series, but I wonder what came first, the pyramid scheme selling/Keith algorithm nonsense or the Keith-gets-his-jollies sex cult thing and other sexual abuse practices. Wikipedia's article on him makes it sound like he was kind of icky around women even when he was young

She was pretty much thinking that for much of the Woodward episode lol

No filming reported yet, though I've heard they may start in November. I guess it depends on the status of the pandemic and mitigation of safety protocols. I suspect they won't be able to film overseas. Killing Eve won't start until at least January because they film in several overseas locations Jodie has said several times earlier that she will be doing Series 13 and has said she isn't looking to turn over the keys any time soon

Dalek animated spin-off series coming to YouTube in November as part of Time Lord Victorious project https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-09-09/doctor-who-daleks-animation/

This series is so riveting so far. I had started to hear about the group in the last couple of years, starting when Allison Mack got arrested or maybe a little before that. So I had a fair bit of knowledge about the more salacious parts, though not as much about the more mundane mlm/pyramid scheme part of it I’ve been thinking for awhile that people have to be careful about making one thing in your life the center of your life and pushing out everything else. That applies not just to cults, but mainstream churches, work and anything else that you might over focus on and lose your identity and community if you decide not to do it anymore. So like others, I can see it being hard for people to leave the group initially. However the DOS sex cult thing should have been an instant nope, but on the other hand, as others surmised, if you have already been brainwashed enough by the group, you would be likely to brush away your doubts and fears, at least initially I'm actually glad they are going into some detail here about the techniques used as it might help people see the issues when some self help group comes calling. It might even help people spot smaller mlm/pyramid scheme things for what they are

Doctor Who was nominated for 2 BAFTA Cymru Awards, Lee Haven Jones for Best Director for Series 12's Spyfall Part 2 and Rebecca Trotman for Best Editing for her work on Series 12

Forget the growing bowl of moss, I want to know who the guy is at Anna’s house lurking in the background and showing people out the door. I only noticed him in the last week or so. Is he Anna’s assistant or something?