Review: “How I Escaped My Cult” Takes an Empathetic Look at Those Who Have Left Monsters
How I Escaped My Cult continues the new trajectory of Freeform. When the network was known as ABC Family, the teen-centric network was focused on dramas that grabbed the attention of high schools across the nation. Secret Life of the American Teenager, Pretty Little Liars, The Fosters, and Switched at Birth were just some of the hour-long series that created a perfect niche for the cable channel. However, with the Freeform rebranding came a greater confusion in the cable television space.
Freeform has tried scripted series (sans some ABC Family leftovers, nothing has clicked) and non-scripted reality (for a variety of reasons, none have held on in a confident way). In their current iteration, unscripted series have taken the reins from the network, trying to find anything that will click. Wayne Brady: The Family Remix has taken center stage while prominent podcaster Laci Mosley has also brought Scam Goddess to the small screen. In a big (hopeful) win for the network, Project Runway is back under the Disney umbrella with Heidi Klum returning to host later this year.
As Freeform struggles to find a new niche as cable television’s prominence slowly withers away, the big wigs always know a cheap, cost-effective winner: true crime.
How I Escaped My Cult is a new series that follows ten separate stories of victims working against the odds to escape the confines of a cult. For some, their choice to join has led them to reconsider what brought them there in the first place. For others, being born into the cult adds an extra layer of difficulty to their plots to leave. Each of the ten, hour-long episodes follows a singular cult, the members who escaped, and the atrocities that led them to fight for their personal freedom.
As is the case of episodic anthology series, some tales of cultism are better rendered than others. Luckily, nothing in this series is demeaning to those who have experienced these horrors. The victims are all given the space to explain how or why they were part of the cult for as long as they did, how they were affected by the atrocities, and to discuss the long term effects of their mental and physical entrapment. ABC’s Tamron Hall is the perfect narrator for the series, adding a certain gravitas to the stories, without adding an abundance of unnecessary journalistic flair.
In Connie, the recently published self-titled memoir by journalist Connie Chung, she discussed her consistent worry about working on “schlockumentaries", or journalism that chooses to stoke the flames of controversy and create non-fiction soap operas instead of delivering facts and reporting on the information. As a recent reader of the memoir, that concept has been at the top of mind. A few times throughout the series, the schlock decided to rear its ugly head. A truly ridiculous opening credit sequence is followed by frequently placed royalty free alternative pop music that is remarkably on-the-nose. Multiple times, the individuals who escaped are placed in slow motion as off screen vocalists sing phrases like “I’m free!" or “The skies have opened!" Multiple times left me audibly laughing at how the series turned into a parody of itself.
Regardless, amidst those moments, the series brings viewers an empathetic look at those who join these cults looking for community and the individuals working to dismantle them in exchange for freedom. Will this kind of programming help save Freeform? It’s hard to say. However, if the downfall of cable is filled with true crime stories, the least they can do is look towards How I Escaped My Cult to understand how to respectfully deliver these types of stories.
How I Escaped My Cult premieres February 20th on Freeform.