Apple Cider Vinegar transforms Kaitlyn Dever into the influencer fraudster Belle Gibson. You can read here whether the new true crime series from Netflix is worth watching.
It doesn’t always have to be straight murder in the true crime world. In recent years, fraudulent entrepreneurs and devious influencers have also experienced a boom in the true crime genre. On Netflix alone, documentaries like Bad Vegan or the fictional series Inventing Anna provided plenty to talk about and controversy. Since February 6, 2024, Apple Cider Vinegar has also been added.
The new Netflix miniseries transforms Kaitlyn Dever, who will soon be playing a villain in The Last of Us Season 2, into the controversial wellness influencer Belle Gibson, who faked cancer to the world. Find out why true crime fans should add Apple Cider Vinegar to their watchlist here in the series check.
True Crime series on Netflix: This is what you can expect in Apple Cider Vinegar
Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever) is an inspiration for hundreds of thousands – but especially for people with cancer. That’s because the young Australian was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor, which she is fighting with a healthy diet and alternative natural healing methods. In the early years of the Instagram era, she gains numerous followers with this story and, as the inventor of the app, becomes an unprecedented success story. Unfortunately, her empire is based on a terrible lie: she doesn’t have cancer at all.
Screenwriter Samantha Strauss’s miniseries uses a pop-infused montage to catapult the audience directly into the non-linearly told story of the rise and fall of the internet star. Britney Spears’ Toxic meets the main characters dancing in golden sequin dresses. This stylistic frenzy carries through the entire series, when animated likes and hearts satisfy Belle’s need for validation and recognition or when characters regularly break the fourth wall.
In each of the six episodes, characters address the audience directly, pointing out that this series is based on a true (false) story. A clever commentary on the hype surrounding the true crime genre, this disclaimer changes to include cutting comments about whether anyone still cares about what is true and what is made up in times of distorted truths.
Inventing Anna 2.0? Apple Cider Vinegar learns from Netflix mistakes
Compared to similar true crime series like The Dropout and Inventing Anna, Apple Cider Vinegar seems like a direct consequence of the controversies surrounding the Netflix hit about con artist Anna Sorokin. Not only does each episode make it clear that Belle Gibson was not paid to tell her story, the series is also never interested in glorifying Gibson’s lies or giving her any sympathy.
What makes Apple Cider Vinegar so worth watching is Kaitlyn Dever’s impressive performance. She expressively embodies the young narcissist with all her sociopathic tendencies and abominable manipulation mechanisms. With each scene that progresses, each further moment of cringing and each outbreak of tears at the push of a button, her character stokes the anger a little more.
But let’s be honest: a whole series just about a caustic person would quickly become tiresome. And so Apple Cider Vinegar presents us with a series of exciting supporting characters who are connected to Belle’s story. The biggest highlight is Fear the Walking Dead star Alycia Debnam-Carey as fictional wellness competitor Milla Blake, who was inspired by real-life influencer Jessica Ainscough.
Not your typical feel-good series on Netflix
Unlike Belle, Milla really does have cancer, which she tries to cure with alternative medicine after a failed aggressive chemotherapy. Anger, desperation and helplessness drive her into a spiral of false promises and pseudoscience, which she blindly and faithfully promotes on social media – with dramatic consequences for her health and her own environment.
Apple Cider Vinegar is less interested in debunking the cancer cure through meditation, fresh juices and coffee enemas (yes, really!) as humbug – that happens rather incidentally. Rather, the series denounces the exploitation of sick people through disinformation and manipulation, who are desperately seeking a small glimmer of hope and are led by self-proclaimed wellness gurus onto potentially deadly paths.
Although Apple Cider Vinegar with the escalating and insane tall tale of Belle Gibson is extremely entertaining at times, the series becomes disturbing and devastating as it progresses. So be prepared to yell at your TV in disbelief and anger more than once – and after the six episodes, to immediately google whether Belle Gibson has been punished for her behavior. Even if she is not a murderer at the end of this true crime series.
