With releases about the death of Laci Peterson, the Zodiac Killer, and the heartbreaking rollercoaster that was Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, 2024 saw Netflixdebut some of the streamer’s most disturbing documentaries in recent memory, but one of the year’s earliest projects is an underrated achievement that still remains relevant today. The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is a difficult-to-watch, three-part docuseries that garnered significant popularity when it first premiered on March 5 of last year, though a lack of critical attention made the title’s success short-lived and subsequently easy to miss for future viewers.
Nevertheless, the fact that The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping remains the rare release that still holds a perfect critical score on Rotten Tomatoesproves this miniseries is perfect for fans of True Crimeand socially conscious members of the public alike. In a year which also saw intense interest in the true story behind Netflix’s Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult, The Program is sure to fascinate and infuriate viewers in equal measure. Going back decades to investigate an overlooked sin of American society, the docuseries will keep you on the edge of your seat as it uncovers one fresh horror after another, leaving audiences to grapple with a hidden history that still persists in the darkest corners of the country today.
What Is ‘The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping’ About?
Judging by the documentary’s dramatic title, it would be easy to believe The Program features the same kind of villainous institution you’d expect to find brainwashing children in campy spy classics and superhero movies, which only makes the series’ reality that much more horrifying. Directed by and starring Katherine Kubler, the docuseries begins with Kubler leading a group of her former classmates back through the ruins of what used to be the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a short-lived boarding school where Kubler’s group relives its shared past in order to expose the school’s dark secrets. What follows is an unflinching glimpse into the horrors endured at this dark institution, as well as a searing criticism of the events that led up to each student’s forced enrollment.
Even for a genre that frequently unpacks facts more unsettling than fiction, Kubler’s series is extremely unnerving, and the level of oppressive control lorded over Ivy Ridge’s students would be unbelievable if it wasn’t laid out so brutally for viewers. The documentary’s first two episodes go to great lengths to describe how students were forbidden from talking to friends, smiling, or even looking out the window of their classrooms, as well as how this culture of fear resulted in the frequent physical and sexual abuse of students. What’s more, Kubler and her former classmates were also subjected to cult-like seminars meant to emotionally manipulate students against themselves. These abuses left those who survived Ivy Ridge with long-lasting damage to their mental health, taking advantage of children at their most vulnerable while subjecting them to such stifling conditions that one survivor claims they were worse than prison.
