Apple Cider Vinegar: The Dark Side of Wellness Influencers
In today’s world, everything is influenced by algorithms. From your clothes to your diet, all your lifestyle decisions are influenced by what you see on social media. This power of the algorithm is depicted in Netflix’s latest Australian limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, but with a dark twist.
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The series is about two women who are wellness influencers and promote alternative medicine remedies for the treatment of cancer. However, their lives start to unravel when they knowingly and unknowingly mislead people.
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ is based on ‘The Woman Who Fooled the World’ by Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano. The director Jeffrey Walker and the writers have done an incredible job creating a series with the source material.
The series tells the stories of wellness influencers Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever) and Milla Blake (Alicia Debnam-Carrey). Gibson lies to her followers about having brain cancer to promote her app The Whole Pantry, which provides a series of recipes that are supposed to beat cancer. On the other hand, Milla suffers from sarcoma and has to get her arm amputated. However, she opts for the alternative treatment offered by the Hirsch Institute, which includes regulating coffee enemas and juicing.
To tell this “truish story based on a lie”, Walker depicts Gibson’s story with a haphazard dramatic structure that flickers between 2010 and 2015. This kind of editing heightens the moral ambiguity of the characters and the unreliability of their stories.
The story is not only shared through Gibson but also through her partner Clive, Milla, their mutual friend Chanelle, a cancer patient Lucy, a journalist Justin, and the crisis PR manager Hek.
There are also various scenes where the emojis escape from Belle’s phone and laptop into her everyday life, representing the character’s dopamine rush from all the likes she receives on social media.
The creators have also used social media like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other applications to show the developments in the main characters’ plotlines, which enhances their character development as they are both influencers. For example, Belle finds out about Milla through a link to her blog, which leads to a sequence of blog posts and videos on different platforms showing her journey to fame for battling her cancer through alternative medicine.
The writers Samantha Strauss, Anya Beyersdorf, and Angela Betzien have created a nuanced and holistic narrative in this limited series. The show delves into the psyche of Gibson who constantly keeps lying about her illnesses to remain in the spotlight, which helps viewers understand her character. The writers have also consistently shown Gibson’s dynamic with the rest of the characters, giving viewers insight into why they went along with her, despite being suspicious of her.
Milla’s story is also well-developed, highlighting her journey with alternative medicine, which starts unravelling after her mother’s and her health deteriorate because of these treatments. This part of the story provides sufficient insight into Milla's journey from promoting alternative therapies for cancer to accepting that she was wrong and apologizing to her followers.
The writers have also shown Lucy’s (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) story, which highlights the negative influence Gibson and Milla have as influencers, motivating real cancer patients to give up their chemotherapies. Each story is nuanced allowing viewers to understand the motivations behind the characters’ decisions and actions.
All the actors in the series have perfectly conveyed their character’s emotions. Kaitlyn Dever has done a wonderful job showing Gibson’s emotional manipulation and the subtlety of it no matter what comes her way. Alicia Debnam-Carrey also perfectly depicts Milla in her best and worst moments, she helps viewers understand the character’s frustration when she is first diagnosed and her stubbornness when she insists alternative therapy is the only cure to her disease. Ashley Zukerman (Clive) and Aisha Dee (Chanelle) do a good job of representing their characters’ strained dynamic with Belle.
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ is a story about the dark side of wellness trends and influencers, which viewers are connecting with since it explores everyday themes. If you haven’t watched it yet, give this binge-worthy series a shot!
This article was previously published on UAE Moments. To see the original article, click here