The thing about our fascination with cults is that they’re not nearly as mystifying as they used to be. When podcasts, TV shows and documentaries first fell over themselves to cover them, these groups’ leaders’ powers of persuasion and charisma seemed near supernatural; they must be charming geniuses able to take normal people and convince them of madcap ideas. But the more cult content you ingest, the more often you learn that the person at the top is just … some guy. What makes Jamali Maddix: Follow the Leader special is that it goes further. It looks at the people at the top of these subcultures and finds that some of those who have garnered huge followings are the kinds of dudes you wouldn’t trust with a pot plant.
The four episodes on U&Dave are old-school documentary film-making, stripped down to little more than a camera and a skilled presenter who knows how to get people to open up. Over the three episodes provided for review, Maddix meets leading figures in the world of paedophile hunting, professional “passport bros” – men who travel the world to date women in different countries – and Pastor Sean, AKA King Bullethead, who leads an offshoot of the controversial Unification Church, known as the Moonies. Maddix follows the leaders as they go about the business of persuading people to join their cause and gently probes their devotees to uncover what appeal they hold.
