7/10
Pretty Good for what it is
14 May 2023
There aren't many series specifically covering popular conspiracy theories, but Ventura seems to cover the broad strokes well enough for the runtime. The nature of the subject matter is polarizing but Ventura is an interesting enough character who doesn't bring too much of the wrong baggage to this subject matter - some of the people he interviews for the show are perhaps a bit unsuitable and detract from the serious inquiry of the stories they are trying to convey, but his team's adversarial approach to scrutinizing the accounts and motives seems to ground the presentation well enough while being playful and accessible - you're never going to be able to go over all the details in the time allotted, and all the pieces matter usually when it comes to conspiracy so armchair experts will find much to be desired, but otherwise it's decent edutainment.

This show is very much a product of its time (simpler times of 2009) and probably not the sort of thing a lot of networks would be comfortable airing in the 'post-truth' era, certainly not without a lot more careful editorial oversight - some of the people interviewed for this show have been so thoroughly cancelled that we're not going to see them again; personalities like David Icke are arguably so demented that even back in 2009 he shouldn't have been platformed on this show at least not without a strong disclaimer; because popular conspiracy theorists like Icke and Alex Jones are important to the story of how CT's are sustained and propagated, whether they be dangerously ignorant peddlers like the aforementioned, or whistleblowers or journalists whose suppression might not be fully realized today these characters are relevant to the stories so there is an argument for their inclusion in any holistic presentation even if you were making this show today, but since a lot of those guys make their money peddling disinformation and selling products off their personal brands they should come with clear disclaimers.
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