The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman (2022) User Reviews

A really interesting series.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 22 January 2022]

How on Earth can one man have such an influence over people, and how can people allow themselves to be taken over by someone, this revealing three part series explores the concepts.

Perhaps a little guilty of being over long, but there is a fascinating, but very sad story here. Part one is a little drawn out, but stick with it, as the other two installments are very satisfying.

Yes it's focused on one man's crimes, but it's so much more than that, it's a real exploration of human nature, the good and bad sides.

One thing you'll come away with, is a certainty that monsters aren't just in fairy stories, they are real, and two of them are explored in this series.

Well produced, well made, it's definitely a crime that'll have you bemused at how he got away with it for so long. Heaven knows what is brewing next for some poor unfortunate. I'd love to know what it was that they saw in him.

It's sad, surprising, entertaining, well worth your time, 8/10.

Concise doc on a prolific conman

[Calicodreamin · 8/10 · 19 January 2022]

The most amazing part of this whole thing is the master manipulations this one man is able to pull off with so many different people. The doc does a good job of interviewing relevant people and keeping multiple timelines going on at the same time. Unfortunately not all stories are resolved, but that's life.

WHAT ABOUT MARIA????

[midfordlane · 6/10 · 21 January 2022]

Enjoyable binge worthy documentary, but so many questions and left out pieces of the puzzle!!!!

WHAT ABOUT MARIA?

She seems to be just shelved through out the whole documentary. She is taken with the other two and basically never mentioned again until episode 3 when they casually mention she had two children with him and he bashed her around a bit. THAT'S IT!!! Surly this should of been investigated more and bought forward as a rather relevant line of enquiry to follow! I think if you want to find the missing women at the moment then start with finding Maria as it's all a bit suspect.

Enjoyed it but found it frustrating.

Not sure what to think of it

[phuul · 6/10 · 27 April 2022]

Well, it is the first time I have heard of the story so I was pretty intrigued. However, now after finishing it I am left puzzled at how he managed to trick the people into believing all this crap. They just said that he was very convincing but I just don't buy it. And the story fails to give any explaination on how one person manages to do all this by himself, how he could possibly handle different people during the same time while also going to work. It must have been a lot of planning. The whole storytelling is not 'round'. I feel sorry for the victims and I do not want to do victim blaming. However, that is what the whole story fails. It just doesnt give answers. Like the tinder swindler gives a good explaination on how he was able to pull his thing off and make them all fall for him. I mean, of course, the 90ies were different and people didnt have much access to information and maybe people were more gullible back then. But nonetheless. What does it take to be as convincing to make people believe you were actually working for MI5 and hand over all their money??? How can someone not realize after a short time that this was only about money??? I still have no answer. Above all, every little kid knows that nobody really working for an intelligence service would ever disclose this information at any time. Now somebody comes around the corner and keeps on bragging about it. How can you fall for it? I still don't know since I havent got any answer. This documentary is a nice time pass, however, I will now have to look the story up online in order to find out more about it, which is actually a bad sign after just having seen a documentary on it.

Family nightmare

[aarpcats · 6/10 · 21 January 2022]

The series does a great job of showing the damage a conman does by interviewing the relatives of the women he has taken away from them. It is heartbreaking to hear children talk about being abandoned by their mother, and to hear a dad say, "Then I knew it was about the money," (I would have given anything to have Peter Smith for my dad.)

That said, when the conman's preposterous lies are revealed, it's really hard to see how those women could have been that naive. Or, maybe, a better way to say this is that it's hard to understand how a conman knows how to find the women when they are both deeply vulnerable and have money. A conman is a psychopath. A conman who gets a Netflix series is a conman who is a psychopath with good hunting skills.

Always do a background check, and never lend money, folks.

The series isn't perfect, but it's short, always remembers the victims and won't waste your time,

Not a great Conman, just leached onto the dumb and naive!

[jp300 · 7/10 · 27 January 2022]

Soon as the daughter said she was told to go into the bank and withdraw her 10k savings and give to him....and then actually bloody do it without question after the way he treats you? Christ get a brain cell!

Your youth is showing

[AlmaSoulAmor · 10/10 · 22 January 2022]

Sarah's father, Peter Smith, is a true hero. What a brilliant man he is! He was my favorite part of this entire series due to his tenacity, calm yet emotive demeanor, his clever ways of trying to solve the real life puzzle of what was occurring, his never giving up on his daughter and loving her throughout.

Not to mention that he'd give away every remaining penny to save his wife some bit of suffering. I can't imagine how incredibly hard that decision must have been. The hidden safe in the floor part was great! Much respect and admiration to this gentleman.

The father kept calling the police, for a decade, which ultimately led to the psychopath getting caught. Thereby Peter Smith rescued his daughter! Plus, he was saved the life of the other woman that was engaged to the criminal.

Thank you ALL for bringing light and warning to the truly heinous types of people that do live around us looking for prey to devour.

Psychopaths live amongst us, and they thrive on fooling people (especially bright ones) and on breaking the law. They lack the ability to feel empathy. It is truly hard to believe until you experience it firsthand, but this show gives great insight into what can happen to anyone.

You may think it could never happen to you, but people with antisocial personality disorder aka psychopaths fool even experts in the field of diagnosing the disorder. I firmly believe that this particular psychopath, and others like him, should be fitted with a cowbell around their necks to warn us they are coming.

When making a documentary like this, one that gives the brave survivors a voice to warn others, they must be careful to not cause more harm than good. I appreciated the respect and care the filmmakers showed. I imagine that Maria was not talked about in depth out of that care for her two grown children. The psychopath's actions have caused more than enough harm.

Deep gratitude to the people that felt strong enough to share their stories with us. May you continue to heal and keep your hearts open. A special thank you to Sarah, you are truly impressive.

Anyone Can Manipulate

[TheVioletArcher · 30 January 2022]

I see a lot of reviews here talking about how crazy it is to this to think or discover that this man is who he is.. I study criminal psychology and I can tell you not only has he done this before, but given a chance he'd do it again.

Never ever underestimate anyone anyone. Learn the signs and learn to profile.

Robert Freegard is a monster

[Vividimole · 7/10 · 18 January 2022]

I wish the Leverage team really existed, so that they would beat this man at his own game and bring him to justice.

But this is real life, so I just hope the police finds him, and Mrs Clifton reunites with hey children.

I think Dexter still has one last job to do!

[javiergarcon · 10/10 · 19 January 2022]

Wow what a great crime drama, This monster is incredibly delusional. So what are the chances that he is living in the United States now? How many more people are just like this Narcissistic peace of crap of a monster? Man this TV series left me so emotionally charged I came straight here to tell you that we can not let people like this out in the open! We need to lock people up like this in the loony bin!

True crime documentary from the UK

[paul-allaer · 6/10 · 20 January 2022]

"The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman" (2022 release from the UK; 3 episodes totaling 127 min.) is a true crime documentary from the UK. As Episode 1 opens, siblings Sophie Clifton and Jake Clifton address the camera directly: "Mum, if you are listening to this...". We then go to November, 2011, as newly divorced Sarah's new boyfriend David works himself into the daily routine of the Clifton family, and it's not long before Sophie and Jake start questioning what is going on... At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is a stranger-than-life true crime documentary from the UK, where a guy named David invades the Clifton family, with disastrous results, and we then learn that this isn't the first go-around for this conman. I'm not going to spoil of course what exactly happens, but frankly it blows the mind how this conman is able to do what he does. But will he get away with it? Scotland Yard gets involved, then the FBI also gets involved, as things get more and more complicated and frankly wackier. As an aside I don't understand why the film makers decided to cut up this in 3 episodes (50, 27, 50 min each), rather than just make it a single film, given the overall running time of just over 2 hrs. (I watched all 3 episodes in a single setting).

"The Puppet Master: Hunting Down the Ultimate Conman" started streaming on Netflix earlier this week. If you are in the mood for a stranger-than-life true crime documentary about a guy pretending to be a James Bond-like spy while robbing people left and right, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Yes, this ranks right up there in the list of must-see true crime documentaries! [+80%]

[arungeorge13 · 8/10 · 18 January 2022]

Robert Freegard may well and truly be one of the greatest conmen ever to walk the face of Earth. The series unfurls in a non-linear fashion, making it a true-blue thriller where the makers cleverly leave clues for the audiences to connect the dots. Moreover, all the interviews are spot-on. And the RIGHT set of people is given all the weightage, i.e., the victims and their families. This docu-series runs roughly for 2 hours, taking us through details of Freegard's well-known cons while subtly telling us that the list of victims is a lot larger than we can imagine.

Another feather in the cap for Netflix in their true-crime section, The Puppet Master, is fantastically shot, crisply compiled, and stays rooted to its emotional core even when it thrills and leaves us frequently bewildered.

P. S - Would you believe me if I say that there are genuine nail-biter moments? That's right. You wouldn't want to press the pause button! I also hope his latest victim realizes what she's going through and acts upon it sooner than later.

Well-made documentary

[Movi3DO · 7/10 · 27 January 2022]

The story of this conman is another example of how cult still exists. It showed how a person can easily bend others with the help of circumstances and charms. The premise of the lie was so outrageous, but somehow people still fell for it. Quite a treacherous world we are living in.

The documentary was decently done. I liked that the interviews were straightforward and didn't overstay much irrelevant information. Because of this, it's shorter than many Netflix's limited documentaries. I was fairly hooked into the story.

Overall, a harrowing story and a good documentary. 7-7.5/10.

Not as good as the original.

[chrismonkee · 5/10 · 24 January 2022]

I watched the original BBC documentary a while back. That was 1hr long and fit in a lot more crazy facts than this one.

No mention of his secret spy wristwatch, or his what seemed like genuine access to secret government information. Plenty more.

I'd have thought Netflix would use the broader canvas to cover all that and more. No.

This was, for me, like watching a film after finishing the book. The original really was fascinating stuff, this just sounds like another cheap con job.

How to exploit "smart" people

[weidi_matthias · 7/10 · 1 May 2023]

Wow... just a big surprise how easy some people can be tricked into a completely crazy play. I don't want to be rude to the victims as they had lost enough already but man... how can you believe such a story and don't get to the police to make a simple double check. These people were just waiting to be exploited by someone who can give them hope or any meaning in live, pretty bad that they seem to have such a bad family background or education standard to realize what other people are possible to do just for profit.

The simple documentary is a little too long and is leaving out some interesting facts from previous reports and docs about this topic.

Hard to believe people are still so gullible!

[EhCasabianca · 7/10 · 22 January 2022]

The show is a testament on how many insecure people, especially women in this case, can be taken advantage and misled to the point where they seem to lose their basic thinking powers. The show starts out with a male student at an agricultural university being conned by a man posing as an MI5 agent into thinking he is helping the British government fight the IRA! After that it's a series of women who also fall for this hoax and travel with this man around UK and Europe for years, all the while draining their personal savings in supporting this fellow. The guy apparently is attractive and persuasive but whole thing seems so incredulous specially in this day and age when information can so easily be accessed from multiple sources. It just seems almost certain many things, especially many personal details are not being fully revealed by the victims and the show producers. But it is an interesting watch ...

Not sure any of the characters in this docco are going to be splitting the atom anytime soon

[dboooss · 7/10 · 22 January 2022]

Obviously feel very sorry for the victims but can't help but think this is off the scale, never before seen levels of gullibility....imagine puppeteer Freeman took a scattergun approach to finding targets, with 99.9% of them telling him to stop being a creep and bog off. Initially gave a 6 but upgraded because of 2 excellent supporting characters, the incompetent Scotland Yard dude and the rogue lawbreaking farmer detective.

Reminds me very much of Keith Raniere creepo

[regolden · 8/10 · 20 January 2022]

This is very very good. But the psychopath perpetrator is exactly like the cult leader from Nxivm. The same master manipulation and literally stealing from everyone he can. Really smart and concise showing how ordinary people were taken by a manipulating psychopath. He's out there and he's ruined so many lives. Scary.

A Good Interesting Documentary

[alindsayal · 7/10 · 24 January 2022]

This documentary made its way to Netflix a few days ago and is being watched by plenty of people. So I thought I would watch The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman and here is my review for it. The premise of the mini series documents the events where a man posing as an MI5 agent tricked people into giving him money and power.

What the documentary does really well is avoid all of the fluff and get you invested from the beginning. Everything is being documented by the people involved and there is no clear separate agenda as there seems to be with too many documentaries these days. This was seemingly a big deal when the case happened but I knew nothing about it and the show gets you up to speed and gives you what you need.

You wouldn't believe in half of the things said here as it feels so absurd, but with the people involved it clearly was and it just makes you wonder how exactly this guy got away with what he is doing and how it affects people to this current day.

This show is only 3 episodes long and where I think that is a good thing as it does trim some of the fat off. I also think some of the parts of this show could have done with more detail. I just wanted to know more and it would have been cool if we could have got even more.

The show also ends on a bit of a sour note and it feels a bit unfinished and that is obviously a shame. Hopefully, the release of this show brings more attention to this situation and gets it more finished.

Overall, this documentary did a good job of getting me interested and making me care about the subject matter and for its short runtime I would say give it a go.

Rating - 7/10.

Suspend your Disbelief

[Rob-A · 9/10 · 21 January 2022]

A number of reviews have suggested this documentary is "suspect" without explaining why. Probably because this is indeed an accurate real-life account that so beggars belief it almost sounds UNreal.

In my opinion the makers of this documentary have created a 2-hour masterpiece of fascinating and memorable viewing. At times I literally gasped in shock, in surprise, in genuine incredulity that such downright evil people actually do exist and that seemingly intelligent victims could be convinced into such extreme situations.

But the documentary treats all the people involved - victims, their siblings, their parents - with the lightest of touches. There's no third party narrative, every word comes from someone affected by this despicable man or from the security forces who finally caught him. It's perfectly paced, and while the timeline is somewhat jumpy it does add dramatic effect because the viewer becomes involved in the puzzle and you yourself start to piece together the story.

I won't say I enjoyed this, because that sounds.. almost trite. I'm hugely glad I did watch it, is a more true statement. I can't remember feeling such growing affinity and sympathy for true-life victims who have had the courage, the fortitude to bare their souls and re-live YEARS of horrendous abuse and utter helplessness to the rest of the world, and for their families who suffered such heartache yet never gave up. Nor can I recall feeling such antipathy, such despisal for Robert Hendy-Freegard, this arrogant, contemptible sociopath who remains at large in the world.

Delicately and empathetically executed, properly-paced, and will leave you with mixed feelings. Completely worth two hours of your time.

Almost Turned This Off

[Mehki_Girl · 6/10 · 18 July 2022]

Conmen are a dime a dozen and I don't know how people have their heads in the sand; because there have been multiple, multiple documentaries about these con men.

They're always secret agents of the government, yet they're always blabbing and bragging about being secret agents and just that alone should be a tip off that you're dealing with a conman.

As we have seen with the cult of Q of today, there are millions of gullible morons to choose from (Really Q? Everyone's a clone? There are such a thing as a medbed?)

Give me a break!

It must be like shooting ducks in a barrel. Just start telling some lonely woman that you're a secret agent and see if she goes for that Hook Line and Sinker and you know you got one.

At some point, I believe these women (this type of con is usually perpetuated against women; but men are just as guillible) do know they're dealing with a con man; but they don't want to be alone or lonely and so they start to con their own selves. Better to say that you were conned the entire time and had no idea, than to admit you were rooked.

Very disappointed that the children took so long to realize something was wrong and that the poor daughter actually went to the bank and handed this con man $10,000 of her savings. Shame on mom. Your children are lovely. They must take after their dad and grandpa.

What's wrong with people? I was actually more irritated by this documentary, than I enjoyed, because it's just too frustrating to listen to people being stupid. There are people who are still clicking on links in scam emails!

Not for nothing, but the way the cons work is through other people's greed not just their naivete or their gullibility. Our greed is what helps us to be conned

PT Barnum never lied!

Stringing Them Along

[Lejink · 8/10 · 17 February 2022]

I watched this docu-series on con-man Robert Freegard not long after watching a similar exposé on the playboy fraudster Simon Leviev and of course there are both a factual and dramatic series on Anna Delvey also out there at present. It seems it's TV open-season on large-scale tricksters like these and I certainly find them fascinating. The sad thing about this one is that, as the title implies, the perpetrator here, after being caught and freed once hasn't yet been rediscovered, never mind caught again.

I'll call him Freegard although other pseudonyms are available and a nasty piece of work he seems to be. His M. O. seems to see him claim to be in MI5 and use this phony establishment status to coerce his victims into slavishly doing what he wants as well as extorting every last penny he can from them and their families along the way.

Although principally running two parallel story-lines, one present day, the other back in the early 90's, the narrative also draws in two other victims of this "puppet-master" to further bolster the story.

Story one concerns a young male student based in Ireland, who bumps into a young barman who tells him a fantastical tale about him being a British secret-service recruit against the then active I. R. A. So he convinces his prey, plus his then girlfriend and another young girl companion to go with him on a seemingly never-ending road-trip ostensibly to keep them safe from harm as the IRA apparently has a death-threat against the three of them. They return to England but stay on the run, stopping off at dingy "safe-houses" along the way. Astonishingly, this goes on for nine years with the three young people completely convinced of their imminent danger. But this protection comes at a price and soon he's forcing his hostages to go back to their families and get as much money out of them as they can ostensibly for his expenses, to be paid of course, straight back to Freegard.

The programme fast-forwards some fifteen years or so to a simpler but no less bizarrely compelling tale of a handsome stranger preying on a single mother, effectively cuckooing the woman's two children out of the family home and again making her accompany him on a non-stop tour of Europe. The show then shuttles between both stories showing the strenuous efforts of their respective families to rescue the brainwashed victims, as well as the debilitating psychological effect on them all.

We learn that Freegard (what an ironic name that is!) was once a successful car-salesman but even that seems insufficient to explain how he is so successful at controlling and using people. Two other victims are brought forward and with the police's help, a sting is carried out on Freegard which brings him finally to justice and given a life sentence only to see him get off on a technicality, leaving him free to go after his current victim, where, sad to relate, he apparently is working his black magic again preventing the poor woman from seeing her two distraught children.

The show uses actors to speak for some of the key players which I found a little distracting and I also found the time-switch presentation a bit frustrating at times. Nevertheless this was a remarkable, almost unbelievable story, powerfully told. Yes, we the viewer might wonder at the duplicity of the various victims here but I guess it's true what they say that the devil doesn't always appear with a cloven hoof and pointy tail.

Draws a Vivid Portrait of a Conman

[albertval-69560 · 7/10 · 9 February 2022]

Indeed, people like Robert David Hendy Freegard exist, Petula. In a sense he's an excellent profiler who can easily spot a person's weaknesses. To pose as an MI5 agent and be able to control someone so utterly and fleece her is a difficult act to follow. Take the case of Sarah Smith who's been on the run with Freegard for 10 years on the pretext that the Irish Republican Army is out to kill her. You wonder how is this possible. But Sarah herself tells Sophie (and the viewer) that she felt she didn't have control and she believed she can't leave. And the worst part is Freegard is set free by the police because of technicalities.

Great documentary with resource persons who are believable in their narration of events. It gives the viewer a firm grasp of how Freegard is able to pull the strings for so long although it doesn't show how he became the despicable person that he is. But the viewer can surmise.

So many missed opportunities

[samanthapine · 1/10 · 21 January 2022]

1. As others have stated, these people must be half-gone to fall for this man's lies. Or there is A LOT missing. What isn't Sarah telling us? What could he possibly have on her to keep her for 10 years?!? Were there drugs involved? Did they commit crimes together? What the heck did they do for a DECADE. The doc skims over this huge time frame, saying oh they drove around, stayed in safe houses, worked in pubs.. umm.... meanwhile, secret agent Robbie is scamming other people, getting the other girl who was with Sarah pregnant with two kids over 9 years?? Where were the kids during this time??? Where are they now??? They mention the 9 year relationship and then move on... Was this some kind of Manson family sex cult? MK Ultra? The documentary was so lazy I am offended that it exists.

2. WHO IS ROB??? This documentary did absolutely no work digging into the history of this alleged conman. Where did he grow up? Who raised him? How was he so clever at manipulating people, and for so long. Was he actually connected in any way to the government? (How did he access police records, how did he know Sarahs dad was looking for her?) Where did he keep his money? Was he working alone? I find it impossible to believe he worked alone, conning SO MANY people over so many years, simultaneously.

What a disappointment. Zero stars.

Binge worthy true crime miniseries about a manipulating psychopath

[Waldorf-1979 · 6 February 2022]

From seeds of truth, this psychopath gets to control people. He uses their fears and gets them mentally exhausted and submit.

Makes you think about current events.