- Erica Sashin, executive producer of the new Netflix docuseries "(Un)well," said that the series aims to make people question the lucrative
wellness industry and the influencers that drive it. - Some critics say the
Netflix show is itself a problem, since it gives a platform to 'wellness' icons peddling dangerous misinformation. - Sashin said such influencers already have a wide reach, and the show "puts them under the microscope" by encouraging people to think more critically about wellness claims.
"Are we really getting well?"
That's the question posed by the new Netflix docuseries "(Un)Well" that delves into the dark side of fasting, essential oils, tantric sex, and other popular 'wellness' trends.
The show's executive producer, Erica Sashin, told Insider that there isn't an easy answer when it comes to the multi-billion dollar wellness industry, which is largely unregulated and makes it difficult to distinguish remedies with real benefits from "cures" that are too good to be true.
"It's so vast and complicated. People are really left to fend for themselves," she said. "We set out really look at it from a 360 degree view so we had different perspectives. So [the audience] would see a lot of different views and make up their own minds."
The show aims to tackle its subjects — essential oils, tantric sex, fasting, and more — with a critical eye and with empathy, using a narrative-driven structure that allows people to tell their own stories.
"We all want a concrete answer and evidence and sometimes you don't get that, but people can still benefit. We left room for these sort of astonishing experiences where people saw results even where science couldn't explain it," she said.
But the show also doesn't shy away from controversy and the darker sides of these wellness treatments.
Celebrities and social media are major drivers of alternative wellness, including misinformation
Though the show rarely confronts it directly, a recurring theme in the series is how wellness trends are driven by people with a lot of influence but few scientific qualifications.
This includes gurus and marketers who establish themselves on social media, but also celebrities, many of whom enthusiastically embrace the latest fad diet or
Gwyneth Paltrow, the Kardashian clan, and even Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are among the biggest names to have popularized dubious wellness strategies. These can spread virally on social media and range from eccentric and expensive to downright risky, including extreme weight loss schemes, bleach baths, and anti-vaccine rhetoric.
"It's dangerous and irresponsible," Sashin said. "Part of what drove us to want to examine these because there's a lot of misinformation. And people don't really think it through."
Some critics say the show gives a platform to such misinformation
(Un)Well has itself has been criticized for potentially spreading misinformation.
The Daily Beast points out that the essential oils episode prominently features an influencer Dr. Eric Z who has frequently shared false conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus.
While the show isn't flattering in its depiction of Dr. Z (who at one point calls his $77 course "affordable to anyone"), it fails to call out the extremity of some of his views, according to the Daily Beast.
Other reviews similarly questioned whether the show, in attempting to show both sides, lends too much credence to unscientific theories.
(Un)Well aims to put questionable claims under a "microscope"
Sashin said the show doesn't passively promote pseudo-scientific claims, and the people interviewed are already influencers in their own right.
"These are people that have tremendous reach and influence. They're already out there. This series is really about questioning," she said.
Sashin said the team made a conscious decision to not have a narrator, or any seemingly omniscient voice overlaying the first-person narratives. "The intention was not to have people chiming in and debunking each other," she said.
However, at certain moments, people interviewed in the series make claims that are patently false, such as claiming that essential oils can cure cancers.
These claims, Sashin said, required a more careful contextualization. Segments featuring those claims are interspersed more frequently with scientific experts to counter the misleading statements.
"I don't look at it as perpetuating false information, look at it as putting them and their ideas under the microscope," Sashin said. "When we know they're saying something false, we can put the science out there, and then people (viewers) need to do the rest."
Sashin hopes the approach will prompt viewers to think critically about the claims being made, particularly on topics where rigorous evidence is rare enough to make a traditional debunk challenging.
"Our show doesn't have all the answers, but it has the questions. The more information people have, and the more they think about what they're doing, the better," she said.
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