Shadowland (2022) User Reviews

They walk among us

[lampyswift · 7/10 · 12 October 2022]

It never ceases to amaze me how many complete and utter dinlos exist out there. It is actually quite sad, as most the individuals appear to have their heart in the right place - that is they want to help others. But their thinking is just so distorted and extreme, and in some cases result in their prosecution. They see themselves as victims or martyrs. They are victims - not victims of the system as they perceive themselves to be - but victims of the very nonsense they peddle out in the first place, brainwashing others after being brainwashed themselves.

It is both sad and disheartening to watch this series, but it does provide an eye opening account into the backgrounds and motivations of the conspiracy cults and people involved in these.

People Hate Conspiracy Theories But ..

[tlroftruth · 6/10 · 10 January 2023]

My first question is .. I wonder how much Peacock got paid for this? I'm not one to jump on any "conspiracy theory", but I'm also not ignorant enough to totally ignore all of what closed-minded, cowardly Americans swear is nonsense. Open your damn eyes! At least pay attention & consider that anything is possible, & the last thing anyone in this country should do is trust or underestimate the people in power. It's definitely not just parts of the government. Money is power. And a lot of people with money have a lot of unmentionable desires. The problem is, some people, some groups or whatever, get so caught up, that the line between what could be & what is flat out absurd gets extremely blurred. It's those people who make everyone else who can see the corruption, the deception, etc.. but know the difference look as crazy as they are. If you honestly believe that there's never an agenda, then you're the one who's insane. If you honestly believe that some maas shootings aren't connected to gun control, you're an idiot. If you don't question how/why a software mogul is so closely connected to big pharma, well think about it a little more. If you think it's ok that a puke like Weinstein sexually assaulted young woman for upwards of 3 decades and he was able to keep pretty much everyone quiet, tell me again that people in power don't call the shots.

Profiles the delusional people among us

[oldz-18896 · 10/10 · 22 February 2023]

If you ever wondered who the individuals who somehow escaped insane asylums are, this six hour series presents them front and center giving each a forum to blabber about how smart they are (they are not), how successful they are (they are not) and exactly WHY they somehow know more than rigorous science does. At times laughable, these complete morons are exhibit A for the downfall of society.

A person profiled in part one is currently serving a four year prison term for rioting January 6, 2021 in her attempt to stop democracy. A person profiled in part two sells diluted bleach to line his pockets. A person profiled in part three thinks adults suck the blood of children because the adult is politically liberal. Need I go on?

Stupidity on steroids. Unbelievable how dumb a segment of society truly is. Shawdowland exposes this stupidity.

Following well known and not so well known Conservative activist as they further delve into mass hysteria

[beauborchardt · 10/10 · 3 May 2023]

Years of far-right indoctrination of the American people has brought us to this point. Shadowland is about journalists from the Atlantic following different conservative activists as they delve into the madness of some of the worst conspiracy theories to grace American Politics.

Most of the people covered are all conservatives desperate to be famous, but have genuine beliefs that global cabals are running sex trafficking rings, planning pandemics, democrats being for open borders in order to destabilize the country. By the end it is pretty clear that the radical right is desperate to destroy American democracy to build an autocracy.

Who's side are you on?

[kgrossman-48405 · 3/10 · 29 September 2022]

I started watching this hoping to understand how so many people believe this conspiracy of absurd ideas. After 3 episodes, I couldn't take anymore. It's 95% conspiracy characters spewing their rhetoric. So far, there was no mention of Trump! Is he not part of this story? Are there any disclaimers after hearing these vaccine, election deniers fantasy's? This documentary has given voice to the misinformed, to people who had a need, and Trump took advantage of their minds & their bank accounts.

Where the documentary does succeed is in its access to the people who are still down that rabbit hole. They spoke freely and it was fascinating but where is the other side? I would love someone to make a documentary about what can we do to change this?

Brilliant Show

[SteverB · 10/10 · 30 September 2022]

Thank you to Joe Berlinger and The Atlantic for being another media outlet, in addition to Vice, that treats the spread of this conspiracy cancer on America seriously. Q-Anon is no longer cute or funny. It and all its offshoots are dangerous to our society and this series brings it to the forefront like none I've seen.

Vice News did an excellent job of talking about QAnon for the sham that it is with their "QAnon: The Search for Q," but that series focused more on the leaders and not the participants. The leaders are few, the participants are legion, and that is what is dangerous.

If you are non-Q, and not easily led into a conspiracy mindset, you will enjoy this series. I'm not saying it won't make you mad, because it likely will. Personally, I could not be more fed up with what alleged ADULTS are doing in the US to tear down democracy, and why? Money. As the program points out shortly into the first episode, conspiracy theories are a billion-dollar industry, and the people that are believing them and acting on them are NOT the people making the money -- in fact, they're the ones that are ruined the most; financially, emotionally, and in their lives and relationships with other people. The people telling them to believe are the ones making the most money.

The show lets this play out on your screens with little commentary, and the participants show you who they are, and tell you what they believe. This is an important show, but a mere drop in the bucket against the conspiracy theory industry. I wish there were MANY more shows that exposed truth to people like this one does. It's what is needed now more than ever. This scourge is not going away as much as we may want it to. It's only getting more serious by the day.

focused on bunk

[dshell102 · 1/10 · 28 September 2022]

Remember, we had a conspiracy theory of collusion with Russia that was debunked.

Well, to be honest it wasn't even investigated as Muller couldn't even answer basic questions about the key components of what he was supposed to look into.

We later found out the FBI knew right from the start the dossier was fake.

Here you have the opposite.

They look into "theories" but ignore the fact that the much of it has been proven true. Medicines that were banned work - are over 80% effective. Harms from the vaccines. Masks not helping and more.

Amounts to a political attack, ignoring the real story.

Confirms What I Already Suspected..

[artcoo-23524 · 10/10 · 4 October 2022]

Rednecks, hippies, southern preachers, etc. Have always spewed these moronic theories throughout my life, and this show allows them to speak. This allows you to listen to the abject stupidity these people spout and believe in. The one redneck driving around in a Mustang giving away bottles of bleach for people to drink was so shocked his father won't speak to him anymore. That's easy bud - it's because you're a moron. This is a very enjoyable series. Proves that people are sheeple, and these hucksters will always be around. Whether it's snake oil, Q, or other stupid conspiracies, these hucksters will always have a ripe pool of morons to entice and prey on. P. T. Barnum said it best, "There's a Sucker born every Minute..."

Uncertain how to rate this.

[brennamagdalena · 3/10 · 28 September 2022]

I guess I look at Shadowland from a different perspective as the other reviews. This documentary is definitely not glorifying Q. If anything, it's a warning. Showing the different perspectives from those who believe in the far fetched conspiracy theories and the way their mind works, to the grifters who want to use the maga movement to their advantage, as well as those who've lost loved ones from violence or otherwise to the "modern day cult". It's too long, sometimes tedious and other times will make you incredibly sad and angry (to put it mildly), putting blame on them for why America is so divided. To each their own how others want to form their own standpoint on it, that's just my take on it. While it's certainly not for everyone, I'd still say give it a try.

Joe Berlinger Does It Again

[hopsbride · 10/10 · 4 December 2023]

I see that Joe Berlinger hasn't lost his touch as he fleshes out the exact type of people who buy into conspiracy theories such as the Illuminati, Qanon, Covid denial, Covid conspiracies, anti masks, anti vax, and fake Covid cures. The fact that they mostly appear to be Trump loving MAGA fake Christians and J6 criminals is just a bonus.

I question some of the other reviews left here. They appeared to take issue with a lack of pushback on the things some participatents said. To those people I must say that you seemed to miss the point: these people are deliberately being allowed to give their twisted reasons in order to expose the audience to the absurdity in the lies they're telling and the conspiracy theories they are espousing.

a long blabbering chat show, trying to prove conspiracy theories as correct.

[vsrawat · 1/10 · 23 September 2022]

It doesn't really talk about the psychology or mechanism of coining and spread of conspiracy theories, that I expected it to do.

It goes on to pick several conspiracy theories, meet persons who coined or spread that or believe in that, and those people chat endlessly trying to prove that their theories are correct.

So, it is a long blabbering, chat show, that ends up proving that the conspiracy theories are actually correct.

I was tearing my head seeing repeat mention of Capitol Hill incident or covid-19 being pharma-company generated or elections hacked by google/ facebook.

They should have left out individual conspiracy theories altogether and rather have concentrated on analyzing why people feel the need of coining such theories, why they put their time and effort and money to spread them and what psychological need causes other gullible people to subscribe to any such trash theories. It could have been heavily edited to limit it to 2 to 3 hours, all the originators of various conspiracy theories should have been strictly kept out of it, they happily used this series to sell their trash theories.

It is a waste of 8 hours to see the series, you are none the wiser after seeing it full, actually you end up getting convinced that various conspiracy theories were actually correct.

Don't waste your time on it.

A very long and boring waste of time

[fakebidraiseprice · 1/10 · 22 January 2023]

I was hoping this show would dive deep into some of the conspiracy theories that are going around, showing where they started and why they are so convincing to a lot of people. But instead it concentrates on a few people's lives that have been disrupted after being arrested or kicked out of their families for their beliefs with a few video clips of enraged people tossed in. It seems the producer and the director have their own beliefs that all the conspiracy theories out there are just wild imaginations of misfits, and so they don't seriously look into them, even after some of the so-called conspiracies a year ago have lately been proved to be factual. I had a feeling the show was not going to show that any theory had any merit to it and I was right. How about presenting both sides of the story from an un-biased POV and then the viewer decide on what makes the most sense? I will now delete this from my PVR recordings, as I know where this is going. Can you say Propaganda?

A little bias

[Szel1 · 3/10 · 22 January 2023]

Why not interview the many doctors, scientists, nurses, politicians and teachers etc. Who also share these beliefs that something just wasn't right about what happened during covid or the experimental vaccines and still to this day isn't okay. This documentary I find can be perceived 2 ways, I don't believe in division, however those who consider themselves liberals or lefties might perceive this as funny and just reaffirm their beliefs and on the other side would support the other side of beliefs and reaffirm it. But again, why not show the world that not only ordinary people believe in so called conspiracies but some would say it is truth, and some of those people are doctors, nurses, scientists, teachers, police officers and the list goes on. Perhaps then this bias perception would change.

Boring mess

[sleepingsunrise · 1/10 · 29 December 2022]

I wasted an hour of my life and I can't get it back. Maybe this show gets better as it develops but I don't have time to waste Hoping it will.

I wanted to know why people believe in conspiracies and this didn't show me much. It was more like reality TV for conspiracy theorists. This show gave these types a platform to explain their beliefs and try to convince us that they are true. I don't need to be yelled at by crazies who aren't getting their way, so it must be a conspiracy! The one lady who was there on January 6 really wants us to believe she is this soft spoken innocent baby. Tons of laughs!

Anyway, this did not hold my interest because it did not deliver on what the description said. I have no interest in watching conspiracy theorists go about their days or being given a lesson on the deep state. I want to know WHY they believe these things.

Staged & scripted propaganda

[framersqool · 2/10 · 21 February 2023]

Yet another brazenly fake 'documentary' using actors and staged events (how do you get three different camera angles during the same phone call, by a lady in a pizza kitchen smaller than an RV?), to promote whatever is the latest trending pop-culture version of what everyone is supposed to think.

Advertisers and entertainers have been using audience data since long before the time of 'social media' to craft narratives, based in part on what audiences will respond to, and in part on what ideas might best manipulate their interest going forward.

It isn't any conspiracy, it's just a tried-and-true business model: find out what they want, use it against them to make them want other things too, and build in enough ideological cues to have them believe that by taking this maneuvering of their viewpoints at face value, they are somehow ending up on the correct side of things.

This kind of mind-candy isn't even about politics or ideology really, it's just about what entertainment and marketing have always been about: finding one way or another to part fools from their money. If it didn't work so well, nobody would produce this kind of transparent fiction and call it 'information.'