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User Reviews for: Fyre Fraud

freinhar
7/10  5 years ago
My comment deals with both the Hulu and Netflix documentaries about Fyre Festival, as they were released so closely together that it invites comparison.

TL;DR: I think the Hulu version is a far superior (and significantly more honest) documentary. I'm baffled by the fact that so many people seem to prefer the Netflix one.

The only upside of the Netflix one is that they have huge amounts of behind the scenes footage, but the reason the Netflix doc has so much behind the scenes footage is because it was produced by the same social media agency that marketed the fraudulent festival to begin this. Which is never even mentioned in the doc. That's a much bigger ethical issue than Hulu paying Billy McFarland to be interviewed in their doc, where they consistently contrast his lies with the factual truth, essentially showing you how a pathological liar operates in real time.

Out of both docs I found the Hulu one significantly more compelling, because it digs much deeper into Billy's past and the whole litany of financial crimes he committed. It's also much harsher on Jerry Media, the marketing company for Fyre Festival that produced the Netflix doc, and the influencers that peddled this crap. As someone who knew a lot about this story already, the Hulu doc added significantly to my understanding of how big a scam this was, how it fit in with Billy's past behaviour, and the lengths of deception he'd go to. Except for some marginally funny anecdotes, I thought the Netflix doc didn't add to my understand of events at all - it just covered what we already knew. Because the Netflix doc leaves out so much context and only focuses on the logistics of the festival, it also ends up painting almost everyone involved as good people with a great vision who just didn't quite manage to pull it off. When it should be portrayed as the intentional scam that it was.

I can't attest to this last part, because I knew the back story, but my wife hadn't heard of Fyre Festival and found the Hulu doc much easier to follow and significantly more insightful. She watched the Netflix one first and by the time it finished did not have a particularly strong understanding of what had actually occurred. I too found the way the narrative is presented in the Netflix doc fairly confusing.

On a more minor note, the Hulu doc also dealt with Ja Rule's involvement in a significant way, whereas he was basically ignored and absolved of all blame in the Netflix one.

I seem to be in a tiny minority here, but I'm baffled by the fact that the consensus view seems to be that the Netflix one is the superior documentary. It's a puff piece compared to the Hulu one.
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