Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult’ On Starz, Which Exposes The Sex-Trafficking Cult From India Oxenberg’s POV

Right on the heels of the season 1 finale of HBO’s The Vow comes Starz’s take, Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult. Unlike The Vow, which concentrates on some of the sex cult’s inner circle, Seduced concentrates on women who were brainwashed into being part of the sex-trafficking cult that has landed founder Keith Raniere in prison, with co-founder Nancy Salzman pleading guilty to racketeering charges. While the filmmakers speak to a number of victims, one victim garners most of the attention: India Oxenberg.

SEDUCED: INSIDE THE NXIVM CULT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: India Oxenberg walks towards a townhouse and says, “That’s where it happened.” Then, in an interview, she talks about how she was the first of her “slave group” to be branded by the NXIVM cult.

The Gist: In Episode 1, “Hooked,” we’re introduced to Oxenberg, the 29-year-old daughter of actress Catherine Oxenberg, best known for her role in Dynasty. We’re introduced to NXIVM via how the Oxenbergs came across it; Catherine saw an organization offering “Executive Success Programs,” and thought that she and India could take the one day intro seminar together. After seeing a number of celebrities at the intro, including Allison Mack and Rosario Dawson, India was sold on doing the five-day program, which had a “discounted” price of over $2,000. She encouraged her mother to do the course with her, if only so they could spend time together.

After having a “breakthrough” during the five-day session, in an “EM” session conducted by Salzman herself — she arrived in an effort to hook Oxenberg and her daughter — Catherine was sold, but ironically India was ready to walk away. But they both continued, until Oxenberg was asked to host a JNESS seminar, which was the women’s organization inside NXIVM, there, both Oxenbergs, along with Christine’s mother, Princess Elizabeth of the former Yugoslavia, listened as Salzberg spewed feminist jargon but in a manner that sounded more misogynist than anything. “I thought she was an idiot,” she says of Salzman.

Catherine Oxenberg finally sees the error of her ways when there’s an Albany newspaper story about Raniere sleeping with multiple underage girls. But India moves further into the system as a coach, much to the dismay of both her mother and grandmother.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Vow, obviously, but any docuseries about cults shows how they all use similar methods.

Our Take: Given the timing of this show’s premiere and the cursory introduction to Raniere and NXIVM in Episode 1, it almost feels like the producers of Seduced assumed that most of their viewers have already seen The Vow and are ready for more of a view from the victim’s side. Indeed, this docuseries plays out more like some sensationalistic true crime docuseries like you might catch on Investigation Discovery as opposed to something more in-depth and contemplative like The Vow. But that doesn’t mean Seduced isn’t worth watching.

What’s fascinating about Seduced isn’t just that Catherine and India Oxenberg, descended from European royalty, could be sucked in by Raniere (i.e. “Vanguard”) and Salzman (i.e. “Prefect”), it’s about how effectively the pair operated. As the various cult experts interviewed point out, the two of them combined methods from various other MLMs and cult organizations to get people in a mental state where they’re willing to hand over loads of money for “training”, listen to lectures questioning whether sex with minors is wrong, and eventually get women in JNESS to be part of a sex cult, recruited by Mack and led by Salzman and Raniere.

Like The Vow, there is plenty of slickly-produced training and other video material that was for internal NXIVM use (much of it shot by director Mark Vicente, an inner-circle member who participated in The Vow but isn’t interviewed here). As usual, that material is fascinating and creepy, especially footage of the massive presentation to celebrate Raniere’s birthday, with everyone dancing and saying “Happy Birthday, Vanguard!”. But what we’re interested in is the path that India Oxenberg takes to being branded inside that nondescript townhome outside Albany, and how her mother, who realized after India decided to become a coach that something was very wrong inside that organization, tried to get her out.

Sex and Skin: Except one of the victims showing where she was branded, there’s nothing.

Parting Shot: “It’s taken me over 50 hours of working with a therapist to even say that something sexual happened between Keith and I,” says India. Then we see footage of India and a number of NXIVMers singing “Give Keith A Chance”. Gahh.

Sleeper Star: We want to see more of Princess Elizabeth, India’s grandmother. She saw through Salzman’s bullshit immediately, but decided not to meddle and keep out of it. But it was kind of cathartic to hear someone call out Salzman and Raniere for what they were instead of what they were inflated into being.

Most Pilot-y Line: The other female victims aren’t really profiled in depth, at least not in part 1. Because of the concentration on India, it feels like the other victims are just there as a sort of Greek chorus instead of women with their own lives and families who were equally victimized by Raniere.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult might not be as in-depth as The Vow, but it’s good insight into how someone can become a victim to a well-run cult, even if their guard is up.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Seduced: Inside The NXIVM Cult On Starz