Thank God ‘The Vow’ Got a Season 2

Most true crime documentaries have a shelf life. The average viewer can only endure so much horror, so much needless and cruel pain before they have to turn their TVs off or at least put on a sitcom cleanser. But The Vow is proving that’s not the case. HBO’s docuseries about NXIVM could go on forever, and I’m convinced I’d still be sitting on my couch, watching.

This is a phenomenon that’s unique to The Vow, by the way. STARZ’s competing docuseries, Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, follows a much more straightforward true crime narrative. Periodically the series will reveal another chilling detail about this purported self-help organization before turning the focus over to cult experts and the survivors of NXIVM’s worst sins. This approach always keeps survivor stories front and center. In many ways that focus makes Seduced a superior and more respectful docuseries. But because of how grossly manipulative Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman were, it’s sickening to watch more than an episode at a time.

That’s never the approach The Vow takes. Jehane Noujaim snd Karim Amer’s docuseries uses its very format to mirror how everyday people are sucked into cults. It’s an innovative and humanizing approach, one that questions smug assumptions from viewers that they would never fall for this organization. Yet since this approach is so focused on the whole picture rather than the stories of NVIXM’s most abused members, odd details often slip through the cracks.

Even if it wasn’t the parent group of a secret society that was actually a sex trafficking ring, NXIVM was weird. Members had to don sashes and refer to Keith Raniere as Vanguard, a name he took from one of his favorite video games. Adult men and women would attend a weeklong summer camp where they would plan group songs and dances to honor Raniere’s birthday. Everyone attended self-help workshops to better their careers and yet no one seemed to work. People gleefully kissed Raniere on the mouth. And then there was the volleyball. The existence of semi-mandatory midnight volleyball will haunt me until my dying days.

No alcohol and drugs appear to be involved in any of these decisions. That’s weird. And by the way, these moments are meant to represent NXIVM at its high points.

Every one of these details is so bizarre in its own right any one of these asides could anchor its own docuseries. And then there’s the personal drama. Perhaps it’s because most of The Vow’s footage comes from filmmaker turned whistleblower Mark Vicente, but The Vow can’t seem to ever look away from Vicente and his inner circle. Even when the series takes a few minutes to actually interview a survivor of the sex trafficking ring, it isn’t long before the series is pulled back into these subjects’ ring of guilt.

Part of this focus feels important and worthwhile. Sarah Edmondson’s intense remorse about being used as a recruiter for DOS offers a rarely seen perspective. Thanks to her viewers can better understand how someone could be manipulated into unintentionally hurting her fellow woman.

But large chunks don’t feel quite so necessary. For example in The Vow‘s second to last episode Vicente has a moment where he explains that he’s a good person who was manipulated by an evil man. Edmondson’s husband Nippy doesn’t let him finish before he points to the elephant in the room. Yes, they were manipulated, but both Vicente and Nippy pushed an agenda they suspected was wrong and in effect hurt a lot of people. They made a mistake. Seeing Nippy call Vicente out certainly feels rewarding. But does it add to the overall narrative about NXIVM’s transgressions? Does it broaden our understanding of the most vulnerable victims of this cult? Not really.

Yet these off-message moments are what The Vow thrives on, and they’re what drew me back hour after hour. Thankfully for me and anyone else hooked by this stranger than fiction story, it’s not coming to an end anytime soon. Last week (October 16) HBO announced that The Vow would be returning for a second season, this time following Raniere’s trial. Who knows what bonkers nuggets this new installment will reveal. I just know I’ll be watching every minute.

Watch The Vow on HBO Go and HBO Max