Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Shadowland’ on Peacock, Documentary Master Joe Berlinger’s Series Examining the Conspiracy Theories Tearing America Apart

Now on Peacock, six-part documentary series Shadowland finds filmmaker and producer Joe Berlinger stepping outside the true-crime TV and movies that are his bread and butter – you may recognize him as the director of Netflix’s Conversations with a Killer series and the groundbreaking Paradise Lost films (which established the tone and style used in so much of today’s widely popular true-crime fodder). Berlinger executive-produces this new series in conjunction with The Atlantic, using the publication’s deep-dives into QAnon and other conspiracy theories as a springboard for an examination of America’s deepening political divisions. Which is to say, brace yourselves for some difficult, potentially upsetting investigative journalism that poses an unblinking eye in front of a problem that kind of feels impossible to solve.

SHADOWLAND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A montage of Atlantic reporters and title cards explaining the origin of the magazine’s investigative project.

The Gist: After the journalists reveal their statement of intent – to look into the “real systems behind why (conspiracy theories) happen” – we meet Pauline Bower, a rural Pennsylvania restaurateur who entered the U.S. Capitol building during the Jan. 6 insurrection, and faces charges of “obstructing an official proceeding.” We learn her background: grew up on a farm, worked at KMart for 18 years and lost her retirement when the company stock value plummeted, opened a restaurant, faced a lot of uncertainty and financial hardship during the pandemic, watched the conspiracy-theory video Plandemic, quickly became a right-wing political activist. We see her working long, hard hours and hear testimony about the quality of her character from friends; she speaks in soft, kind tones, and there’s a weary, worried air to her presence. Then we see footage of her inside the Capitol yelling, “They need to hang!” Now she could go to prison for 20 years, and she’s getting legal advice from Bobby Lawrence, a man in a garage preaching sovereign citizenship, which proclaims that the judicial system has no jurisdiction over them. He advises her not to be afraid to quote the Bible during her hearing. She goes to court, repeats those claims, and goes straight to jail.

In San Francisco, Zach Vorheis and Maryam Henien are objectively a kind of adorable couple. They lounge on a bed and he warns her he’s going to tickle her, and then he tickles her. They also model themselves after Steve Bannon and Alex Jones. Vorheis once worked for Google, and attempted to expose what he alleges are the company’s diabolical plans to render the global population subservient. Henien was a Democrat until she met Vorheis, and now she’s an echo-chamber podcaster who proclaimed Covid was “the perfect Trojan horse.” Vorheis calls himself an “international celebrity” and “right-wing hipster” who says he isn’t seeking fame, yet brands himself “the Google Whistleblower” and says, “I feel like I’m a hero”; he breaks down crying when he reveals that his father barely talks to him anymore and thinks he’s lost his mind. Henien, once a documentary filmmaker and journalist for major national publications, now says she’s on food stamps because her conspiracy-theory content prompted her bank to drop her business account, and the likes of YouTube and Amazon to deplatform her.

Those are the two primary narrative threads. The episode – titled “They Need to Hang” – threads other stuff through these stories: Atlantic editor Ellen Cushing was interested in the project because she’s a recovering conspiracy theorist who, as a teenager, believed the Illuminati ruled the world. We see her travel to Duluth, Georgia, where she talks to Sarah Lewis, the lifelong friend of Roseanne Boyland, who was trampled to death during the Jan. 6 riot; Sarah weeps as she explains how Roseanne became a QAnon devotee pretty much overnight, which directly resulted in Sarah losing the closest, dearest friend she’ll ever have.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Shadowland takes Berlinger’s fly-on-the-wall documentary prowess and blends it with a 60 Minutes-style in-depth investigation.

Our Take: Beneath its strictly observational tack, the opening episode of Shadowland quietly asserts that heated debate isn’t likely to change anyone’s mind, so it behooves us to consider the origins of conspiracy theorists’ belief systems. What pushed people down the rabbit hole? Bower seems to have been inspired by hardship and disillusionment with the American Way – she worked hard all her life, yet her livelihoods were either lost or threatened. For Vorheis and Henien, it seems to be the allure of knowing things that other people don’t, and standing on a platform and yelling those things shows their quest for recognition and notoriety. For Boyland, isolation wrought by the pandemic prompted her to spend hours staring at the internet, and she fell into QAnon’s sticky web.

Undoubtedly, Covid is a main character in these stories, more so than Trump, who’s sidelined here (at least in this episode; one expects his propagation of Covid-related conspiracy theories and lies to be one of the series’ recurring threads). It made the core American political fissure deeper. And now, this series shows how any attempt to bestow consequences upon people who follow and disseminate brazen falsehoods only inspires them to dig in deeper, and use their belief systems as reinforcement. “They Need to Hang” teases figures from subsequent episodes, some of whom are conspiracy theorists who lament the fractured state of their country – just as their ideological opposites do. Both sides share a common belief that division is undesirable, but differ mightily as to exactly why that division exists.

And so Berlinger and his team of directors lean into the complexities of the situation, be they political, social, economic or psychological. There’s an impulse to be surprised that any of the series’ subjects would actually agree to be filmed for a documentary, but that only solidifies how intently they believe in their version of reality – they don’t fear sharing their perception of the truth, no matter how brazenly it flies in the face of common sense. Questioning and poking holes in their beliefs wouldn’t get anyone anywhere, so observing them is more valuable. Such is the fundamental journalism of Shadowland: Cooler heads always prevail.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Bobby Lawrence hears that Pauline Bower was sent to jail, and bellows at the camera, “We’re at war because the rule of law in this country has been eliminated!”

Sleeper Star: Sarah Lewis breaks our hearts by openly sharing the pain of her loss.

Most Pilot-y Line: Bower eyes the U.S. Capitol as she drives to her court hearing: “I don’t care if they flood it or blow it up. It’s a Satanic city.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Shadowland is fascinating, upsetting, sometimes depressing, sometimes revelatory journalism.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.