Tomorrow on Max, get ready to watch the three-part documentary, How to Create a Sex Scandal, about a sex scandal that never happened.
Margie and John Cantrell took in several foster children throughout their marriage and raised them as their own. The couple started out in California but moved to the small town of Mineola, Texas.
In 2004, that small town was about to be rocked because they found out there was a Swinger’s Club operating in their area. And that was not the worst of what they were going to discover.
The Cantrells took in three siblings whose parents were deemed unfit to raise them. Shortly after they moved in, the Cantrells noticed they were acting odd. So they asked them what was going on.
The children told their foster parents they were being used as sex toys in the Swinger’s Club. So Margie called the authorities, and they investigated the crime known as Kindergarten Sex.
The three children told their story to the Texas Rangers, and their case went to court. By the end of their investigation, seven people, including the kids’ parents, were tried and convicted of the crime.
And that is where the first episode’s story ends. In the next episode, their case seems to unravel, and one of the newspapers is given a tip that this might not have happened at all.
The more the reporter looks into it, the more it seems that their story is made up. But why? That is when we find out that Margie is not as sweet as she said she was in part 1.
She was mentally and physically abusing the children. She brainwashed them to believe that this really happened to them. But it didn’t.
What happens when the Cantrells’ abuse is found out? That is what we find out in the final episode.
They say the truth is stranger than fiction, and this true story is definitely that. If you didn’t see the words coming out of the people involved, you would never believe that a whole town would believe the lies. But they did. And the lack of repercussions will surprise you.
You will hear from the three kids in the case, the Cantrells, the people they accused, the journalists who covered the case, and other children who accused the Cantrells of abuse.
Each episode has its own theme and tells the story as it took place. The first episode deals with scandal, the second shows how the case fell apart, and finally, the consequences for everything that happened in Mineola.
What I liked most about this three-part series is that it didn’t repeat itself every five minutes. Instead, they let the shocking tale play out and did not tell me repeatedly what I watched.
In fact, because it flows so naturally, you feel like you are watching a newscast that is telling the story in real time. And that is why I binged this without stopping. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.
How to Create a Sex Scandal will keep you on the edge of your seat because you go from feeling sorry for them, to questioning what happened to those children, to I can’t believe it didn’t happen.
So if you want to watch something that seems too crazy to be true, then you are going to be hooked on this. It is the best docuseries I have seen in a long time.
Did you know that little Chrissy Seaver from Growing Pains is the voice of Ellie in the three The Last of Us video games? She is.
And on tonight’s season finale of The Last of Us, she will be playing Ellie’s mom Anna when she was pregnant with her daughter. How cool is that? I wonder if that is a video game to screen first?
Also, isn’t it incredible how much Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie on the HBO show, looks like Johnson when she starred with Betty White and Marie Osmond on Maybe This Time? It is uncanny.
We know what Pennywise was doing in the late ’80s, but what was he doing before then? HBO Max is going to answer that question with the prequel series to the recent It movies.
Welcome to Derry is being made for TV by siblings Andy Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti, who gave It life on the big screen. “As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King’s ‘IT’ until the thick paperback fell to pieces. ‘IT’ is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our ‘IT’ movies. We can’t wait to share the depths of Steve’s novel, in all its heart, humor, humanity and horror.”
As of now, we don’t know much about the production. I hope they get Bill Skarsgård to reprise his role. He was brilliant as the killer clown. Not as good as Tim Curry. But no one is as great as Tim Curry.
HBO Max teamed up with Lizzo to record one of her concerts and stream it on December 31st.
Lizzo, her band The Lizzbians and The Little Bigs, The Big Grrrls will be joined by special musical guests Cardi B, SZA, and Missy Elliott throughout the night.
It is the perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve because Lizzo is like a walking party.
And if you can’t wait until then to have more of the singer, you can watch her personal documentary Love, Lizzo starting on Thanksgiving.
Thanks to Coca-Cola, we believe that Santa Claus is supposed to be an old jolly fat white man with white hair and a beard. However, the New England Santa Society is trying to change that.
The group of Santas who meet once a month are welcoming of different Santas. All are welcome at Santa Camp, no matter what. They can be Mrs. Clauses. They can be African American. They can be transgender. They can also be disabled. As long as they believe they are the real Kris Kringle, they are in.
HBO Max’s Santa Camp shows us that Santas come in all sizes and colors, but the thing they all have in common is that they love making children happy all year round.
So get to know the people who live and love the man in the red suit in the documentary that is streaming now.
It is nice to get to know that the men who delight children every December are just as delightful as they seem.
