The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Alyssa Tyler editor in chief
To begin, I’m not a big ‘TV’ person. Even when I was a child I struggled sitting through a movie or show. I was the kid sitting in the front row of the movie theater so I could read with the light coming off the projector. That said, if I watch TV, it will be a documentary. Like my book review this week, I was ‘inspired’ to watch the HBO Max documentary, ‘The Garden: Commune or Cult?’ due to a podcast episode from some of my favorite comedians.
HBO Max released the Docuseries in October of 2023. The six-episode series released episodes weekly, allowing tension and excitement to brew for the viewers. The Garden is a commune located on 22 acres in Southern America. They claim to focus on living off the wild and removing themselves from mainstream society. The commune came to public light after going viral on the social media platform, TikTok. Rumors spread that this commune was more of a cult.
If someone was interested in living at the commune, they could have a trial period of living there, then they could ask to stay longer or leave. If they ask to stay longer, then they would have to be voted on where everyone would have to agree for them to stay. The members of the commune claim that there is no hierarchy and that no one is in charge, however, Tree and two other members control everything that is going on around them.
The people in these docuseries are what make it worth watching; everyone there has a distinct and interesting personality to say.
Tree was the main person who gained social media fame, if only for a short amount of time. His personality is interesting to say the least. He is extremely paranoid about outsiders and people will ill intentions coming to the commune. To the point of yelling at the camera crew that they are putting everyone in danger by recording. Tree was not the only interesting person there, one potential commune member, Tyler, was introduced to the documentary while sitting in a hot tub naked. Then, both he and his wife show off their favorite pastime, naked couple acrobatics. Then another Tyler from Tennesse joins the commune for the trial period so he can learn how to protect his family in the upcoming doomsday.
Overall, I typically stick to criminal documentaries, and this was a step out of my comfort zone. The idea was interesting, but I feel like the story fell flat. I would like to see a follow up episode or season in the upcoming years to discuss if they were able to survive out there in the wild. Overall, I rate this a 4/10.