Irony of ironies, Director Cullen Hoback's expose on how the QAnon phenomenon drew millions down a conspiracy rabbit hole, shows that the filmmaker himself chased a few of his own bunnies.
Q: Into The Storm initially does a good job showing the origins of the phenomenon, but soon it becomes apparent that this is more Hoback's reporters video notebook than a cohesive Documentary. He follows the trails wherever they lead him and dumps all the 'notes' on the viewer and lets them mostly sort it out. In particular, Hoback gets far too caught up in untangling the interplay between 8 Chan's shadowy owners, the father and son team of Jim and Ron Watkins, and their chief nemesis and original website creator, Frederick Brennan (the site is now called 8 Kun). Again, the initial look at this trio is intriguing, but Hoback lets them take over his own documentary. And, even if he thinks he's 'solved' the mystery of who Q is, he still leaves open questions as to who actually originated the mystery man and how it spread.
My critique of the Doc aside, the first, second and last episodes ARE worth watching. A few of the other QAnon followers profiled really put a face to the cult. Some of these folks had respectable lives before being sucked into the Q movement. They got sucked deeper and deeper into the vortex - and, many haven't emerged yet (the Q Shaman makes a couple of appearances). It's a frightening vision and the final episode detailing the January 6th insurrection is quite chilling.
In the end, I cannot recommend Q: Into The Storm as a Documentary series, but, it does contain some important information. Hoback needed a strong outside editor (and a network that should have advised it to be half as long).
Q: Into The Storm initially does a good job showing the origins of the phenomenon, but soon it becomes apparent that this is more Hoback's reporters video notebook than a cohesive Documentary. He follows the trails wherever they lead him and dumps all the 'notes' on the viewer and lets them mostly sort it out. In particular, Hoback gets far too caught up in untangling the interplay between 8 Chan's shadowy owners, the father and son team of Jim and Ron Watkins, and their chief nemesis and original website creator, Frederick Brennan (the site is now called 8 Kun). Again, the initial look at this trio is intriguing, but Hoback lets them take over his own documentary. And, even if he thinks he's 'solved' the mystery of who Q is, he still leaves open questions as to who actually originated the mystery man and how it spread.
My critique of the Doc aside, the first, second and last episodes ARE worth watching. A few of the other QAnon followers profiled really put a face to the cult. Some of these folks had respectable lives before being sucked into the Q movement. They got sucked deeper and deeper into the vortex - and, many haven't emerged yet (the Q Shaman makes a couple of appearances). It's a frightening vision and the final episode detailing the January 6th insurrection is quite chilling.
In the end, I cannot recommend Q: Into The Storm as a Documentary series, but, it does contain some important information. Hoback needed a strong outside editor (and a network that should have advised it to be half as long).