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If you like learning about serial killers, scammers, cults, dodgy doctors, tech fraudsters, fake millionaires, Tiger Kings and the unbelievable clusterfuck that was FyreFest, then Netflix has got you covered with a host of documentaries. Trouble is they are not all gold, and don’t all lend themselves to the format. A good story does not equal a good documentary, such is the case with Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare.
This is the incredible tale of a young woman, Kirat, from the South Asian community living in London who meets a man named Bobby via Facebook. Bobby knows members of Kirat’s family and though the two of them have only met in person once and very briefly, they forge a powerful bond online that lasts many years. But obviously they don’t, as the title of the film indicates.
This story was originally told on a podcast called Sweet Bobby from Tortoise Media – it’s a great podcast told over six episodes with Kirat’s story unfolding guided by excellent host Alexi Mostrous. This is an absolutely wild tale (which we won’t spoil), involving a monumental amount of work and multiple threads, with an unbelievable and actually pretty sad outcome that affected Kirat’s life.
We’d highly recommend the podcast. If you’ve heard it already you very much don’t need to bother with the Netflix effort. A feature length doc running at 1 hr 22, the show really doesn’t cover any significant ground not in the podcast, other than letting us meet some of the people involved in the flesh.
It’s a wise choice not to have stretched this over multiple episodes, as many Netflix docs have increasingly done – while the big reveal is shocking, it doesn’t offer an especially satisfying conclusion since one of the key players refused to be interviewed.
Most of the story is told via Kirat and her family talking directly to camera, as well as text and Facebook messages, snippets of audio and occasional recreations. It’s the televisual equivalent of someone telling you a tale in your living room – a great bit of gossip but not a great bit of documentary making.
Kirat herself is very brave, but there is something uncomfortable here seeing her re-live a very traumatic part of her life, sobbing over audio clips of messages she sent when she was highly distressed, particularly with the knowledge that she has already told this story in depth for the podcast.
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare doesn’t put in the effort to justify the re-telling of this story and if the standard for a documentary only has to be people sitting in chairs reliving the worst stuff that’s happened to them, it hardly speaks well of the art form.
If you really can’t bear to listen to podcasts and you want to hear a crazy story, this doc won’t eat much of your life, but Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare really is a low effort show.
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare is available to stream on Netflix now.
The post Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare Review – A Bonkers True Story That Didn’t Warrant a Documentary appeared first on Den of Geek.
