Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever) claims she was given six weeks to live due to brain cancer. It’s the kind of devastating news that changes and shapes everyone around you. But after those six weeks, Belle is still alive, so she finds other issues to keep her illness—and the charade—up. As you learn more about Belle and the drive behind her need for attention, you get pulled deeper into her web of lies and you almost start to believe it—almost. 

When the launch of Instagram brings new opportunities to curate reality and reach millions, Belle sees an opportunity to rebrand herself as having “healed” her cancer by eating healthily. Sound familiar? Set in the early days of social media, Belle builds a healthy recipe empire that shoots her to fame as a wellness influencer. 

Around the same time, Milla (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and Chanelle (Aisha Dee) are also looking to capture the wellness market. Milla has cancer and is searching for alternate treatments, while also trying to save her terminally ill mother. She seeks to monetize her alternative healing journey, with help from her friend Chanelle. They are soon pulled into Belle’s orbit and a mean-girl-frenemy relationship develops. They’re competitors who grow increasingly obsessed with each other—with devastating effects that ripple across everyone they know.

The series skips along the timeline to give you a full picture of the deception of these so-called wellness influencers. It’s a masterclass in the weaponization of white girl tears, misinformation, and inspirational narratives that obscure the truth. With excellently timed fourth-wall breaks that assure you how deceptive and manipulative the series is, it also digs into the fallout of all the lies and how many of the characters were content to keep going until it no longer benefited them. And with it brings a trail of journalistic investigations, angry people who want to take the empire down, and ever-growing fabrications. Nobody is innocent here, except perhaps the ones who trusted these people with their lives.

It shows the devastating impact of these predatory practises on vulnerable patients who often don’t have a lot of options in the first place. The series also follows some of the cancer patients who take inspiration from these influencers and their treatments, demonstrating how painful it is to grasp at anything that might give patients a scrap of hope. 

Apple Cider Vinegar is an interesting viewing experience, particularly if you’ve ever dealt with complex health issues. It’s hard to watch the doctors reach the end of their knowledge and, sometimes, capacity for care. Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of “everything looks normal,” “there’s nothing more we can do” or, worse yet, “it’s all in your head,” will recognize the frustrations, the loneliness, and the desperation many patients feel. Add in intersectional factors like gender, race, and class and you might find yourself dismissed before you ever get a diagnosis, let alone the help you need. It is often so hard to be believed or even diagnosed—and scammers who fake illness for attention or money make those barriers so much harder.

When an illness is not easily cured, it’s no wonder some patients look further afield when Western medicine fails them. This series examines what can happen when those patients find recommendations from people who aren’t seeking to help but instead to profit. And no, we’re not talking about the predatory multi-billion-dollar healthcare industries that rule the treatments we receive as patients (although it does sound awfully similar, doesn’t it?). While that is a touchstone, Apple Cider Vinegar focuses on shining a harsh light on the rise of wellness influencers who prey on vulnerable people by selling them a success story; claiming that doing things the “right” way will cure them. If you think real people aren’t capable of this, well, this is all based on a true-ish story.

The always-excellent Kaitlyn Dever is on her A-game here, fully reeling you in with her charisma to show off Belle’s façade and those moments when it cracks. Her intensity is visceral and is felt through the screen. Alycia Debnam-Carey and Aisha Dee give as good as they get too, adding a different side to this multifaceted web of lies. The three leads are fully believable in their convictions; they put on a really good act that their lies are anything but. And it’s enthralling to watch. Even as you cheer for their downfall by the characters seeking to uncover the truth, you’ll still feel a pang of sympathy at the desperation that drives them. Even if that makes you feel sick to your stomach to admit. 

Apple Cider Vinegar is a tense and brilliantly written limited series about the power of narrative framing. The series deftly plays with that framing to shape and reshape your emotions, to point out the hypocrisy at every level. It’s bittersweet and terrifying and also wryly amusing all at once. The framing is designed to make you feel off-kilter and uncertain while keeping you hooked on each new revelation and the building pressure as Belle’s world tightens around her. It’s often difficult to get through but that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to stop watching; in fact, it means you’ll be hellbent on seeing everything unravel. And remember, that’s exactly what they want—you’ll see.