Netflix's Most-Streamed Crime Title is a Terrifying Docuseries Watched 636 Million Minutes

Summary

• On March 5, a new Netflix original series debuted and it is a major exposé.
• It is the story of the survivors of the infamous Academy at Ivy Ridge.
• The docuseries has become incredibly popular on Netflix and has even led to new police investigations.

If the prohibition against smiling or looking out the window seems absurd to you, far worse things, such as teenagers being involved in almost cult-like activities, happen every day in the facilities positioned as 'boarding schools'. In reality, however, these are some of the worst places a parent could take a child because the conditions are no better than concentration camps. Yes, this is all happening in the 21st century.

On March 5, Netflix released a new docuseries, The Program: Prisons, Cults, and Kidnapping. It immediately caused a stir with its boldness and candor, becoming one of the most watched shows on Netflix last week.

What This Documentary Is About

From 2001 to 2009, the Academy at Ivy Ridge operated in Ogdensburg, New York. It was 237 acres of land that included the school itself, dormitories and dining halls, computer labs and recreation areas, sports fields, and even nature trails for hiking. It seemed like the ideal educational environment for your child. In reality, however, the Academy at Ivy Ridge was not just a private boarding school, but a behavior modification facility, and that probably says a lot. Especially in the context of the institution's affiliation with the controversial World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schoos, as virtually every WWASPS school has been criticized for systematically abusing and even torturing the children enrolled there.

These were the conditions faced by this documentary's creator, Katherine Kubler, as a former student at Ivy Ridge from 2004 to 2005. As part of the three-episode docuseries The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, Kubler and her former classmates returned to the ill-fated school to shed light on the gruesome experiments conducted on 'troubled ' children. In addition to the physical and mental abuse, the series places great emphasis on the consequences of how the teens' relationships with their parents were permanently damaged once they got out. In addition, not all of them were able to become full-fledged members of society, and the reason is not their behavior.

The Docuseries That Made It into the Netflix Top 10

Just one day after its release, The Program became one of the Top 10 most-watched shows in the US and one of the Top 5 worldwide. According to official Netflix data, the documentary ranked third in the global Top 10 for the week of March 11-17 with an incredible 636 million minutes watched and 3,300,000 unique views. As of March 20, the series is still in the Top 10 in many countries, including the United States.

High Critical and Public Acclaim

The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping proved to be not only an honest story based on archival material and survivors' accounts, but also a frank call to action as new allegations and police investigations emerged immediately after its release. We, as a society, need documentaries like this that are both powerful and infuriating. As a result, the series received a perfect 100% score from critics and 87% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

As we have said, Ivy Ridge is not the only example of a behavior modification facility that systematically abuses children, and even outside of WWASPS, there are probably many similar facilities around the world that rob teenagers of their childhood and future prospects in the name of sadistic and cynical goals. While 'luckily' may not be the right word to use in the context of all the horrors that children experience in such institutions, it is great that in 2024 there are platforms like Netflix that can shine a light on the horrors behind the flashy PR gimmicks.