Apple Cider Vinegar Review: A Web of Scams and Lies

Apple Cider Vinegar is Netflix’s latest true crime series, and this one tackles the shocking story of serial cancer scammer Belle Gibson.

The miniseries is riddled with impact in its effort to showcase the effects of social media, lying, and what happens when it all comes crashing down. It is, in essence, a brutal warning not to believe everything you see on the internet, and on the dangers of misinformation particularly around health and wellness. 

Created by Samantha Strauss (Nine Perfect Strangers), Apple Cider Vinegar is based on the book “The Woman Who Fooled the World” by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano, who played a big part in exposing Gibson as a fraudster. The series is set during the birth of Instagram and the rise of the social media influencer and, per the synopsis, “is a true-ish story based on a lie, about the rise and fall of a wellness empire, the culture that built it up, and the people who tore it down,” though certain characters and events have been created or fictionalized. 

While our plot focuses on how one woman fooled the world into believing she had brain cancer and beat it naturally, then subsequently built a wellness empire off her web of lies, our story follows a fictional rivalry between Gibson and fellow wellness influencer Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey, of It’s What’s Inside), an actual cancer patient who appears to be inspired by the late Jessica Ainscough. Both women set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through techniques like meditation and yoga, a raw, vegan diet, and the power of positive thinking, and both rack up a massive social media following along the way. 

To further reinforce the damage Belle’s lies and scams had on people, we also meet breast cancer patient Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey, of Young Woman and the Sea), who hangs on Belle’s every word, abandons her own medical treatment, and needlessly suffers because of it, as well as a young boy battling brain cancer, whom Belle uses as a tool on her platform to raise money for his surgery—money she wound up keeping for herself.

Where Apple Cider Vinegar shines the most is in its depiction of the effects that Belle’s lies and scams not only have on other people but also have on herself. On the outside Belle is well put together, charming, and gracious … cunningly smart and quick to talk her way out of any uncomfortable position. On the inside, though, her lies are eating her alive, riddling her body with panic and her mind with paranoia, and pulling her further away from her responsibilities as a mother and a partner. 

The series also unveils a shattering look at the effects of social media both on one’s psyche and on the dangers it poses in its perpetuation of harmful messaging around health and wellness. Belle knows what she is doing is wrong, but she can’t stop herself. She is led by a desperate need for attention, sympathy, and validation—things she never got growing up, which we see through a series of brief flashbacks with her mother and stepfather, where she was often ignored and made to feel insignificant. 

Kaitlyn Dever does a phenomenal job of depicting a picture-perfect fraudster slowly being eaten alive by her own lies and desperation while continuing on with her charade, even as her empire starts crashing down around her and she loses, well, everything: followers, validation, respect, attention, family, friends, and her wellness empire. Likewise, Alycia Debnam-Carey also gives an emotional performance in her fight to heal herself, as does Tilda Cobham-Hervey.

The only drawbacks I find to the series are that all the fictionalized subplots just seem jammed into our main plot of who Belle is, what she did, what led her to that point, and what happened after she was exposed (an answer we do not get by series end but are instead told to “Google it for [our]selves”) and the busy, non-sequitur manner in which our story unfolds. I typically don’t mind non-sequitur techniques, but these techniques are overused in Apple Cider Vinegar and jump around so much, it makes it difficult to focus on our main story at hand, which is what this woman did.

Overall, Apple Cider Vinegar is a compelling watch that couldn’t have dropped at a more relevant time, as it reminds us that it has never been more important to use your own brain and do your own research, especially when it comes to your own health. In other words: STOP BELIEVING EVERYTHING YOU SEE AND READ ON THE INTERNET AS PURE TRUTH. Do your own research and when it comes to your health and wellness, seek the advice of medical professionals and experts, not social media influencers.

Apple Cider Vinegar will be released globally on Netflix on February 6, 2025.