SPOILER ALERT: This column contains potential spoilers about "Apple Cider Vinegar.”
Netflix reminds viewers to not believe everything they hear in the new limited series “Apple Cider Vinegar.” Though intense and at points very heavy, the show is too unbelievable to miss.
The show tells the story of Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever), an Australian wellness influencer that was convicted of scamming people after it was revealed she lied about having cancer. Gibson claimed that in 2009 she’d been diagnosed with malignant brain cancer and was given only a few weeks to live. She said she chose to forgo classic medical treatments and instead healed herself naturally through healthy eating.
In 2013, after amassing thousands of followers online, Gibson launched her popular app The Whole Pantry, later followed by a cookbook of the same name. Both the app and cookbook featured recipes that Gibson claimed helped cure her of her cancer. She encouraged others to follow those recipes and her wellness routine in order to help with their own health issues.
It wasn’t until 2015 that reporters for The Age, Nick Toscano and Beau Donelly, uncovered the truth behind Gibson’s stories. Gibson’s friend Chanelle McAuliffe learned about Gibson’s lies and tipped off Donelly after failing to convince Gibson to come forward herself. It was this tip that started Toscano and Donelly’s search into Gibson’s life. The two later put out a book in 2017 on the story titled “The Woman Who Fooled the World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson.”
Toscano and Donelly’s book is what creator Samantha Strauss based much of “Apple Cider Vinegar” around, though it’s important to note that not every part of the limited series is true. At the beginning of each episode there is a disclaimer that the following story includes fictionalized characters and events.
Among these fictionalized elements was Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), a cancer patient and devoted fan of Gibson. She’s also the wife of Justin (Mark Coles Smith), a reporter loosely based on Toscano and Donelly, who would uncover Gibson’s lies with the help of Gibson’s assistant Chanelle (Aisha Dee). Lucy’s story primarily centers around her breast cancer diagnosis and how she felt that western medicine was failing to cure her. Her choice to follow the practices of wellness influencers like Gibson causes serious relationship problems between her and Justin.
Lucy’s story is sad and heartwarming all at once. Though she gets a happy ending, eventually finding some acceptance in her illness, Lucy faces a lot of challenges before reaching this point. Her whole storyline shows how wellness influencers like Gibson truly affect their fanbase. Lucy gets sicker as she falls deeper into Gibson’s lies before eventually finding her own path to wellness. Though Lucy and her storyline are completely fictionalized, the character shows that Gibson’s story isn’t just about her, it’s about everyone who was affected too.
Another mostly fictional character in the show is Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey). Blake becomes sort of the anti-Gibson in “Apple Cider Vinegar.” In the first episode we see Blake learn that she has a rare type of cancer called a Pleomorphic Sarcoma in her arm. Though Blake’s doctors recommended amputation, Blake believes she can find a way to heal herself without losing a limb and turns to more natural medicine.
This is the start of a heartbreaking struggle with her health that Debnam-Carey portrays beautifully on screen. Like Gibson, Blake is a wellness influencer who builds a brand off of her cancer struggles. Gibson claims throughout the show that Blake is a friend and mentor to her, despite Blake not really knowing of her till they meet at an award show well into their careers.
Though Blake is not actually a real person, she does represent many wellness influencers working during the time Gibson was growing in popularity. One of the influencers who heavily inspired Blake’s character is Jessica Ainscough, an influencer who became popular after sharing her own cancer journey. Just like Blake, Ainscough and Gibson never really met. But when Ainscough passed away in 2015, Gibson was seen crying uncontrollably at the funeral, a scene that’s recreated in the show at Blake’s funeral.
Finally, there’s Gibson herself. The show jumps back and forth between Gibson's downfall in 2015 and other events throughout her life and career. Viewers really get a complete, if not sometimes complicated, portrait of who Gibson is. At points it becomes hard not to feel at least a little bad for her.
Yes, you’re going into this show knowing exactly what she did, but you also see a lot of her troubled past. Her dysfunctional relationship with her mom, having a child when she was young and her general self-loathing all give you an idea of not just who she is but why she is the way that she is. While all those things don’t absolve Gibson of what she did wrong, Dever’s performance is too intense to look away from.
Strauss goes to great lengths in this series to show that the story isn’t just about how the world found out about Gibson’s lies. In fact, in the last episode of the series, the fictional Gibson cuts off the screen just before it can fully tell you what Australian courts found the real Gibson guilty of. The series is more about how Gibson got to that point and how those earlier actions influenced people's lives for better or worse. While the topics of illness and death can often be heavy and uncomfortable, “Apple Cider Vinegar” is definitely worth the watch.
