Checked out the new Netflix documentary about Flat Earth conspiracy theorists Behind the Curve. The title suggested it wasn’t pro-flat earth but I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to suggest to Netflix or Flat Earth conspiracy people that I was interested in a documentary they had made. But I ran across a YouTube video that assured me it was not made by them.
So Behind the Curve is a documentary about flat earthers – those folks who think the Earth is flat and the sky is a crystal dome and the stars and the moon are fake… that NASA is lying, we never went to the moon much less sent probes to Mars and the outer planets. That it’s all a big lie to back up evolution (somehow), the Big Bang, and an old, very big universe.
The documentary is interesting but it never really dives enough into their beliefs or many of the scientific counter-arguments (i.e. reasonable, logical truth). They do interview some scientists and there are a handful of counter-arguments and explanations of motivated reasoning. But it wasn’t enough for me.
And way too much of the doc followed this really egotistical, conceited, self-aggrandizing jackass flat earth guy and his time creeping on a flat earth woman. She was interesting in that some flat earthers think she’s a schill for big government because, I guess, she’s too pretty or just female at all. They have an amusing segment where she wonders at all the crazy conspiracies they believe about her and then has a brief moment where she seems to wonder about her own belief system. Before hand-waving it away.
I can’t say this is a bad documentary, especially if all this is new information for you. But it’s far too surface level and spends way too much time with some of the flat earthers without really diving deeply enough into them. I can’t QUITE say it’s a puff-piece since there are counter-arguments… but, again, not really enough of them. You’d get better information off YouTube… assuming you can avoid the conspiracy theorist rabbit hole.
Score: 79