Don't Date Brandon Review
Director: Grace Chapman
Date Created: 2025-10-28 20:37
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Don’t Date Brandon Review: This Paramount+ docuseries is directed by Grace Chapman. It is a three-part documentary exploration of the dark side of dating, as it offers an inside look at the sordid underbelly of love in contemporary times. Featuring the actual survivor Amber Rasmussen and Athena Klingerman, it provides the series with the ability to delve into great detail about the life of a man whose charm masked brutality and the fearless women who were willing to challenge him. Through interviews, real-life evidence, and personal accounts, the documentary peels away several layers of control and manipulation that may be obscured behind the smiling face of an internet friend.
Don’t Date Brandon Review
Paramount+ Don’t Date Brandon changes gears to focus on the cons of the internet age, but what you see when you watch is something so much more: it is about women standing up and reclaiming their story, giving voice to themselves, and making their mark in a world that all too often silences victims. Based on the popular podcast Ex-Wives Undercover, the docu-series is about Amber and Athena, two women who found they were victims of the same con man, Brandon Johnson and decided to report the facts to the world.
Unlike many true-crime shows that dramatise events, this docu-series remains real and on the ground; that is exactly what caught my eye and kept me going. The director homed in on the emotional truth of abuse: how survivors become stuck, why they don’t escape, and what it is to begin anew after being betrayed. The series isn’t narrative; it’s educating people on the warning signs so many ignore when in relationships.
The visual style is robust, but contained. The docuseries incorporates text messages, police surveillance, ground-level interviews, and people’s footage in narration. Genuine material does retain raw, realistic ambience, but I could not find some of the reenactments to be as good; they don’t add anything to emotional depth and sometimes ruin the seriousness of genuine moments. But the best thing about the documentary is that its power lies in its narration in real life-most of which is given by Amber and Athena, whose honesty is the emotional core of the show.
I am a true-crime binger myself, and I felt that this show is different. Don’t Date Brandon documentary doesn’t try to blow your mind with shocking revelations; instead, it burrows under your skin. It places you in the mindset of wondering how easy it is to manipulate anyone, even smart and powerful people. Seeing these women reappropriate their shared trauma was at once tragic and hopeful. Their decision to make their pain an arena for public discussion, first their podcast and now this film, is what makes the series worth watching.
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The other wonderful thing was how it tapped into a chord of empowerment and fear. It never glamorised its victims as helpless; they were survivors. When Amber and Athena unite to confront Brandon, it’s a story of courage and sisterhood. I just loved how the director allowed for their feelings of doubt, anger, and even laughter-showing that healing is not linear.
All the same, the pace is slightly uneven. The mid-episode lingers too much on redundant information; thus, the pace drops markedly. But these are minor mistakes in a show that otherwise rings so emotionally true. In fact, the overall narrative is tight, and each episode leaves one wanting to know how it will all add up for justice.
What makes Don’t Date Brandon on Paramount+ stand out is the way that it takes individual narratives and combines them into a social commentary. It’s not Brandon Johnson’s misdeeds that are being highlighted, but the culture of online living that creates and supports the likes of him. This is a documentary uncomfortably close to our doorstep in the current era of online dating and social media, where image has too long substituted for reality. It’s a story about how trust in the wrong hands can kill, yet community and awareness can make victims into survivors.
The phone and camera videos bring us a reality that cannot be beat by television, written by someone. The interviews themselves are shot up close, so we’re in the same space as them, listening to them tell their truth. There isn’t any smooth cutting or pretentious background music, which I was thankful for. The lack of prettification keeps our attention where it should be: on the women’s voices.
You can’t help but seethe and marvel: seethe at the number Brandon was able to get away with over all those years, and marvel at the women who brought him to his knees. When that justice is finally achieved, that relief comes crashing hard, but still, there is always going to be the lingering question: how many more “Brandons” are out there? That final comment keeps this show hanging around long after it has run.
Docuseries Don’t Date Brandon Review: Summing Up
Overall, Don’t Date Brandon is educational and heartbreaking. Survivors’ resilience and well-researched guidance and empathy make this one of the strongest true-crime docuseries to find its way onto screens in recent memory. If you liked either The Tinder Swindler or Dirty John, you’ll be able to relate to this series, but it’s something special in that it’s more authentic and easier to access. It is not so much shock as healing, responsibility, and awareness.
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