Netflix has just added a solid new show to its collection as of this week, combining one of the most underrated actresses on the market, and one of my favorite actresses of several years ago, and I was sad she mostly disappeared from view.
Kaitlyn Dever of Unbelievable and her upcoming role as Abby in The Last of Us season 2 stars in Apple Cider Vinegar alongside Alycia Debnam-Carey of The 100 and Fear the Walking Dead, both shows she unfortunately left too early. It also stars Aisha Dee from The Bold Type and Channel Zero.
Apple Cider Vinegar is a bizarrely named series that is getting great reviews, currently an 82% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and Dever in particular is attracting a ton of praise for her role in the series. This is based on a true story that is very disturbing in concept. Here’s what happened (I guess, spoilers):
“It’s been a decade since it was revealed that the Australian wellness entrepreneur Belle Gibson, who billed herself on Instagram as a “Gamechanger with brain cancer + food obsession” did not have a malignant brain tumor after all. In 2017, Gibson was convicted of misleading and deceptive conduct, and the Federal Court of Australia ordered her to pay a fine of about $400,000 (Australian) or $322,000 (U.S.). Her cookbook The Whole Pantry was pulled from circulation.”
Dever plays Gibson and the story is based on a non-fiction book about the whole thing, The Woman Who Fooled The World: The True Story of Fake Wellness Guru Belle Gibson, written by journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano. A central point here was that Gibson said she was treating her non-existent cancer with healthy meals and alternative medicine (one solution being apple cider vinegar) which led to her amassing her influencer empire. And again, it was all a lie.
The story would still have particular relevance in 2025 here, as we are not exactly out of the era of influencers peddling sub-par products, albeit I can’t remember anyone actually faking cancer as of late. And in terms of “alternative medicine,” that has always been around, and now we have a distrust of the medical establishment in terms of the “harms” of vaccines in particular despite all evidence to the contrary.
Dever was unbelievable in Unbelievable, also on Netflix, where she plays a rape victim, which is also based on a true story. And I look forward to seeing her in The Last of Us season 2 where she will play the co-lead of the story and a foil to Bella Ramsey’s Ellie. That’s out this April.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
