The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult? (2024)

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The Synanon Fix: Did the Cure Become a Cult?

20241 Season60m episodes6.8

Documentary

TMDB6.8

Votes11

Your rating

Runtime: 60m episodes
Genre: Documentary
Certificate: TV-MA
Origin: US

About

Explore the rise and fall of the Synanon organization — through the eyes of the members who lived it — from its early days as a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation program to its later descent into what many consider a cult.

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HBO Max Amazon Channel

HBO Max

Availability from JustWatch via TMDB.

Details

Director: Rory Kennedy
Status: Ended
First aired: Apr 1, 2024
Network: HBO
Studio: Moxie Films, HBO Documentary Films

Time to finish

4 hrs

4 episodes. About 1 week at an hour a night.

View on IMDb ↗

Cast

Charles Dederich Sr.

Self

Elena Broslovsky

Self

Jady Dederich Montgomery

Self

Phil Ritter

Self

Bill Goodson

Self

Miriam Bourdette

Self

Phil Bourdette

Self

Bettye Coleman

Self

SERIES

20241 Season60m episodes6.8

Documentary

TMDB6.8

Votes11

Your rating

Runtime: 60m episodes
Genre: Documentary
Certificate: TV-MA
Origin: US

About

Where to watch

Region

Stream

HBO Max Amazon Channel

HBO Max

Availability from JustWatch via TMDB.

Episodes

0 of 0 watched

E1 · Airs Apr 1, 2024 · 1h 1m · ★ 10.0
Here Come the Dopefiends
Recovering alcoholic Chuck Dederich opens a storefront drug rehabilitation program that gains a following through its confrontational talk-therapy approach. As the program attracts non-addicts and celebrity followers, Synanon grows into a social movement that rapidly expands across the country.
E2 · Airs Apr 8, 2024 · 1h 1m
A War on Convention
By the 1970s, Synanon boasts its own farm, a school, and multiple businesses, but Chuck’s utopian vision begins to crack. As members face more extreme edicts, including mandates to quit smoking, separate from their children, and shave their heads – many find themselves weighing the benefits and costs of the choices they’re forced to make.
E3 · Airs Apr 15, 2024
What in the Hell is Happening?
Chuck’s behavior becomes more belligerent and abusive. He forms a military-like boot camp for delinquent children where corporal punishment abounds. He mandates vasectomies and abortions and, when his wife dies, he quickly remarries and decrees that all current relationships must end so that everyone can find new partners. Many members divorce and remarry, which some of them later regret. TIME Magazine publishes “Swinging at Synanon” and Chuck sues for $76 million as his paranoia grows.
E4 · Airs Apr 22, 2024
Strap Yourself to the Mast
In 1977, the Los Angeles Times reports on the nine-day abduction of Frances Winn by Synanon. Lawyer Paul Morantz wins a settlement case in her favor. With media focus heating up, Chuck spends $62,000 on guns and ammunition, at the time the largest single firearms purchase in California history. Soon thereafter, he allegedly orchestrates an attempt on Morantz’s life. He is sentenced to five years probation. Drinking again and diagnosed with mental illness, Chuck loses everything and dies in a nursing home, leaving a troubled legacy as a creative, but unchecked genius. Many adherents are left to piece together their lives in the aftermath without Synanon.

Details

Director: Rory Kennedy
Status: Ended
First aired: Apr 1, 2024
Network: HBO
Studio: Moxie Films, HBO Documentary Films

Time to finish

4 hrs

4 episodes. About 1 week at an hour a night.

View on IMDb ↗

Cast

Charles Dederich Sr.

Self

Elena Broslovsky

Self

Jady Dederich Montgomery

Self

Phil Ritter

Self

Bill Goodson

Self

Miriam Bourdette

Self

Phil Bourdette

Self

Bettye Coleman

Self

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