Credit: Netflix

Doesn’t Trust Me: The False Prophet sound like something you have seen before? Like a story involving another cult leader, you know, the same pattern. But this Netflix documentary doesn’t play out like that.

When you start watching Trust Me, it won’t immediately feel like a loud true-crime show. This one builds slowly. It is set in Short Creek, Utah, after everything that went down with Warren Jeffs, and for a minute there, it makes you think that this show is about rebuilding everything. But nah… the deeper you go, the more you realise nothing really ended… it just changed paths.

And then, before you realise, a new name starts popping up. You have a new man in town named Samuel Bateman, and something about him is fishy. You can tell right away this guy isn’t just filling a space; instead, he is stepping in as he owns it. This guy is calling himself the next prophet and all that, and people are actually buying into it for crying out loud. Kudos to Netflix for layered storytelling here because giving it all away at once would’ve killed the thrill. And before you know, it is happening again.

Now, right in the middle of all this, you’ve got Christine Marie and Tolga Katas, and they didn’t think they were just helping out a community, but the longer they stay, the more things start feeling off. Their instincts start telling them that something is not right here.

And instead of dipping out, they decide to go all the way in, because they start building trust and playing it smart. They knew what they were walking into, and they did it regardless, knowing that one wrong move and the whole thing could blow up in their faces. You can literally feel that pressure through the Netflix footage.

And then the footage itself? Because this is raw, real video from inside that world, you witness the conversations that feel like you weren’t supposed to hear, and the more you watch, the more you see how deep the control runs. As they get closer, things start opening up. They see women being controlled, and choices are being taken away.

And then come the women who decide to speak up, because you can tell this isn’t easy; this is real risk. When they start talking about what they have been through, you realise how much pressure they have been under.

What makes Bateman even more uneasy to face is that he is not out here yelling but building control through belief. It makes you think how easy it is to control some people. He made a lot of people feel like questioning him is basically stepping out of line with something bigger, and Netflix’s portrayal of all of this is beyond discomfort.

By the time it all comes together, you are hooked and thinking about how all of this was going on behind closed doors and how far Christine and Tolga had to go to bring it out. Netflix really outdid itself this time.