Review: Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ proves to be an enjoyable watch

***Caution. Spoilers ahead***

We’ve seen programs about phonies before. I thoroughly enjoyed 2023’s “Inventing Anna,” where “Ozark’s” Julia Garner played a woman pretending to be a rich European socialite trying to make it in New York City.

But in this one, “Dopesick” and “Booksmart’s” Kaitlyn Dever plays Belle Gibson, an Australian woman trying to break out of her working-class past to get ahead (Compliments to Dever, an American, on her accent game). In so doing, she finally discovers a way she can make her mark: as a social media influencer. I’ve watched the first three of six total episodes for this recap.

We first meet Belle in 2015 sitting for an interview with a crisis communications consultant in Santa Monica, California. The consultant, a guy named Hek, is skeptical of Belle as she’s facing some serious allegations of fraud. The show isn’t specific about everything yet, but they do let us know that she’s been accused of faking that she had survived a brain tumor through diet, exercise, and alternative medicine. She built a powerful social media following and wrote a best-selling healthy cookbook.

What the show hasn’t informed us so far, is that the charges against her went on to include that she faked multiple heart surgeries and claims of strokes. She also told the public that she’d donated more than $300,000 to charities, when in reality that money was used to live a lavish lifestyle. Charges were finally brought against her in 2016 by Consumer Affairs Victoria, and she was convicted. Hey, it’s no spoiler when you begin a program knowing a major outcome.

Early on in Episode One, we’re also introduced to the fictional Lucy Guthrie, a waitress who follows Belle’s social media. She’s very excited to find Belle and a real-life woman named Chanelle McAuliffe (“The Bold Type’s” Aisha Dee) at one of her tables, and she serves them lunch and chats with Belle. Chanelle is taking notes from Belle for what will become some campaign or perhaps her cookbook.

Lucy contracts cancer and goes about traditional treatment at the urging of her journalist husband, Justin, and under the care of an unempathetic, hard-ass oncologist Dr. Chidiac. But she continues an interest in Belle’s healthy diet advice and attending some of her public events.

The show includes a revealing scene where Belle, a young mom at 18, posts to a health or mom’s chat board some good news about her pregnancy. The validating responses she receives become a drug-like high for her, and the viewers see that the approval of others is what she craves most.

Belle begins following a young woman named Milla Blake, a fictional character based on a woman named Jessica Ainscough, who at just 22 is diagnosed with Epithelioid Sarcoma, or visible tumors in her left arm. Her very serious, no-nonsense oncologist Dr. Xiu recommends amputation as the only sure means to prevent the cancer from spreading. Her father is inclined to agree, but her mother becomes an advocate for Milla’s uncertain resistance to losing a limb at such a young age.

Milla hits the internet to research alternative approaches to this brand of cancer and tells her now team of doctors she’s discovered something called “Mistletoe Therapy,” where a liquid form of the toxic weed is injected into each tumor, killing it. They consider it quackery, but Dr. Xiu reluctantly agrees to a treatment that shoots extraordinarily high doses of chemo into each tumor.

That works for a while, but when we see Milla again at a yoga retreat for cancer survivors, she confesses to an acquaintance, Arlo – who later becomes her boyfriend – that the cancer has returned. She continues to depend on alternative therapies, healthy eating, and exercise and writes a best-selling book on nutrition and healing.

Belle starts showing up for Milla’s public appearances and speeches, trying to will her way into her sphere. They become friendly, if not friends, and Belle looks up to Milla as a mentor.

But Chanelle somehow figures out that Belle is a fraud. She finally finds a willing ear in Justin Guthrie’s publication. She has several meetings with Justin and his editor, and it ultimately leads to Belle’s public exposure.

One of the best lines of the show thus far is when Chanelle tries to explain to Lucy, “One thing you have to understand. She doesn’t have friends. She has hosts.” Belle is indeed a parasite that’s always used others for personal gain.

I’m enjoying the series, particularly given I didn’t know of this now decade-old news story at the time. I’m looking forward with some trepidation to learning of Lucy’s eventual fate, even if she is fictional. I looked up the fate of Ainscough, but shall not reveal!

And that’s what Todd’s watching.