Wild Wild Country

★★★★☆

This six part Netflix docu-series is set in the 1980’s in the USA where an Eastern philosophy clashes with middle America. However, what is actually revealed is stranger and much darker than you may imagine.

Rajneesh followers were known for their
unconventional practices

Beginning in India, the Rajneesh movement of orange clothed followers (named after their leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, aka ‘Osho’) purchased a large area of rural Oregon to build a ‘utopia’ and establish themselves as a township. Political war soon followed as the local residents of the nearby small town battle to retain the identity of the area as more people were abandoning their homes and businesses to the Rajneesh.

However, the politics within the movement itself is what will actually dumbfound you. Showing how easily the mind can manipulate – and be manipulated – this series explores the internal conflicts of the group and how their ostensible plan for ‘utopia’ was far removed from their reality of fraud, guns, even murder.

Members of Rajneesh movement with guns

What also makes this documentary series so watchable is the plethora of hours of archival footage showing the leader Rajneesh, the hold he has on his followers and the actions of Sheela, his personal assistant who was capable of much more than her job description. This series contains numerous twists and turns, but shows the power a man of little words was able to summon – in the form of thousands of devotees.

Osho

While it is made well, the wealth of archival footage was maybe too tempting for the makers, as a feature length, or perhaps three part series would really have sufficed. Either that or a further exploration into Rajneesh's own history would have really been needed. With that in mind however, it still deserves a four star rating for in depth coverage of a story that had largely been left in the ‘80s.

Watch the trailer here: