When this came out there was an 80% increase in calls to a male sexual abuse hotline and 53% mentioned the show as to why they came forward. As uncomfortable as this episode was, the awareness it brought is so important. 👏🏻
I’ve never seen a show demonstrate how grooming works better than this episode does. Darrien builds Donny up, promises to help him, ghosts him, then comes back, making more promises and getting Donny hooked on drugs and used to being incapacitated around him, so he can take advantage of him. In the script, he even apologizes every time and promises not to do again, and tells Donny not to tell anybody how they “work.” Of course, it’s accurate because it’s based on what really happened to Richard Gadd.
