‘This gives tindler swindler’: A new Netflix series teases a unique and eerily relevant true crime tale

Netflix‘s true crime category just keeps growing, and while the discussion about Baby Reindeer‘s “true story” label goes on, there’s an upcoming series that is also attention-grabbing.

Apple Cider Vinegar is a limited series about Belle Gibson, a woman in Australia who pretended she healed her fake cancer with holistic remedies and healthy living. As The Hollywood Reporter explained, Kaitlyn Dever stars in the main role, but the story is also about three other women who are affected by Dever’s character’s plot. There’s influencer Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey) who has sarcoma, cancer patient Lucy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) who becomes a fan of Gibson, and a pal of Milla’s who wonders about the truth about Gibson.

People were immediately drawn to this idea because, well, can you get a more compelling premise? One person posted on X, “This gives Tindler Swindler.”

Others posted on X that Apple Cider Vinegar is true to life, with one commenting, “reflects today’s obsession/addiction with social media engagement.” Another wrote, “if it’s as wild as my Google search history after one wellness trend, I’m IN.”

Gibson became famous in 2013 when she began sharing that eating healthy was helping her cancer, and people paid her for her advice through The Whole Pantry App. By 2015, it was clear she made up the entire story, and she had to pay 410,000 Australian. She told The Australian Women’s Weekly, “None of it’s true” after police looked into what was really going on.

The ever-growing popularity of true crime stories means it’s never a surprise when a streaming platform gets in on the genre. But Apple Cider Vinegar is perfect for this current time… and that’s what makes it so scary and important. The problematic nature of wellness influencers might have been bad during the COVID-19 pandemic when they shared so-called facts online that were wrong. In the years since, some influencers have continued to discuss their anti-vaccine beliefs on their platforms, along with their desire to never eat food dyes or junk food (and never give their kids those ingredients, either).

Now we’ve arrived at the real crux of the issue: RFK Jr. and the “Make America Healthy Again” crusade. Or disaster? The Health and Human Services secretary loves raw milk, which is of course incredibly unsafe. Countless influencers promote this, even going so far as to say that kids should drink it, which is terrifying. The FDA explains that since there is no pasteurization, which gets rid of bacteria, people can get sick or even die from drinking raw milk. Of course, here’s another problem: RFK Jr. and his followers aren’t big fans of the FDA. As RFK Jr. posted on X in Oct. 2024, “The FDA’s war on public health is about to end.”

Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar brings up a significant point: if you have thousands or even millions of social media followers and promote a “healthy” practice that is actually unhealthy and causes someone harm, is that a crime? Can someone be accused of fraud? Since Gibson lied and made money, it was considered an open-and-shut kind of case. Sadly, as long as people can make money from sharing so-called information with their many social media followers, the issues at the heart of Apple Cider Vinegar are going to continue. But at least this Netflix limited series is raising awareness… and, judging from the trailer, doing so in a stylish way. It will premiere sometime in 2025.