Devotion: Obedience Or Betrayal is a three-part docuseries, directed by Nicole Rittenmeyer, that examines the religious community known as Gloriavale, interviewing both current members and members who have left the community. Rittenmeyer and her crew have been given access to the community that hasn’t been seen in decades, as the community at Gloriavale struggles to overcome accusations that they are a cult with members who have sexually assaulted children.
Opening Shot: A view of a remote compound nestled among the mountains of New Zealand’s South Island.
The Gist: Gloriavale is a Christian sect that believes in traditional values: The men work, provide for the family, and are the spiritual leaders. Women take care of the family. Sex is only for reproduction, to the point where all the women dress in the same shapeless dress and wear white bonnets. It’s been said that the producers of The Handmaid’s Tale used Gloriavale as a model to design the costumes of the handmaids in Gilead.
Among the “Gloriavale Leavers” interviewed is Phil Cooper, a son of the community’s founder, Neville Cooper (who renamed himself “Hopeful Christian”; the names of many in the community read like two-word sentences). In 1991, Phil Cooper, who never really agreed with the philosophies of his preacher father, literally abducted his wife and five children and took them out of Gloriavale; his kidnapping of his wife was captured by TV news cameras.
Many current members — including many who entered the community in the 1970s and ’80s instead of being born into the community — are also interviewed. They not only talk about why they were attracted to the simpilicity and community aspects of Gloriavale, but about how the people in the community that did get convicted of sexual assault are anomalies instead of the norm.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Devotion: Obedience Or Betrayal is similar to the recent docuseries Trust Me: The False Prophet.
Our Take: Rittenmeyer tries to find a balance in Devotion: Obedience Or Betrayal that doesn’t often happen in docuseries about religious communities like Gloriavale. When she interviews current memebers of the community, she’s not leading them to showing anything but devotion to that community, the reasons why they joined and stayed, and some of the anger that they have with the protesters and others who atre trying to bring the community to its knees.
But she also doesn’t shy away from the fact that the people who have been convicted of sexual assault are its founder, Neville Cooper, and Howard Temple, the man who succeeded him after his death in 2018. Interviews with former members that aren’t Phil Cooper show how conflicted they were about leaving the community, with Lilia Tawara’s remark that she still wishes she could hear Neville Cooper preach being one of the more telling remarks.
As it follows the story about the scandals involving Neville Cooper and Howard Temple, it’ll be interesting to see if that idea of balance continues throughout the series. There certainly seems to be a sincere attempt at separating the community at large from the actions of its former leaders, and that the protests and scandals threaten to end this way of life that may seem strange to most, but has been a source of faith and peace for the people within it.
Performance Worth Watching: Phil Cooper is the most fascinating figure here because he clashed with his father’s philosophies from day one and took extreme measures to remove himself and his family from Gloriavale.
Sex And Skin: None.
Parting Shot: News footage of the 1995 raid of the Gloriavale community, after accusations that Neville Cooper sexually assaulted a young woman.
Most Pilot-y Line: We needed to see a graphic family tree to see who was related to whom in the community — at the very least, to clarify whose daguthers and sons were whose.
Our Call: STREAM IT. We appreciated the balance and restraint used by the filmmakers of Devotion: Obedience Or Betrayal, who didn’t lean on cliches about cults to tell the story of Gloriavale.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
