Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Jun 8, 2022
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7

Critic Reviews

  1. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Kristen Baldwin
    Jun 7, 2022
    91
    Though the four-part series from director Rachel Dretzin is extremely hard to watch at times, the first-hand accounts from survivors are nothing short of awe-inspiring.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Jun 7, 2022
    88
    Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director Rachel Dretzin has crafted a masterful, engrossing and at times chilling series that plays out like a real-life horror movie; even the eerily effective score sounds like something out of Blumhouse Productions.
  3. Decider
    Reviewed by: Joel Keller
    Jun 8, 2022
    80
    Drestzin has done her job. ... If you want insight into a closed society that is only known via blaring headlines, then watch Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey. Just be ready for a narrative that will make you uncomfortable and angry at the same time.
  5. The Daily Beast
    Reviewed by: Nick Schager
    Jun 7, 2022
    80
    Dretzin’s series functions as a celebration of the strength and self-confidence necessary to achieve genuine liberation. ... The likelihood of this series changing hearts and minds is probably scant. Nonetheless, at its best, it plays like an exposé designed less for viewers who would never find themselves in these circumstances than for those whose eyes have yet to be fully opened.
  6. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Bob Strauss
    Jun 7, 2022
    75
    At a time when American women’s rights are threatened by a wider array of religion-based forces, though, this straightforward document of how extreme it can get looks pretty necessary.
  7. RogerEbert.com
    Reviewed by: Nick Allen
    Jun 9, 2022
    63
    There’s a noble effort here in collecting their stories. But because it traffics so heavily in trauma from start to finish, often involving child sexual abuse, treating this saga mostly as a shocking play-by-play with a reptilian boogeyman at the center feels a little cheap. Something about "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" just doesn't sit quite right.
  8. CNN
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    Jul 11, 2022
    60
    "Keep Sweet" is occasionally guilty of veering too far into the weeds of individual stories and engages in some sleazy flourishes -- like adding graphics to make Jeffs' eyes appear snake-like when someone refers to them as such -- that don't belong in a serious documentary. ... "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" ultimately owes its strength to those who didn't obey and possessed the courage to break free, as well as outsiders working to expose what was happening.

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Best TV Season of 2022

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. Burgundi
    Jan 5, 2023
    0
    Horrific, yes, but insufficient at best. If someone wants to learn about you, should they get their information from your ex? Would you trustHorrific, yes, but insufficient at best. If someone wants to learn about you, should they get their information from your ex? Would you trust your ex to be fair to you? And if not, would you still trust Ex-FLDS to be fair? Every religion has people who become disaffected and withdraw and even bad-mouth it. While the stories of Ex-FLDS are indeed heartbreaking, we cannot accept them as the full story, nor as a fair representation of the FLDS culture itself. Most people do not know FLDS personally, and Ex-FLDS "witnesses" know this. Could they be exploiting it?… Full Review »
  2. geewah
    Jun 16, 2022
    6
    While the subject matter is disturbing and worthy of a documentary, the makers here have somehow made this bloated and rather mundane.
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