I first started watching this because they had an episode about Bitcoin and I wanted to see if it was explained in a simplistic manor so that when people ask "how does crypto work" i can direct them to an episode of something that can save me some time. However, while the episode was informative it was filled with scaremongering and half-truths that kind of takes away from any sort of credibility that I could possibly assign this series.
Now the series doesn't just talk about crypto, this is merely one episode of it but this was one of only two episodes I bothered to watch (I watched another one about "why women are paid less" and that one was filled with the usual half-truths that this topic inspires.) Both of these episodes did focus on some level of unbiased facts but for a lot of it there were the usual pundits who were presenting what "they believe to be true" rather than just presenting the facts and letting the viewers decide for themselves.
When the credits rolled I saw that it was produced by VOX and it all became clear to me. I don't know if you know anything about VOX, but they are at the forefront of providing viewers of a particular political lean with stories that suits their already existing beliefs. The show reinforces their beliefst by presenting only the part of the picture that helps them to continue feeling that way. This is definitely the case with the gender wage gap myth that I can't believe people are still talking about.
When they were talking about BTC they kind of glanced over how wonderful blockchain is as opposed to a central verification system and then talked for ages about how "almost all bitcoin transactions are for illegal drugs and guns" and how the system is only capable of performing "7 transactions per second".... huh?
They also focused on major hacks of exchanges and wallets and also on how badly it crashed in early 2018 and then featured a few stories about people that lost tons of money by losing their keys on discarded drives. This was purely propaganda and was definitely created to keep people stupid and afraid. But now that I know it was made by VOX, this is not at all surprising.
I feel as though this show all but embodies everything that is wrong with major news networks in the world today and now it is infiltrating Netflix to inspire people to remain biased while only knowing a part of the story. It would be like a special produced by Breitbart showcasing U.S. military occupation overseas - I don't even need to watch it to know what the conclusion is going to be.
In the age of misinformation and heightened outrage by people who are completely unwilling to investigate a topic on their own despite having all the world's knowledge accessible from something that fits into their pockets, shows like this simply piss me off. I almost want to create a new category called GTFOH for this one. Is it really just impossible for organizations like this one to be honest, i mean, just for a little while? Is it really not possible to just present us with information rather than needing to convince your audience to behave a certain way?
On a scale of "Urgh!" to "Wowsers!" I give Explained the well-deserved shameful rating of....
I don't hand out "Urgh!'s very often. I have only ever awarded this to this show, one other one, and of course most anything that has Amy Schumer in it