In the last few years, there’s been a huge appetite for true-crime dramas centered on real people who have committed high-profile crimes, from con artists to manipulative predators. Series like The Dropout, which earned Amanda Seyfried an Emmy for her chilling portrayal of Elizabeth Holmes, or Elle Fanning’s haunting turn in The Girl From Plainville, have shown how powerful these character-driven stories can be when they lean into psychological complexity rather than sensationalism. The strongest shows in the genre peel back the public-facing narrative and explore the hidden human cost by dramatizing the people affected in ways that news coverage or social media rarely fully capture.
But one series released this year didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved, despite exploring one of the most unsettling stories in recent memory and featuring a remarkable performance at its center. Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar, based on the 2017 book The Woman Who Fooled the World, follows wellness influencer Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever)as she builds an empire on the lie that she has terminal cancer and cured herself through alternative medicine. Instead of turning Gibson’s scam into a straightforward biopic, the series digs into the real-world consequences of her deception, and the people who were harmed by believing her. It’s exactly the kind of character-driven, psychologically rich true-crime drama audiences have embraced, but after its buzzy debut, it’s quietly slipped out of the larger cultural conversation.
What Is Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ About?
Over the course of six episodes, Apple Cider Vinegar moves between timelines surrounding Belle Gibson’s rise and unraveling, showing how a lie can metastasize into a global phenomenon. Kaitlyn Deverdelivers a truly incredible performance, capturing both the magnetic persona Gibson projected publicly and the moments of private vulnerability she hid from the world. The goal isn’t to make Belle sympathetic, but to paint a fuller, more unsettling portrait of who she was and how she constructed the persona that millions believed.
Like other true-crime dramas, the series recreates the highly publicized moments like her media interviews, book launches, and the height of Gibson’s fame, but it also dives into the behind-the-scenes chaos, from her spiraling deceptions to the fractures in her personal life. Writer Samantha Strauss and her team consciously resist portraying Belle as a relatable antihero. Instead, they widen the lens to show the emotional fallout for the people who trusted her, followed her pseudoscientific advice and ultimately put themselves or their loved ones in danger.
‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ premieres February 6 on Netflix.
The show’s most effective angle comes through a fictionalized counterpart, Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey), a young woman actually battling cancer whose life becomes entangled with Belle’s rise. Milla is, in many ways, the emotional heart of the story, grounding the narrative in the very real harm inflicted on vulnerable people searching for hope. Aisha Dee adds further tension as Chanelle, Milla’s friend and Belle’s assistant, torn between loyalty and denial of what’s actually happening. Through these characters, the series explores how the allure of wellness culture took hold and how misinformation spread quickly in an online world shaped by curated images and performative authenticity, all of which only sharpens the impact of Kaitlyn Dever’s unsettling performance at the center of it.
Kaitlyn Dever Once Again Proves She’s One of Her Generation’s Best Actors
One of the hardest things to accomplish in a series like this is getting the audience to connect with the character at the center. Viewers often come in with preconceived notions about the real person, and it’s especially difficult to portray someone with such a widely documented public presence, especially when that person has been publicly labeled as a sociopath or a scamming con artist. Yet Kaitlyn Dever delivers an extraordinary performance. She not only nails Belle’s Australian accent with ease, but plays her with a careful blend of charm, vulnerability, and unnerving calculation.
Dever has long been recognized as one of her generation’s most quietly powerful talents, shifting effortlessly between drama and comedy, but Apple Cider Vinegar presents a uniquely demanding challenge. She has already shown remarkable emotional range across genres, from her Emmy-nominated performance in Dopesick, where she embodied the human cost of addiction, to her devastating work in HBO’s The Last of Us as Abby. She brings a grounded honesty to every role, even in the bleakest circumstances. That same skill is what makes her portrayal of Belle so haunting. Dever never leans into caricature or tries to overly explain Belle’s motivations, and she never lets the audience feel entirely secure in understanding her. That ambiguity is what makes the performance so effective.
If Apple Cider Vinegar flew under the radar after its initial release, Dever’s performance is the reason it deserves a second life. She elevates every scene, transforming the miniseries into an intimate and deeply unsettling character study that stays with you long after the finale. It’s the kind of work that reinforces her status as one of the most versatile and compelling actors of her generation, and it’s easily one of the standout performances of the year.
Apple Cider Vinegar may not have had the staying power of other true-crime dramas this year, but it’s absolutely worth a watch. Between its emotional storytelling, sharp writing, and standout performances, it stands as a strong and surprisingly nuanced entry in the genre. Whether you think you already know the real story or have firm opinions about Belle Gibson, the series is worth your time for the way it interweaves timelines, storylines, and unpacks the truths that eventually surfaced and shows how her victims reclaimed their own.
All six episodes of Apple Cider Vinegar are available to stream on Netflix.
- Release Date
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2025 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Jeffrey Walker
- Writers
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Samantha Strauss
