Stream It Or Skip It?

Scamanda is a 4-part docuseries, based on the popular podcast of the same name, that details the intricate lies that Amber C. Riley told people about her health in the 2010s and how she finally got caught. Riley, who lived with her husband Cory, his daughter and their young kids in the San Francisco area, wrote about her cancer journey in a popular blog and spoke about it at a megachurch her family belonged to. But during that journey, she also had two healthy children. That didn’t keep people from supporting her, both emotionally and monetarily, to the tune of over $100,000.

SCAMANDA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of a phone displaying the Scamanda podcast. Charlie Webster, the podcast’s executive producer, says, “What you’re about to hear is a true story.”

The Gist: Webster is among the people interviewed for the series; also interviewed is Nancy Moscatiello, an investigative journalist who was tipped off to the fact that Riley was almost definitely faking her illness.

Among the friends who were interviewed are Lisa and Steven Berry, who became friends with the Rileys shortly before the young couple married in 2011. At some point during that time, Amanda told Lisa that she had gotten a cancer diagnosis. Years later, after breaking off their friendship over borrowed money and a sense that Amanda was faking her illness, Lisa is sent a link to Amanda’s blog, where she mentioned getting diagnosed for the first time.

We also hear from members of Amanda’s megachurch. Amanda was popular and participated in many of the community’s initiatives, and during one of her illness periods, the couple also garnered a ton of money when the pastor presiding over a service brought them to the stage and asked the thousand or so parishioners attending to put any amount of cash they could spare at their feet.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Scamanda has a similar story to Peacock’s Anatomy Of Lies. Scamanda‘s original air date was in October, about the same time Anatomy Of Lies came out; we wonder if Disney delayed this one to give it distance from the Peacock series.

Our Take: What we liked about Scamanda, both when we watched it in October and this month, is that it gets to the crux of the issue pretty quickly. Yes, we spend a lot of the first episode hearing about Amanda and her family, about how well-liked she was in her church and community and how much of an outpouring of support there was when she blogged about her cancer journey. But the filmmakers, likely with the help of Webster and Moscatiello, both of which are EPs of the series, sow suspicion within that narrative, mostly through the participation of Lisa Berry.

It’s not a huge spoiler to say that Berry was the person who tipped of Moscatiello, though this is the first time she’s identifying herself. The way she plays out her interactions with Amanda, all taking place before she started her cancer blog, told us that she knew something that the readers of her blog, or even the members of her church, didn’t. And it’s interesting that the things she observed that finally gave her pause are just things that anyone who has a healthy grasp of common sense would notice, like when Amanda told her that her first pregnancy “reversed” the cancer or when she swam right after claiming she had fluid drained from around her brain.

It does seem that Amanda’s lies got more elaborate and sophistiicated a few years later when she wrote her blog and people started soliciting money on her behalf. She’s currently serving a five-year sentence in federal prison on wire fraud chatges, and is set to be released this coming December, and it’ll be interesting to watch her lies get revealed, how she defended herself, and what if anything her husband Cory had to do with the scheme (he filed for divorce a year ago).

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Lisa Berry says “we would be awful people” if they accused Amanda Riley of faking cancer if she ended up really being sick.

Sleeper Star: We appreciated Lindsey Wilder, a felllow churchgoer who went so far as to donate platelets in honor of Amanda’s cause, because she funnily said “Not to brag, but…” when she said she appeared in a music video produced featuring Amanda and her family.

Most Pilot-y Line: The show is a bit reenactment heavy, though we don’t see any faces.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Scamanda gets to the point of its story quickly, which is always appreciated during true crime docuseries.

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.