ABC News docuseries stick to the script

While there have been many screenplayed adaptations of podcasts with genuine crime such as “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist” and “Dirty John”, far fewer have been transformed into documents. But after the huge success of the sound series “Scamanda”, ABC News Studios and Pilgrim Media Group have joined forces to put the story on the small screen.

The host of the podcast’s creator, Charlie Webster, “Scamanda”, centers on Amanda Riley, a wife and mother who falsified cancer for financial gain. The podcast was released in May 2023 and became viral, after which ABC News collaborated with webster and investigative manufacturer Nancy Mosciatello for this four -tent series to breathe new life into the disturbing history. Most of the information presented will be repeated to listeners of the podcast, but newcomers are likely to be mentioned by this truncated summary with its accompanying visual elements.

“Scamanda” opens with “Step 1: Who is afraid of Amanda Riley?” Which essentially re -develop the early episodes of the podcast and set the stage in one of San Jose, California’s most wealthy areas where Riley lived, worked and scammed all around her. Webster and those who were once close to her, including her former friend Lisa Berry, share what they know about the lively young woman and her older husband, Cory Riley. When Riley was loved in society, it is immediately clear why people gathered around her as she revealed her terminal Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis.

“Scamanda” is a traditionally formatted documents that use reintroductions and interviews. Cory Riley’s first wife, Aletta Bernal, and friends of Family Community Church, where Riley was a member, remember how they first associated with her, how she was originally perceived and what happened when her lies finally caught her. These personal accounts, screens and photos drawn directly from Riley’s popular blog, “My story … our journey”, establishes in and outs in her almost decade long con.

What is most interesting about Riley’s fraud is the psychology of her deception and the privilege that made it possible. As a young, white, healthy Christian woman, she quickly accumulated more than $ 100,000 in funding and endless sympathy. In the third episode, “Step 3: The Judicial Wheel,” Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist, conditions such as actual suffering and Munchausen -syndrome may have been the cause of Riley’s behavior. However, the documents do not dwell on these topics, instead sticking to the script for Webster’s podcast.

Because so much is still unknown about Riley’s background and the documentary does not include first -hand accounts from her or her family, several questions remain unanswered in the show’s conclusion. Viewers will leave “Scamanda” and wonder what Cory knew exactly how Riley’s forced to be started and why she was fixed on cancer specifically.

Still, podcast listeners will be thrilled to learn the identity of the warning, who first reached out to producer Mosciatello with their suspicion. In addition, they add constant close-ups of Riley’s face, especially from a 2015 interview where she discusses her diagnosis and faith, as well as emails and lyrics between Riley and her victims, another creepy layer to the narrative. These revelations are a reminder that certain people in our society because of their race, socio -economic background or even perceived attractiveness will immediately be labeled as sympathetic victims. Riley attracted empathy and cash due to inherent societal bias. Although the series offers a brief update on where she is today, it mostly brushes it over these themes. To dig deeper into the mental motifs behind Riley’s actions, her upbringing and the emotional effect of the long con would have hit a more gripping and lasting note.

“Scamanda” premieres January 30 at ABC, with new episodes that fall weekly on Thursdays.