in English Clickbait, this is the title of the eight-episode series created by Tony Ayres and Christian White, recently released by Netflix. The principle is extremely violent: the video is broadcast showing Nick Brewer, played by Adrien Grenier, tied to a chair, and forced to present two signs written by himself: “I am an abuser of women” and “J I killed a woman. The message being that the kidnapped abuser will be executed when the video reaches 5 million views. As soon as it is posted online, the video circulates at the speed of flaming gunpowder, each Internet user thus participating in a sort of electronic vote in favor of the supreme punishment. Is it democratic? The question is not the central subject of the series. There are other emergencies, notably the effect that this video has on the family of Nick Brewer, a good physical education teacher in all respects, father of three children, respected by all in his work. He’s a bit at odds with his little sister, but what family has no problems, I ask you. The other emergency is police: how to find the bastard or bastards who kidnapped and threatened with death this good Nick who we say must have done something unclear.
Intuition confirmed by a succession of revelations which keep us in suspense during the first four episodes ending, as it should, with a twist of theater which makes you want to take another dose. I haven’t watched the last four yet, although I’m dying to, but I want to remain sincere in this biased and partial account and not spoil this little marvel of psychological-police atrocities.
Clickbait is a bit of the fiction of Sonia Kronlund’s no less wonderful documentary, The Man of a Thousand Faces, which I spoke to you about here two weeks ago. We could also establish a detailed picture of what differentiates reality from fiction. If a documentary can be considered “reality”. Indeed, the Ricardo of Sonia Kronlund and the Nick of Clickbait are both genius liars who manage to mystify strangely gullible women. Ideal husband, perfect lover, irreproachable father and super cool colleague, they are also in this accumulation of social clichés which we are surprised that has not tipped off their victims.
In a way, Sonia Kronlund and Ricardo’s women were fooled by the same smoke and mirrors that the screenwriters use to seduce the spectators.
In Clickbait, the detective has a personal interest in this case, and it’s not just because he had a relationship with Nick Brewer’s sister. In the same way, Sonia Kronlund told us at the start of her film that she herself had been fooled by mythomaniacs. It is therefore a settling of scores that the journalist of the documentary and the inspector of the fiction carry out. More subtle and downright subliminal, the viewer cannot ignore that Adrien Grenier, the interpreter of Nick Brewer, is not only the star of the cult series Surroundings. This ex-future John Travolta was also, in his heyday, a collector of romantic adventures with celebrities like Paris Hilton. Thus, from the first appearance of the “I am an abuser” card, the barrier that separated fiction from reality explodes.
Finally, I won’t tell you if Nick Brewer’s kidnappers carry out their threat once the 5 million clicks mark has been crossed. No more than Sonia Kronlund tells us what happened to her Ricardo with a Thousand Faces after the documentary was broadcast. Fiction, reality, every time I follow the trail of a difference, I come across a similarity. The most annoying thing is that the opposite is just as true.
Christophe Donner, writer.
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