On Demand Weekly

Media savant T Tara Turk goes deep inside cable TV to reveal Video On Demand's Hidden Gems so even the busiest of our readers can get the most out of On Demand TV. Tell Tara what VOD shows you think deserves her attention.

NatGeo Channel (VOD Hidden Gem)

By T. Tara Turk

My very first memory of watching television aside from Looney Toons and Mighty Mouse goes straight to my addiction for the Leonard Nimoy hosted “In Search Of...” If you weren’t born yet or your parents had you outside, you know, playing, “In Search Of...” was a great show about the mysteries of, well, everything. That was the beauty of it.

A few episodes still stick with me and one of them was the story of cult leader Jim Jones who famously took a bunch of his church followers to Guyana to leave “in peace” if living in peace means stealing life savings, sexually assaulting female churchgoers, mind control and, finally, drinking poison punch. My mother couldn’t get me to drink Kool-Aid ever again after that.

Though “In Search Of...” is gone, it seems like NatGeo is taking over its quest “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before” (I couldn’t resist the Star Trek bit...sorry). While major US problems like the economy, racism, health care and the like make headlines, certain aspects of the changing American culture seem to be often ignored. I’m talking cults, changing religious views and how we as Americans are growing up with a more global impact daily.

With that “I Escaped A Cult” on NatGeo has picked up right where my Kool-Aid fear has left off. The show is much like it’s “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” series but this time it explores people who have managed to escaped cults. You’re probably wondering, like me, if these things still exist but they indeed are still around and doing just as much damage.