Cult Online

This show definitely gets you thinking. It switches between scenes of a TV program and "real" life. For some people that back and forth may make it difficult to follow, but if you pay attention, it's very intriguing. My elderly mother would not be able to follow this show. And if you're jumping up to grab snacks, or tuck in the kids, or answering the phone, etc. you probably won't be able to follow either. You need to pay attention to the show to "get it." Personally, I love it. And I'm extremely sorry that the CW has canceled it. With some of the garbage they have on, I am truly surprised they canceled is great show.

Guys, cult is an amazing show. It makes you think but you don't have to full concentrate. Apparently it is getting canceled and I am so upset because I've only recently started the show but I can say that I am a #truebeliever, I'm obsessed. There are really not many downsides to this TV show but so many positives, there are lines you could say to your friends and they could easily trend on twitter. I recommend Cult to everyone out there even if you are not into thriller dramas. This is the best new show and I honestly say it shouldn't be axed. There are many shows to come for 2013 but if cult continues it will be the most rated show. Give cult a chance. #savecult

This show has a good cast. All of them know what they are doing,even, if at times, we (the audience) may not.

As the lead-in synopsis suggest, this is a show within a show. You are watching a show about a cult that has a strange influence or following on viewers who watch the TV show "Cult", which is the show within the show.

Confused? I was at times watching the first episode but gradually I became acclimated to what was happening. It has me intrigued enough that I will undoubtedly watch another episode to determine if I can get any real enjoyment out of it. If you are into the hoodoo voodoo style of "666 Park Avenue" or the 'what's going to happen next' genre of "Lost", then this might be for you.

The plot is totally unbelievable but the storyline is good and creative so the series will probably be on a long list of future viewings of mine unless it meets an untimely demise as did "666 Park Avenue" which I also enjoyed (and critiqued).

Unfortunately while writing those lines, the ratings of Cult are very low and it's more than possible that the show will be canceled. On the other side, i have to add that judging a quality of show based only by ratings is a big big mistake. But definitely it's a show which you will hate. Or love. CW definitely made a big turn, making such an interesting series in an era of too-many-series-too-many-kinds. CULT is something fresh, something totally different and i can assure you you will be more than surprised. To me the story runs on many different levels. Beside of the main story of a journalist who tries to find his brother while trying to figure out what the fuss is about, the show intrigues you and definitely teases your imagination about discovering and making hypothesis about the background of show. I hope we will stand a chance for a full season at least, if not a 2nd one. As for the techniques specs, if you want a blockbuster, you can always watch The Hobbit. Everything though is on the right place! Just dive in CULT's dark universe and enjoy!;)

At last a series that keeps you on your toes. The first episode was slightly confusing at first but once you start to understand the show within a show format then it grabs your attention. If you have seen Cronenberg's Videodrome you will get the premise. Some elements of the show also reminded me of some of the basic elements of Twin Peaks and Lost too. My only gripe is the production values are needing a bit more polish, but that can be ignored as the story keeps things moving along nicely. It's about time we had an American series that has fantasy,dark humour and thriller aspects within the same show. The show has some real potential too. I'll be watching to see where this show goes.

I'll admit my bias right now: I am a huge fan of Robert Knepper. Since Prison Break, I have tried to find anything with his name in the credits. There's just something about his acting style that pulls you in and makes you forget that you're watching a show. Without looking into the plot line (which is essentially a paradoxical loop: a show within a show attempting to create a cult within a cult among its illusionary audience aka the other characters and its real audience aka us), the show gets high ratings for Robert Knepper's Billy. The way that he turns towards the screen and talks about how everyone is his family draws you towards him as if you were a lost soul needing to belong. Thankfully, he's just an actor and at the end of the day you're not visiting fanboards trying to find out where his compound lies. If you watch this show for one thing, watch it for Robert Knepper's performance!

I never make reviews for show... But I just had to make a review for this show. I LOVE IT! My girlfriend and I watch it every Tuesday on CW and we just keep on wondering what will be on the next weekend. I sure hope it doesn't get cancelled before the 1st season is over... I want to see it all! Love it. 10 out of 10. Very mysterious. Robert Knepper is a great actor. Love him. So is Matthew Davis. As well as Jessica Lucas... The film just makes you wonder what is going to happen next. It's almost as if it sucks you right in just like it sucks the people in that are keeping up to the show.. Not only I give it a 10 out of 10. But my girlfriend gives it a 10 out of 10. I'm the one who told her about it. Now she wants to watch it just as bad as me each week. Keep the episodes coming... No need to cancel this pilot.

This show is great! It is very complicated and very hard to follow, and that's why I like it so much - it's not for everybody. The only thing I'm worried about is that this show is not very popular just because not so big number of people can follow it, and it might be canceled after the first season. I would like it to grow and us fans can help it grow by spreading a good word about it. My only message to future "True Believers" is: if you like complicated stories and you're getting bored of other shows full of romance, shows where two people can't be together even if they try so hard, etc. this show is what you're looking for.

Cult was a solid conspiracy show, which had the potential to be great. It could be great in all manners. But instead of taking the risk and create a mystic dark humored allegory about TV, Fandom and hysteria during a time where nobody can imagine where all those artificially created hypes are socially and emotionally leading people to, instead of trying to follow the potential the show's own initial plot could lead itself to, the creators decided to let the wave of the show's first arrival fade out very unspectacular.

In fact, Cult could have been so much groundbreaking, controversial, intelligent and funny in a very dark way, that it is a real shame, and also a bit unbelievable, that it truly hadn't any of those advantages at all.

I understand that the creators did try something like that, but had to handle demands for compatibility with a bigger audience. That did not go so well, because the great mystery, in time, doesn't seem that great mystery anyway, and the big conspiracy is not such a big conspiracy that keeps us interested, like in the classic X-files.

With this, the story flows gently from one small anchor point to the next, with never reaching nail-biting levels, and never being surprising, but as a solid standard riddle solving case elongated over 12 episodes, which could have taken four or five to be concluded.

And yes, everything is very serious and any humor that could save the sinking ship is absent.

The two parallel stories of Cult and "Cult in Cult" never snapped, to use a term of Cult itself, and while it is constantly told, that they do snap for the reality of the show, we were not able to believe it, they did not snap for us. We were simply not able to follow all those hidden hints.

So the show, basically imaginative, interesting and promising, drowned more or less, while fresh thought in the beginning, from lack of further imagination and plot development. It seems like the authors had lost interest in their child after they realized that they had taken the wrong path with it, and so did the audience then.

The only continuously bright spot is Robert Kneppers part in the fictional Cult Series. While it doesn't bring the show much further, it is always a fresh breeze. In fact, he is, more ore less, the main actor of both the fictional and the "real" Cult show, and he is very sardonically gifted. For him alone, the show is worth watching.

"Cult" started out with a very interesting, if not completely workable, premise: the blending of the "reality" of a TV show affecting the "reality" of the universe in which that show was being filmed and broadcast. There were even hints of the "reality" of the universe in which the show (also named "Cult") affecting our actual reality in which we were watching the show "Cult". A complex, mind-bending concept and quite interesting.

Unfortunately, somewhat like "The Event" or "Flash Forward", it suffers from a couple of problems that make it virtually impossible to shape a successful series from the concept.

Compare this show's structure to something like "Supernatural" or "Doctor Who". Both have a season long story arc, like many series, but are careful to keep the arc simple (such as stop the end of the world/universe by accomplishing these specific tasks) and then feeding in the accomplishment of those required actions throughout the season. The rest of the time they are able to focus on "monster of the week" or "one off" stories, which allows a viewer the luxury of missing an episode and not feeling completely lost when they return.

"The Event", "Flash Forward" and "Cult" have a single overriding mystery driving the entire concept, set in an environment that does not lend itself to smaller, "one off" mysteries within the overall concept. In the case of "Cult", it's a reporter trying to find his missing brother who somehow got involved in the cult of "Cult". He works on no other stories and is focused entirely on this one, very complex mystery. Which means that if you miss a single episode you are completely lost, emotionally if not merely for information.

And in order to pick up the thread once more, you have to go back to the missed episode to catch up. Sometimes you have to go back a number of episodes and review them to catch the clues that will explain a later part of the series.

And in the case of a generally humor deprived universe (as in "Cult"), with little in the way of sub-plot (as in "Cult"), where the entire focus is a relentless pursuit of the mystery, there's very little but the mystery to keep you interested.

And then it isn't entertainment, it's kind of like work.

So for every viewer who misses an episode, they may very likely decide it's just not worth it to go back, that there isn't enough in each individual show to draw them back in.

That isn't to criticize the quality of the work or the premise itself. It isn't to judge the production in any way. It's just that the story structure isn't suitable to a long running series.

But for some reason producers aren't quite getting that. This should have been a mini-series, not an open ended on-going series. With a fully developed thirteen episode story it might have been brilliant. But having to keep it open ended (so there's more story to shoot episodes of once you get done with all the ones you've planned already), there just isn't enough to hold an audience.

Perhaps that's why certain universes, (hospitals, police or detectives, legal, financial and so on) make for more successful long running TV series. They contain the logical limitless range of "one off" stories that are virtually self-contained and can keep the viewer interested.

"Cult", alas, does not.

Knowing T-bag is in the cast, I had high expectation but that didn't help as i found the story quite unrealistic and overall acting sub-par.

Sound effect to make it more dramatic was quite cheap... anyways, the episode wasn't simply engaging at all. Given it's the first episode, it was way below my expectation..

The main female lead is quite charming and that help but the lack of effort on an overall acting, cheesy use of sound effect, unrealistic theme of the story all made it difficult to watch thru the whole episode.

I expected something like Se7en but unfortunately this new drama struck me more as a teenager drama, unfortunately.

I am now about half way through the first Season ( the final episodes will be available at a later point ) and I have to say it's pretty hard to publish a final Opinion but I want to share my feelings till now. The Series starts off in a very interesting and promising way, leading you into the World of Cult. But for me many of the mystery Elements are to obvious and the complexity this series wants to reach isn't very high to be honest. It provides a very unique presentation of a "film in film" setting, what still keeps me interested to find out about the final vision of the creators, but during this journey some of the twists and turns are too easy to spot. If you are a fan of T-Bag, mystery and enjoy some small twists it's worth a watch. But don't expect the quality of a LOST series.

The lengths to which one should go to avoid this show should not be underestimated. I would rather be buried alive upside down than be subjected to the unending sub-par story line and acting.

Wonder if someone is a bad guy, oh you'll know. They look at you with an evil grimace and immediately kidnap someone to prove it. Every 'clue' is found with unbelievable ease, while flipping through pages of nonsense and the scribbles of a mad man the protagonist, Jeff, stumbles upon every consecutive clue in order in the search for his missing brother.

Everything technical or technology based is unrealistic and leads to such bizarre and preposterous conclusions in the pot-hole filled story line with fragmented dialogue and appalling one liners.

Do not waste your time and watch this drivel. Having said that, I am now watching the second episode, it is so bad it has become a form of entertainment.

I always like to give a new show a chance and was really looking forward to the premier. But I couldn't make it past the second episode. This show is so convoluted and hard to follow. The premise sounded good but it was stupid and confusing. I was really disappointed. I love Matthew Davis and hate that he probably left Vampire Diaries to be a part of this show. I also love Robert Knepper and thought he was great in Heroes. He really pulled that role off wonderfully and added a great dimension to the show. But even with two great actors, they couldn't hold this together for me. I think it failed miserably! I really wanted to like the show and hated that I thought it was bad. I will be very surprised if it makes it to a second season.

Allow me to quote a fellow-reviewer: "...I am a huge fan of Robert Knepper. Since Prison Break, I have tried to find anything with his name in the credits." (kstaylor-829-882972). I "found" "Cult" by pure chance: while going through endless Robert-Knepper-related-videos, I stumbled upon something called "Roger/Kirstie - Do I Wanna Know", and someone in the comments mentioned that it's from a series called "Cult". So, obviously, I started watching it.

I was pleasantly surprised by a few familiar faces. I loved the "show-within-a-show" format. I had a really hard time deciding on the rating because I both love Robert Knepper and both found the whole cult concept to be ridiculous and quite infuriating (cults, religion... I just don't get it). I also found myself thinking that I would rather watch the show-within-the-show, where Billy is the lead character, rather than the "main" show where Jeff is the lead character.

To sum, I'm a bit relieved there's no second season because I would have felt compelled to watch it, but logically it would have been a waste of time. So, I'll just re-watch Prison Break instead.

In the age of streaming, DVRs, and On Demand, networks still aren't getting it! Even the best and most innovative TV show to come along in years isn't going to survive, if you debut it with minimal advertising in the middle of the summer! This is the reason why Cult didn't last and why it isn't currently the top rated show on the CW network.

The wildly creative idea was the brainchild of Farscape's Rockne S. O'Bannon and took nearly a decade to come to television. Cult is a TV show within a TV show, that features a cult, within a cult, I will attempt to explain. The show Cult is centered around a fictitious show called Cult. That fictitious show is centered around an FBI agent (Alona Tal) who lived her whole life in a cult, only to escape and join the FBI, with the hopes of locking up her old family for the abuses she endured. In retaliation, the cult has abducted her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew, who she is attempted to rescue. Back to the "real" Cult, the fans of this fictitious show, claim to see hidden messages in the show, that lead them to commit crimes on behalf of the shows mysterious creator, a man no one has ever met. One such crime is to kidnap Nate Sefton (James Pizzinato), the younger brother of a reporter, Jeff (Matthew Davis). Jeff makes it his mission to investigate these followers of cult, to find his brother, and to figure out what their up to, but he needs help. Jeff recruits Skye Yarrow (Jessica Lucas), a researcher on the show, whose father, was also a reporter, who disappeared fifteen years ago, while attempting to investigate the same man who created this TV show. Every episode is a wild ride into an underworld that has existed for decades, that no one knew anything about, and as always is the case with shows like this, each episode is better than the one before it, as it builds up to an epic conclusion.

This is the kind of show that had so many original ideas and so much material it could have gone on for years. Cult would have appealed to main stream audiences across every demographic and (pun intended) would have garnered a huge cult following, if it wasn't for the CW. I remember when this show premiered, the CW literally started to advertise for it a week before it aired, and then rarely after that. Cult was on Tuesday nights in the middle of the summer, when lets face it, most people are out enjoying the nice weather. Since the show had no previous exposure, there was no reason for anyone to watch on demand or even DVR it, so it was cancelled. It just doesn't make sense to me, why even spend the money and make the show if you're not going to give it a real chance? If this show debuted on the fall line-up after Supernatural, the ratings would have been enormous, the show would still be on! You have a terrific young cast playing duel roles, an experienced creator, with a team that's already had success with Seaquest, Farscape, and Alien Nation, there was no reason to bury this show, but a las, Cult met it's fate after just thirteen episodes, which are currently streaming on Netflix. For all my followers who claim they have nothing to watch, here is 13 hours of some of the most imaginative and creative writing you will ever see on TV, add Cult to your queue and start watching tonight!!!

Though I did find some of the concepts brought up in the series to be disappointing half circles...I was nonetheless intrigued.

The idea that television can create obsessive fans who blur reality and fiction could have been taken many places, but it was not.

Reality is a perception, however as a group humans accept the paradigm that they've been told outlines the laws of the universe as material truth. Humans will be grounded to this planet until they are able to see the current paradigm as having merely guidelines based on the current perspective. The show could have easily gone there, but it only hinted at this.

I appreciated the story line between Jeff and Skye and enjoyed watching that evolve.

The toggles between reality and fiction where mostly unsuccessful as the reality scenes were many times as Cartoony as the fiction scenes.

All in all it was worth watching, I just wanted a few more completed circles, or fleshed out ideas.

Lawna

good writing, but very bad acting...I mean really bad acting. I liketo get lost in a show or movie and when acting is this bad then that makes it very hard to do so. come to think about it the writing might be partially at fault because if the lines were better maybe the acting might be more believable, either way I cannot find my way to watch another episode. it really is a shame because it might of had been a lineup that would stick around more than a year or two if that would of happened. as far as why the acting is faulty it really comes down to the fact that there needs to be slight pauses between actors, I guess the director could of seen this and tried to change it as well. wow, the more I write the more I realize that all three groups could have done a better job.

This is a TV-series called CULT which is about a mysterious TV-series which is also called CULT. A recursive TV-series, how clever is that? Actually, the series a bit too clever for its own good. It is cleverness without a cause. The writer just want to flash his cleverness in the viewers face.

At first, the series self-reference is just awesome, and sends your mind spinning. Even if the blatant exposure of cleverness is ever so pretentious, I have to admit that the cleverness is indeed very, very clever, hence my rating. But the gimmick eventually wears of, leaving behind a very bland show.

I love X-FILES, KOLCHAK, TWIN PEAKS and DOCTOR WHO. These series delivers characters that I wants to spend my time with. But CULT, like the series LOST, don't have anyone that I care about. The entire cast could die, it wouldn't bother me; the reason I watch those shows is not because they are entertaining, but that they keep my curiosity alive: The promise of this awesome, sparkling revelation.

In other words, CULT and LOST is all about the destination, not the ride itself. It is a bit like religion, which also promises that you'll get you reward when it is all over.

I just did a Google search to find out how LOST ends; if the ride itself is bland, why not take a shortcut?