Review of Netflix Docuseries Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.
Bad Vegan is a riveting, binge-worthy, four episode docuseries on Netflix. The docuseries begins with a flirtatious tweet from Alec Baldwin. In the tweet, he praises New York raw vegan restaurant Pure Food & Wine, and openly admires the beauty of its founder, Sarma Melngailis. Sarma is stunningly beautiful, and bears a striking resemblance to Katherine Heigl, the actress best known for her roles in Grey’s Anatomy and Knocked Up. But in a strange twist of fate, Baldwin’s tweet would put her on the path to meeting “Shane Fox” aka Anthony Strangis, an ex-con, who would ultimately ruin her life.
Baldwin and Shane/Anthony have their own tweet exchanges with the latter having 50,000 Twitter followers of his own. His social media savviness makes an impression on Sarma, and as a result, she lets her guard down. Soon she is playing Words with Friends with Shane/Anthony, the same game Alec Baldwin notoriously enjoyed as well to the tune of getting kicked off a flight for his refusal to stop playing the game right as his plane was about to take off because rules, you know, don’t apply to him.
In Bad Vegan, you will see firsthand how love-bombing, mirroring, brainwashing, gaslighting, exploitation, and Stockholm Syndrome works, a step-by-step case study via text messages, taped phone conversations, videos, and personal testimony from family, friends, and loyal employees. And how and why some people, like Sarma Melngailis, may be more susceptible to these cunning ploys than others.
Perhaps, Bad Vegan should’ve been called Bad Vibes as Shane/Anthony gives so many people in her orbit the creeps. Everyone has a bad feeling about this guy that could only be described as dread; everyone, that is, except Sarma, who, at first, seems smitten.
Sarma, for the record, ain’t no dummy. At one time, she had the world of New York fine cuisine, and Alec Baldwin, in her hands — no small feat, before the mysterious Shane/Anthony entered her life to only drive her world into apocalyptic-like chaos. She is a graduate of The Wharton School, one of the most selective and prestigious business schools in the world. She has a good head for business, and a passion for raw vegan cuisine.
Sarma also has a big heart. She loves her adorable, tan-colored pit bull named Leon, her constant companion. She also develops an authentic friendship with a homeless man named Anthony, not to be confused with Anthony Strangis, who has kind, Sinatra-blue eyes. Sarma looks out for Anthony, and, in return, Anthony looks out for Sarma and Leon.
There are also hints that Sarma may be suffering from imposter syndrome. According to Harvard Business Review, “Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. Many question whether they’re deserving of accolades.”
Is imposter syndrome mixed with Sarma’s empathetic and sensitive nature like a neon flashing light for psychological and emotional predators like Shane Fox/Anthony Strangis?
One thing I did make note of throughout the docuseries is Sarma’s answer to this one particular question: “Why not tell someone?” Her answer is always “How do I tell someone?” You see, Sarma Melngailis is living in two simultaneous realities — one being her restaurant and business life, what she calls “reality-reality,” and the other being Shane/Anthony’s crazy reality, which is getting more exploitive by the day.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. In the Bad Vegan docuseries’ photographs of Shane Fox/Anthony Strangis, I immediately noticed a darkness, a steely coldness behind his eyes. The only other time I would see this darkness in still photographs was when I was watching a documentary on Andrea Yates, the psychotic mother who’d drowned all five of her beautiful children in 2001. The freeze frame had occurred right after the crime, while she was still being interviewed by police. The camera then began to pan in on Yates’ wild, fixed gaze, and that was the moment when I felt a shiver go down my spine. I have the same chilly reaction when the camera pans in on Fox/Strangis’ eyes as well.
Sarma’s eyes, in contrast, have a look of being dazed and confused. This is what narcissistic abuse does to its victims, especially in a case this extreme. And her case is as extreme as it gets.
Some narcissistic abuse victims totally shut down, like Sarma, while others go off the rails with emotive outbursts because their life has become a reactionary, never-ending carnival game of “Whac-A-Mole.” This abuse is up-close and intimate. Most outsiders, including the justice system in Sarma’s case, won’t suspect it. More education and awareness needs to happen so individuals and their support systems can spot the red flags before the loss is too great. In Sarma’s case, the personal loss was over six million dollars, a ruined career, and a jail stint, not including the social tsunami it created in her life; the effects, to which, she’s still reeling from today.
Bad Vegan has more psychological twists and turns than a Coney Island roller coaster. Who would’ve guessed that an order of Domino’s Pizza and chicken wings while hiding out at a Fairfield Inn in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee would lead to the duo’s ultimate undoing. You can’t make this shit up.
Originally published in The Five-Two
