Scammer stories have become a hot topic in the world of streaming, particularly for Netflix with the likes of documentary The Tinder Swindler and the drama series Inventing Anna, and it’s continuing to expand its documentary library with the latest installment: Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare, which lays bare a woman’s nine-year catfish ordeal.
While Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare has taken the world by storm since debuting on the best streaming service on Wednesday, October 16, that’s not the only catfish story being told this week as Hulu has also jumped on the catfish bandwagon with the upcoming documentary Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, which will be released on October 18.
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare has promise to become one of the best Netflix documentaries for its crazy and complex catfish scheme, which particularly shocks if you haven’t listened to the hit podcast it’s based on. But if you’re eager to watch another true crime documentary, then Hulu’s Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara will certainly grab your attention as it reveals how a music duo and fanbase were targeted by a cruel catfish plot.
What is Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare and Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara about?
Based on the Tortoise podcast of the same name, Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare follows Kirat Assi, a woman whose online romance takes a disturbing turn when she learns her mysterious fiancé is harbouring a dark secret that upends her life.
The podcast was a huge success and attracted thousands of listeners, but now Assi is re-telling her story in this Netflix documentary, which is ideal if you’re unfamiliar with its source material like me. Assi realizes this in her interview with Radio Times as she revealed: “It’s just sharing the story to a wider audience. Lots of people don’t listen to podcasts and if this helps people to speak up [and] speak out, to fight for themselves a bit harder when it comes to not being believed, then that’s what matters.”
Meanwhile, Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara is an investigation into what the queer indie rock duo have experienced for over 15 years. Tegan Rain Quin enlists the help of documentary filmmaker and investigator Erin Lee Carr to find the person pretending to be her and terrorizing her fans with sinister and unexpected twists. The documentary exposes how terrifying and violating the nightmare has been for the identical twins, their families, and unsuspecting fans who were made to believe that they had formed a real friendship with Tegan.
In a Hulu press release it states: “This is a sprawling yet intimate story of how Tegan’s identity was stolen and weaponized in a complex catfish scheme to ensnare members of the community. This film is an examination of the sevre ripple effect of mistrust, anxiety, and self-doubt that resulted from Fegan’s (Fake Tegan) actions.”
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare is available to stream on Netflix now, while Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara is being released on Friday, October 18.
