First impression: The Goop Lab is a show featuring people with too much money and free time that feel the need to explore various ‘remedies’ and ‘woke’ aspects of life that are bound to make a good amount of the populace cringe and think WTF is wrong with these people? Okay, now that first impressions are out of the way it’s slightly more possible to be analytical about the whole thing since the age of misinformation is something that has been building and is reaching a strange crescendo on this show as the pseudoscience of it all takes firm hold and gives Gywneth Paltrow a firm way to profit not only from the emergence of a show but from the uncertain and less than scientific methods that are being touted on the program. It’s not hard to see that Netflix might have picked this show up if only for shock value and possible interest that might be garnered among those that still think Paltrow is something and someone wonderful rather than an individual that makes a lot of eyes cross and brains short-circuit with the ideas that are being presented. In short, this show looks as though it’s going to be something that’s out to make money by fooling a lot of people into believing that whatever is taking place at any given moment is groundbreaking and will be revolutionary for the human race. Timothy Caulfield of The Conversation has a lot more to say on this matter.
Oy. That’s the second impression, plain and simple. The next one is that Netflix is apparently pushing this as something that people need to see since obviously Paltrow is a paragon of what works in the lives of other people and her pseudocience is something that is a MUST see. Hopefully though people are going to look at this as an unintentional comedy since just watching the trailer thus far is enough to make a reasonable thinking person with a functioning brain stem go ‘huh?’ and think that perhaps most of the remedies and ideas in the show just aren’t as great as they’re being advertised. Seriously, different things work for different people but there is a reason that science is considered to be a great grounding point more than a little reliable when it comes to the health and well-being of humanity, and it’s largely because even if there are methods that are questionable for many people, science is still tasked with making things as safe and as routine as possible in order to service the masses, not just the individual. If there’s any issue with this show, and thus far Greg Brian of the CheatSheet and many others are chiming in without fail, it’s that it does appear to be parading methods of physical, mental, and spiritual health in front of those that unfortunately tend to follow whatever they see on TV and treat it as gospel. I seriously had to watch the trailer again and make sure that there wasn’t some subliminal mind-screw in there that would indicate that we’re all being punked, but sadly it’s not the case.
One thing that makes it clear that this show is walking on dangerous ground came when one of the participants stated that she’d gone through years of therapy in just hours. Think about that, years of what might break down to moderate to intense therapy….in HOURS. A beginning psychology student could likely tell you that the human mind is bound to break in such an instance, which is yet another thing that makes this show appear to be a giant spoof that’s parading around as a real attempt at breakthrough therapy. Normally it’s usually better to give the benefit of doubt and let thing iron out as they will, but in this case, thus far, the show is simply offering itself up on a platter and in its own way daring people to say anything, and thus far no one is being shy. The reason behind this unfortunately is that the show is also being anything but safe it would appear since the therapy sessions that are being introduced are apparently those that many people would think more than twice about when it comes to applying them, as professionals and those that know anything about said therapy are already chiming in to tell people that 1) there’s a serious conflict of interest since Paltrow is making money off the show and her own brand, and 2) there’s really nothing scientific about it thus far. As Bruce Y. Lee of Forbes has already said, you could stick your head in a mountain of dung to see what might happen, but it’s unlikely that anyone outside of a Jackass fan base would think it’s worthwhile.
The words ‘watch at your own risk’ would be the best advisory for this show at this time.
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