Chilling episode looks at the bizarre but true facts surrounding the cult of the reverend Jim Jones, who ordered 900 of his followers to drink poisoned kool aid rather than face the authorities who represented the outside world that Jones desperately wanted to avoid, and brainwashed his people to fear as well, leading to their deaths, and his own suicide as well. First hand accounts from those former members who escaped his clutches in time are most fascinating, as are the actual words and film of Jim himself, who was described as a paranoid delusional sociopath who nonetheless had a certain charisma for lonely and forgotten people, who clung to his every word and instruction. Fascinating and still timely look at this man, and how this sort of thing could easily happen again...
4 Reviews
Season 6 Episode 7
Michael_Elliott20 September 2016
In Search Of... "Jim Jones" (1981)
This episode does a pretty good job at taking a look at the life of Jim Jones, the religious leader who would eventually kill over nine hundred people at Jonestown. The episode starts off talking about Jones' childhood and his rise to power, which eventually had him becoming a con making with a strong enough mind to fool people into following him. We then get to the tragic events that ended up taking so many lives. The story of Jones is certainly a fascinating one and this episode does a very good job at telling it. The bonus is that there's a lot of interview footage with Jones as well as other reports that were done on him. It's certainly a very fascinating subject.
Episode: A-
This episode does a pretty good job at taking a look at the life of Jim Jones, the religious leader who would eventually kill over nine hundred people at Jonestown. The episode starts off talking about Jones' childhood and his rise to power, which eventually had him becoming a con making with a strong enough mind to fool people into following him. We then get to the tragic events that ended up taking so many lives. The story of Jones is certainly a fascinating one and this episode does a very good job at telling it. The bonus is that there's a lot of interview footage with Jones as well as other reports that were done on him. It's certainly a very fascinating subject.
Episode: A-
Chilling portrayal of a madman
dtucker866 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I rememeber when the Jonestown massacre happened in 1978 and the horror all over the world that hundreds of people would kill themselves because of one man. This episode tells of Jones life and rise to power as the leader of the Peoples Temple. He was someone who was gifted with unique charisma who could really reach his followers. He could have accomplished so much good and really done God's work, what went wrong? How did he become an evil madman who created a literal Hell on earth. One of his followers points out that Jones was extremely clever and know the right things to say to get people to do his bidding. What is most chilling of all is that we have seen this happen since with people like David Koresh. Nimoy points out at the end that even after Jone's death there were still sad pathetic wretches who admired him and believed he truly loved them.
One strong episode.
mm-395 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
One strong episode. In Search of Jim Jones is like research journalism. One discovers the life of Jim Jones! The psychology of Jim Jones! The history of the People's temple! Why Jones and followers left for South America. The insanity of the situation, and mass suicide. Interviews from survivors of the Jones-town massacre! The interviews gives insight into the insanity of the what happen in Jones- town. Done in good taste. Not the sensational journalism of today! Leonard Nimoy creates a narration a tone of the darker side of humanity with a slow build up of the building madness which led to the murder of a U S senator and the mass suicide. 10 out of 10
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