Broken

6.2
20191h

Production

Logo for Zero Point Zero

This investigative docuseries shows how negligence and deceit in the production and marketing of popular consumer items can result in dire outcomes.

Trailers & Videos

Thumbnail for video: These Consumer Goods Come At A Price | Broken Trailer | Netflix

These Consumer Goods Come At A Price | Broken Trailer | Netflix

Seasons

4 Episodes • Premiered 2019

Still image for Broken season 1 episode 1: Makeup Mayhem

1. Makeup Mayhem

Influencer hype and scarcity marketing create conditions where counterfeit makeup thrives, tainted with bacteria, lead, arsenic — and worse.

Still image for Broken season 1 episode 2: Big Vape

2. Big Vape

Initially designed for adult use, vaping has addicted teens to nicotine, thanks to hipster ads by startups like Juul. Now Big Tobacco's cashing in.

Still image for Broken season 1 episode 3: Deadly Dressers

3. Deadly Dressers

Disposable-furniture makers like Ikea use eco-friendly images to hide their true costs: fatally flimsy construction, environmental ruin and more.

Still image for Broken season 1 episode 4: Recycling Sham

4. Recycling Sham

Corporations market single-use plastic products as recyclable. In fact, much plastic recycling ends up as landfill — or on beaches in Southeast Asia.

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Reviews

S

SierraKiloBravo

4/10

Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/bw50JJ1X5iA

Fake reviews, make-up with horse urine and fecal matter in it, lips being glued shut, and pink eye - and that's just the first episode! The Netflix docuseries _Broken_ takes a look at some common things from our day to day life and how they have a dark side we know very little about. 

There’s only four episodes, each around an hour long, and the subjects covered are the make-up industry, vaping, furniture, and recycling. To be honest I found I wasn’t all that engaged by this. Make-up, vaping, and furniture aren't subjects that really interest me from a documentary point of view, so the one on recycling was the stand out for me. 

I’ve watched the first two seasons of another Netflix docuseries called _Rotten_ and couldn’t help but be reminded of it while watching _Broken_. They are very similar and it almost felt like the _Broken_ episodes were reject episodes from _Rotten_ but they didn’t want to trash them, so packaged them up in their own series. 

Technically it all looks fine, it’s filmed well, and the subjects are laid out logically, but I just couldn’t get engaged in this one. Like I said probably more to do with the subject matter and my interest in it more than anything else. Although, that said, I have watched other documentaries about subjects that weren’t of big interest to me but which pulled me in because of how well they were put together. 

This was a weird one for me. It was fine, it just didn’t grab me, and on the hit or miss scale, this was definitely a miss. 

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