Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence – Review | HBO Max

RUBY & JODI: A CULT OF SIN AND INFLUENCE on HBO Max is a new true crime docuseries about cults and momfluencers. There are four episodes to this series, and it escalates in crazy ways. Read our full Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence series review here!

RUBY & JODI: A CULT OF SIN AND INFLUENCE is a new ID docuseries with four episodes. This is a true crime production that deals with the concept of YouTube momfluencers and self-help cults.

Taking the step from one thing to the next is eerily easy for Ruby Franke. Then again, Jodi Hildebrandt is an expert at what she does. Watching these cult-based true crime documentary series always drives me mad. This is no exception.

Continue reading our Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence series review below. Find it on HBO Max now.

The rise of a cult through social media

This new true crime docuseries takes another look at Ruby Franke, who may just be a familiar name to fans of true crime. Back in February 2025, Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke premiered on Hulu.

However, even if you’ve already watched that one (I have, though we never reviewed it), this new release on HBO Max is also worth watching.

The latest docuseries is an Investigation Discovery production, and I have yet to watch the two final episodes, so I don’t know if I’ll be happier after watching those or not.

I will say that the focus is more on the rise of the cult than the fall of a momfluencer.

Or actually, the two are interconnected, but I do feel this one wants to look more at the cult aspect. The Hulu documentary did as well, but in a different way.

Mormons in a Cult

As someone who is not a fan of organized religion (not to be confused with having faith in something bigger than oneself), I am definitely biased when it comes to true crime involving religion and cults.

Still, I have to say that I feel it is much easier for people who have been raised with a strict religion to be easy targets for a cult.

I mean, if you’ve always been taught that you need to adhere to rules in a book as told to you by some leader, then a cult isn’t a big jump. How else can anyone justify going from being a devout Mormon to suddenly being a spokesperson for a cult?

Then again, we hear how Mormons aren’t even allowed tea or coffee (because of the energizing effect it has), yet somehow Botox isn’t a problem?!

Well, again, isn’t that always the case with religion? People pick and choose what passages from the Bible must be adhered to and which are just symbolic.

Interviews with past and present Mormons

Yeah, like I said, not a big fan of organized religion. From there, cults are just an even more extreme version of organized religion, which is what the Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence docuseries focuses on.

I also appreciate the fact that both ex-Mormons and actively practising Mormons participate in this true crime documentary production. After all, the “bad guy” of this production isn’t the Mormon Church as much as it is the cult.

Of course, my point is that one wouldn’t be able to succeed without the other, which is what I feel this production is also (at least partially) making a point of.

What can be trickier to get a feel for is whether Jodi Hildebrandt is the predator feeding on Ruby Franke’s misery or if they are equally bad. At least to a point, both women are to blame. And without doubt, they are extremely selfish.

Watch Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence on HBO Max

The YouTube channel “8 Passengers” was what made Ruby Franke a popular momfluencer, as shown in Hulu’s Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke. With this new HBO Max docuseries from Investigation Discovery, it goes wider.

Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence focuses on the self-help business of ConneXions. An organization that promoted rather extreme parenting practices along with other “life coaching” classes.

The two women were arrested in September 2023, when two children were found abused and malnourished.

As I see it, Ruby’s husband, Kevin Franke, the all-important Patriarch in the Mormon way of life, has gotten away too easily. This annoyed me with the previous Hulu docuseries as well. Ruby is the aggressor, but he is their father.

The kids, on the other hand, I do want to hear from. However, I always acknowledge their right to be as much or as little involved in these productions. Their lives have already been blasted on YouTube.

Now they get to decide for themselves.

The four-part series will air over two nights, so you can watch all four episodes tomorrow.

Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence premiered on Investigation Discovery and HBO Max on September 1, 2025.