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Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.

DocumentaryCrime

After marrying a mysterious man who claimed he could make her dog immortal, a celebrated vegan restaurateur finds her life veering off the rails.

Year

2022

IMDb

5.9

Hero Poster

Cast

Chris Smith

Director

Sarma Melngailis

Self - Pure Food and Wine, One Lucky Duck

Allen Salkin

Self - Vanity Fair Journalist

Cast

Chris Smith

Director

Sarma Melngailis

Self - Pure Food and Wine, One Lucky Duck

Allen Salkin

Self - Vanity Fair Journalist

Ilze Melngailis

Self - Sarma's Sister

Anthony Strangis

Self - Sarma's Ex-Husband

Igor Malinovsky

Self - Anthony Stand-In

Leon

Self - Sarma's Dog

John Melngailis

Self - Sarma's Father

Jeffrey Chodorow

Self - Restaurateur

Bonnie Crocker

Self - Manager, Pure Food and Wine

Nikki King Bennett

Self - Executive Chef, Pure Food and Wine

Joey Repice

Self - Beverage Director, Pure Food and Wine

Jim Switzer

Self - Operations Manager, Pure Food and Wine

Maiquen Saez-Vega

Self - Employee, Pure Food and Wine

Andrew Elliot

Self - Graphic Designer, One Lucky Duck

Nazim Seliakhov

Self - Anthony's Associate

Nick Ross

Self - Employee, Pure Food and Wine

Will Richards

Self - Anthony's Associate

Anthony Caruana

Self - Sarma's Friend

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Comments

10 Comments

Akash VyasMar 19, 2024

I think the main appeal of this docuseries is to see how con artists are getting caught. We all hope that karma will pick up where human justice fails. The question whether Sarma was guilty or not is moot, IMO. Like everyone, she is flawed, and at the very least she made some very bad decisions. What's more interesting is the extent to which intelligent, educated individuals fall pray to scams, and are dragged into questionable deeds, and from there into worse situations. In this debacle, I sympathize with Sarma's father, who seems the most decent fellow in the story, and the one with the clearest understanding of what happened. He admitted his daughter was on the run when she disappeared, and even recognized the fact that Sarma married Anthony for his money. I definitely found this documentary worth watching.

The Lawal’s ❤️Mar 19, 2024

Sorry too much like Tinder Swindler where they get conned out of money. It's hard to keep feeling sorry for these people. Never give out that amount of money to someone who you don't know very well. Why does Netflix keep taking off good shows and putting crap like this on? There is enough programs that are worth watching on Netflix that after one episode I am passing this one up.

Mahesh PaswanMar 19, 2024

Netflix has an obsession about one particular storyline, Women Who Foolishly Give Men Money Based On Promises, See No Evidence of That Money and Still Continue To Give Them Money. What's with all the Netflix series regarding this storyline? If we all could look like Sarma. Her world is her oyster (is that Vegan?) and I can't believe she was so stupid, repeatedly. Frustrating to watch. I don't know, is there a curse put on incredibly beautiful people? Like the Universe trying to even things out. Maybe Shane (or is it Anthony) can answer that. But, I guess there is always a lesson to be learnt in every Netflix documentary.

cinta kuyaMar 19, 2024

I get why people think Sarma has to have been in on it with her manipulative husband Anthony because the manipulations he's said to have subjected her to sound so absurd. What I don't see is what the motive would have been for her to ruin her life and business just to feed his gambling addiction. Also the doc includes ample recorded evidence of phone calls in which she argued desperately with him about his demands for money, even if she ultimately acceded to them. It does seem pretty clear she was being manipulated, bizarre as it all is. Given the mind games said to be at work here, it's a real shame the documentary makers didn't include interviews with psychologists or shrinks. Absent that, I'll hazard my own theory, which I think at least makes more sense than seeing Sarma as an out-and-out deliberate crook. It's clear that, in huge debt as she already was when she met Anthony, she married him not for love but on the promise that he'd get her out of the hole. I think this was his leverage in the demands that followed. She felt guilty enough about trying to use him financially to unconsciously allow him to punish her. The onslaught of his demands, torturous though it was, was a distraction from the guilt - a sort of obsessional state for Sarma, not unlike addiction. It's especially extreme, but it's not that different from self-harming behaviours many of us engage in without knowing why we can't stop: over-eating, alcoholism and addiction, OCD, stupid rows with our partners, self-woundig and many more examples down to just spending too much time dumbly scrolling, liking and swiping. Let them who are without irrationality cast the first stone, and watch out that the stone-throwing doesn't become your own addiction.

Stervann OkouoMar 19, 2024

Gonna start off with this....the name of this documentary is pretty ridiculous. As a vegan for 10 years I don't see how it really relates to anything beyond the fact she is vegan. The other thing is how the journalist Allen Salkin makes some pretty dumb claims about vegans as a whole. Having been around major centers for veganism (SoCal, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Austin, Washington D. C.) the "crystal" worshipping hippies are a largely rare sight these days. Plus, environmentalism and tying it to the food on your plate doesn't mean we are "better" than you. Since we are into generalizations, Salkin looks like he eats nothing but burgers and coffee, which as a former journalist myself I can say is about right. Anyway, here is the review if you are still reading. I still can't believe this story. Ten years ago I would have said this person is nuts and how does a society with ample amounts of information available to them fall for this type of behavior. Of course, now we have people who believe the earth floats on a giant turtle and a war between two countries is a false flag event with cut scenes from ARMA3, so the collective naivete of society is no longer surprising. We talk about red flags in meme forms these days, and even ten years ago this guy might have been a red shirt (which that whole thing was pretty wild as well) and on fire. So many red flags. The argument that people are going to get into is how much at fault was Sarma Melngailis for her own downfall? While gaslighting is a major source of contention in online blogs and such, it's hard to take into account that Matthew Strangis already had numerous problems that Melngailis should have spotted from a mile away. He was using a false name, he did not look like an elite special forces operative (sorry, but this guy would not have passed the physical they make you take every year) and he was friends with Alec Baldwin (which even before the Rust controversy, was an arrogant, anger ridden jerk with multiple failed marriages and incidents of bad behavior). The thing that set me off is the lack of pop cultural influence of Melngailis and it makes sense how Strangis could pull this off. Anyone that watched True Lies or read Cloud Atlas at the time would know this guy is probably full of it. It comes down to who to believe is the true perpetrator. Did Melngailis play the game in hopes of getting out of major debt, or was Strangis that good at finding vulnerable, naive marks who would gladly believe the cosmic stories he talked about while also milking you dry of all your money? I don't know what to make of it. I'm not a part of this world of glitz and celebrity gushing while being capable of giving people 100K like nothing. I'm just gonna say that no one is that stupid. And if you are, you probably deserve some of the backlash you receive and ultimate blowback of the situation. I don't normally stand up for rich people but if I was one of the people that got bilked in the eventual 6.1 million scam, I would be pretty ticked off that the perpetrators got maybe a year and half of jail time between them. I don't care about the supposed abuse. Anyway, an infuriating watch.

Ida SannehMar 19, 2024

First of all, WHO PUTS MUSIC UNDER EVERY SECOND OF A 4 PART DOCUMENTARY??? EVERY SECOND. Terrible. Just terrible. Secondly, who cares? What a waste of my time. So OVER DRAMATIZED and bad filmmaking.

Njie SambaMar 19, 2024

I refuse to believe Sarma, who is obviously intelligent, fell for all that dude's bullpoop more than once. Dude claims he's black-ops, soldier of fortune, superhuman being who can make her dog immortal, along with "oh, BTW, my name really isn't Shane"... keeps siphoning money out of the business and handing it over with no documentation and never, ever ONCE asks for proof of his stories? Never has him investigated?? Sarma is an intelligent moron. She's guilty of fraud because due diligence is the least of her responsibility to her investors and staff. They are both guilty as h***, and it's a crime that 5 years of probation is all they got? Pbfttt. I understand coercive control and manipulation as abuse, but her belief borders more on willful ignorance than abuse. All that being said, I was entertained by the series (even tho it was twice as long as it needed to be) because it reinforces my confidence in my my own bs-detector. Girl, ya shoulda run when ya had the chance!

user7047022545297Mar 19, 2024

These real life crime shows are stretching it ... well at least in this case. The Investigating Anna show was quite good - I think even those who thought it was a bit too long, saw the quality in it. And while this is only half as long (episode and especially running time wise) as that show - this feels even longer and ... well more boring. No offense to those involved (guilty or innocent), but I feel like this could have been wrapped up in two episodes the most. Also do not expect there to be much of a likeability factor. Fans of this type of stuff may not care, but those who do not have time to waste, should stick to other stuff imho.

grachou❤️Mar 19, 2024

This woman is playing the victim and I just don't buy it- I mean what in the AF. Some fat gambling addict takes over your life and business and you're just powerless to stop it? Please. This whole thing is skewed so heavily towards victimhood for Sarma. Neither of them are victims. None of this makes any damn sense. The whole thing is stupid. I mean how could you fall for this?

Suhii96Mar 19, 2024

Bad guy,meets a stupid girl(becomes clear on her judgment skills,as you watch it)& together they do even worse things & eventually face consequences.. The end. Honestly the only victims here was everyone but actually them,including the dog! As a women & that's been in bad a relationship,eventually either you take some accountability and change things or you are responsible! She had a business,was an adult & so much other nonsense but never tried stopping it.. therefore she wasn't a victim but only played a victim after it all came crashing down,to get some sympathy for her role in all this. For those who feel she was brainwashed,if this was fact in even the slightest way.. Than how come she didn't seem genuinely remorseful,especially for those also hurt by all this? It was odd how her meltdowns & more,was recorded as though to use later in some lame defense? She said that she was alone frequently while traveling,but yet never left or got help. Had me wondering if she wouldn't of been a cute,white,blonde would she of been held more liable? It really seemed she had men especially brainwashed,if you listen to them during their interview parts.. I might be reaching to say that,but after hearing the homeless guy he seemed unhinged over her. Again.. Why feel she wasn't a true victim,but only played that card at opportune times. Is this watch worthy? Well,felt like a train wreck you can't look away from.. So enjoy!