On Netflix, the three-part docuseries Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult aired at the end of May. But in the real world, the series just keeps going.
In the latest installment, Miranda Wilking Derrick, its apparently unwitting subject who may or may not be in a cult, took to Instagram Monday to blast those behind the series. In a video message delivered from the edge of her bed, Derrick pleads with the public to leave her and her husband, fellow maybe cult member James “B-Dash” Derrick, alone.
“Since this documentary came out, we feel like our lives have been put in danger,” she said.
Derrick’s message was the second time she has addressed the series, which Netflix released on May 29. The series alleges, among other things, that Derrick and her husband, professional dancers who moved to Los Angeles to try to make it big in the industry, fell under the spell of Robert Shinn and his controversial Shekinah Church, where he serves as pastor. Shinn, with the help of his son, Isaiah, met the Derricks and many other LA-area-dancers-slash-TikTok influencers and created a management company, 7M, to help them make money from their content creation.
But Derrick’s parents and sister, fellow dancer-slash-influencer Melanie Wilking, allege that Shinn is instead running a secretive cult, brainwashing their daughter and others into his warped version of Christianity and keeping them in his control by managing their careers. The story first broke on social media in 2022, when the Wilkings released an emotional video on Instagram alleging that ever since Derrick met her husband and signed with Shinn, she had cut herself off from them and from everyone else in her former life.
The documentary goes deeper than just the story of the dancers. Former members of Shinn’s church allege that he engaged in intimidation and isolation tactics. A lawsuit filed by former members accuses him of sexual battery, fraud, forced labor, and human trafficking. But it is the Wilking sisters who have captured the public’s imagination, and whose story has become like one unending reality show.
Since the documentary first aired, viewers have been able to follow along on social media with a stream of never ending updates in real time. Former cult members are weighing in, and Derrick and her sister have been trading barbs back and forth via Instagram. Both the sisters, who used to perform as a duo, create content for a living and have huge social media followings—their feeds have become a veritable continuation of the documentary. Wilking will post an update, then Derrick will clap back. The experience is interactive, as viewers can ask questions and hunt for clues on the sisters’ constantly updated feeds, even on posts that on the surface have nothing to do with the doc.
“Ok I think we deserve an update; WTH is going on?? Is your sister still in a cult? Are you guys talking? Is the documentary up to date? I am so confused,” wrote one follower on one of Wilking’s posts about her recent wedding.
According to Derrick, though, the tone of the messages she receives has gotten much more violent.
“People have been sending us messages to commit suicide,” she said in Monday’s video. “We’ve been stalked. Someone said, ‘If I see you in the street I’m gonna come and gut you so you better get security.’ These are just some of the messages that I have been receiving behind the scenes.”
In this way, Dancing for the Devil could hypothetically never end. The series is a strange and somewhat unsettling mix of reality show and documentary that is simultaneously playing out across social media and on TV screens. The series is uniquely positioned to have this sort of lifespan. While no criminal charges have been brought against Shinn, he faces pending civil litigation, and thus the story is very much continuing, speaking as it does to the nature of our current entertainment ecosystem.
These days, it’s not enough to just watch something on a screen and move on. Viewers are increasingly seeking this sort of interactive entertainment experience, where they can feel they are part of the action, the story, and sometimes the solution. We see it often in true crime cases, where social media sleuths declare they have found suspects in violent murder investigations, putting strangers on blast much to the chagrin of the police.
We even see it in fictionalized series, like Netflix’s other recent big hit, Baby Reindeer. Although creator Richard Gadd took pains to conceal the identity of the actual stalker who inspired his series, speculation ran rampant until the real-life inspiration for the character identified herself and promptly sued the streamer.
It’s admittedly a fun part of entertainment. After all, who hasn’t gone down a rabbit hole on Reddit after watching a particularly juicy true crime or swindler doc? But as the Dancing for the Devil saga continues unabated, there is something rather unsettling in its longevity and that it has the potential to continue so long after the cameras have been put down. We could, essentially, watch this saga unfold for months or even years, following breathless updates and slowly losing sight of the fact that the series is over.
But as the Dancing for the Devil saga continues unabated, it becomes less and less likely that it will die down anytime soon, and easier to lose sight of the fact that everyone involved is a real person, not a character in a choose-your-own-adventure social media game.
And it’s a message that Derrick seems to desperately want people to remember.
“I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m going to get back to posting and dancing and doing what I just absolutely love,” she says.
