I’ve been waiting for an expose on Dan Schneider for years, it was insane to me that a man could so blatantly be a predator in a children’s TV network and not have people speak up about it. While Quiet on Set does provide a lot of what I was looking for, it has quite a few missteps that really make me wish it was put in better hands. I was immediately cautious of the show with its music and editing queues. It very much makes the show seem more like true crime entertainment than a serious and tasteful look at a horrible set of tragedies. I also feel like a lot of points were made poorly, like when discussing the fetish content in these kids shows. I went in knowing that Dan Schneider was a creep and that he wormed his fetishes into all his work, but if you didn’t know that, I don’t think the documentary is convincing at all in this aspect. Instead of listing numerous examples of a specific fetish to build an argument that this isn’t just a few scenes out of context, they play one or two at a time and don’t mention it again that episode. They spend a lot of time on tamer scenes like Ariana trying to squeeze a potato, something that I really don’t feel is as blatant as other examples, and then just move on to some other point. It’s lazy and causes an unwitting audience reason to give benefit of the doubt to Schneider, and that’s something that wouldn’t have happened if thiswas a better put together piece. The main problem, though, is how they included Drake Bell’s interview segments. Don’t get me wrong, I think Bell is undoubtedly a victim here, and it was necessary to include his interview to show the full scope of crimes committed. Brian Peck was someone I didn’t know about before watching, and hearing testimony from his abuse victim really made me understand how sickening he truly is and was. That being said, Bell himself is a pedophile. The documentary makes mention of his child endangerment charge, but basically dismisses it because it “wasn’t in person.” This is not only false, he has been accused of digitally raping a minor, but goes against what the documentary itself is trying to speak out against. They feature an interview from a former child actor on one of these shows who was sent explicit images of a producer masturbating and she discusses the impact and trauma that left her with. Trying to have this double standard to justify Bell’s inclusion is reckless and frankly disgusting. Bell tries to claim that the media got some misinformation, but he never goes into detail about what parts of the media’s coverage was false and no one else in the documentary challenges anything that he says. It’s really a shame because they could have made a well argued point about the cyclical nature of abuse and how trauma inflicted on children can lead them to acting out in the same ways as adults. Instead, it leaves audiences completely misinformed about Bell’s actions, and does nothing to combat his attempt to justify them. I know it sounds like I have nothing good to say here, and while that’s mostly true I do think this is worth the watch as long as you take into account what I’ve said here. There is a lot of information that I believe needed to be made public and I think it is necessary for people familiar with these shows to be aware of what was happening behind the scenes. While I was aware of some of these events, stuff like how the women writers were illegally forced to split a salary and how Dan made them humiliate themselves in sexual manors to prove his power over them were things I never heard before. I am glad that these victims’ have a platform to be heard now, I just wish the people making this show handled it much more responsibly.