Netflix’s 2022 documentary series Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey stands as one of the most unflinching and disturbing true-crime investigations ever produced for television. Directed by Rachel Dretzin and released in four gripping episodes on June 8, 2022, the series peels back the layers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the polygamist sect led by Warren Jeffs — a man who ruled his followers with absolute, terrifying control while hiding behind a façade of divine authority.

The title comes from a phrase Jeffs frequently used: “Keep sweet” — an instruction to his followers, especially women and girls, to remain obedient, submissive, and pleasant no matter the abuse they endured. The series combines survivor testimony, archival footage, police recordings, and Jeffs’s own chilling sermons to expose a world where child marriage, sexual assault, forced labor, and psychological manipulation were not only normalized but framed as sacred religious duty.

At the center of the story is Warren Jeffs himself. The self-proclaimed prophet took control of the FLDS after his father Rulon Jeffs’s death in 2002, declaring himself God’s mouthpiece on Earth. Under his leadership, the sect — which once numbered in the tens of thousands — became a closed, authoritarian theocracy. Jeffs orchestrated mass weddings of underage girls to older men (including himself), expelled dissenters from the community, seized their property, and used fear of eternal damnation to maintain control. In 2006 he appeared on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list; he was captured in 2006 after a traffic stop in Las Vegas.

The documentary’s power lies in its survivors. Former FLDS members — many of whom escaped as teenagers or young women — speak with raw honesty about the horrors they endured. Elissa Wall, one of the most prominent voices, recounts being forced into marriage at 14 to her 19-year-old cousin. Others describe being “reassigned” to new husbands as punishment, losing children to the sect’s leaders, and living under constant surveillance. The series does not sensationalize; it lets the women’s words and tears speak for themselves, creating an atmosphere of quiet, unrelenting horror.

Archival footage is equally devastating. Home videos show smiling families and cheerful children — images that starkly contrast with the testimonies of coercion and abuse. Jeffs’s own recordings are the most chilling: calm, monotone sermons in which he justifies child marriage, demands absolute obedience, and threatens dissenters with eternal damnation. In one particularly disturbing clip, he can be heard instructing young girls on how to please their much older husbands — audio that was used in his 2011 trial, where he was convicted of two counts of child sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years.

Keep Sweet also examines the broader systemic failures that allowed the FLDS to operate with impunity for decades. The sect’s compound in Eldorado, Texas (the Yearning for Zion Ranch), was raided in 2008 after a false abuse call, leading to the removal of over 400 children. While the raid was controversial and many children were later returned, it exposed the scale of the abuse: underage marriages, forced labor, and a culture of absolute control.

Critically, the series was widely praised for its restraint and respect for survivors. The New York Times called it “a devastating, essential document,” while The Guardian described it as “unbearably powerful testimony from women who survived one of the most oppressive cults in modern America.” It holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and remains one of Netflix’s most-watched true-crime titles.

Beyond the facts, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey forces viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about power, faith, and silence. It shows how charisma and scripture can be weaponized to justify unimaginable harm — and how difficult it is for victims to escape when the outside world refuses to look.

For survivors who spoke out, the series is cathartic. For viewers, it is a stark warning: evil often hides behind piety, and silence can be complicity. Nearly four years after its release, Keep Sweet remains essential viewing — a haunting reminder that some stories must be told, no matter how painful.