Why Is Netflix Streaming A Documentary on Stan Romanek, a Man Convicted on Child Pornography Charges?

By Kate Hudson | Streaming | April 1, 2019 |

By Kate Hudson | Streaming | April 1, 2019 |

Friends, over the weekend I had one of my oldest friends staying with me. The dynamics of our relationship have not budged for 25 years, and so of course I tried to find something weird to put on TV to watch the last morning she was in town (under my watch, she saw Con Air approximately 10 times from 1997 through 1998.) Enter in what by all accounts should have been Kate-catnip: Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story.

Let me explain why this movie was, on the surface, tailormade for me by pasting the Netflix description here:

Explore the life and times of Stan Romanek, who found himself in the middle of one of history’s most intriguing stories of extraterrestrial contact.

I mean, duh. Of course, I am going to watch the hell out of this. At first, I thought this could be a serious documentary on someone who probably did have an alien encounter (I’m a believer, what can I say?) Then 20 minutes into the doc, this video was shown.

Friends, Stan truly tried to pass this off as a legitimate video of an alien encounter. Then there was this video:

The doc only got more boneheaded from there. See, Stan believes (because the aliens told him so) that he is a man called “Starseed” who is the father of 9 alien-human hybrid children, which he sired with a fellow abductee, Victoria. Note: Stan is married, and “found” Victoria on earth (presumably after the 9 children were conceived and birthed in space) and somehow managed to convince his wife that having a relationship (that made his wife really uncomfortable) was not only acceptable but essential. It only gets weirder. Stan receives calls from a British woman (who, in reality, sounds like a cheap voice-to-text automated robot) that Stan conveniently tapes, telling him about how he’s important, and letting him know about his real name, Starseed. It gets even dumber than that when one of his alien daughters (supposedly) starts calling him, and at one point, she allegedly brings him flowers at an event where Stan is speaking, and they catch an image of her on tape!

Here it is:

So, when they share a pic or a video on this doc, they make a very odd choice to show the image in an emboss effect (from, what I imagine to be a free version of Photoshop) as if putting it in emboss will somehow make us believe it more?

Friends, the so-called image as proof in this film nearly made me pee my pants from laughter.

Yes, that is aliens in a field. Presumably living their best life.

Yes, that really is supposed to be an alien selfie that Stan found on his digital camera.

The film’s structure is bizarre. Basically, the first half is just Stan’s evidence, provided with no context except for random interstitials and the occasional talking head of a non-Stan person, who speaks without context or introduction. Then, the second half of the film is all Stan, and they finally introduce who the talking head people are, and my god! They are as bananas as Stan. My two particular favorites (and I swear I am not making this up) were Dr. Leo Sprinkles and Dr. Stanislav O’Jack. Both “Drs” said that Stan was normal and telling the truth. Ooooookay.

Look, there is a reason I gave away the “twist” of the documentary in the headline, because it’s not something I knew going it into—because otherwise, I would have expected you to have stopped reading this post the moment you got to the first alien encounter video and started watching it for yourself.

In fact—it’s something the documentary casually springs on the viewer in the last couple of minutes of the doc—at the time Stan had been charged (and would later be convicted, after the film’s release) on child pornography charges.

Per The Reporter-Herald

Loveland alien abduction author Stanley Romanek on Thursday was sentenced to two years in a halfway house and ordered to register as a sex offender at the conclusion of a child pornography case that began nearly five years ago and entangled a Loveland Police Department detective in a lawsuit.

Romanek, 55, was found guilty by a jury in August of felony possession of child pornography on a computer in his Loveland home and not guilty of a more serious felony charge of distributing child pornography.

The documentary handles this the only way it knows how: irresponsibly and irrevocably dumb.

Here’s a few screen shots:

(That’s my screenshot, taken 3/31/2019, after searching NBC News archives…)

Yeah, I gave up after Infowars was quoted unironically.

Look, a bunch of nutjobs made this movie, that much is clear and I guess they truly believe the government planted the evidence to keep Stan from telling the world the truth about Aliens. (Note: at one point in the doc, in all sincerity, Stan tells us that he was approached and physically attacked by government black ops G-men but he was able to fend off these highly trained attackers because he grew up …in Denver. OK, Stan.) What’s not clear is why — after Romanek’s conviction — is this documentary still on Netflix’s platform?

There is nothing I would enjoy more than another documentary on Romanek, this one a scathing takedown that incorporates all the bats*it elements that this one has while nailing him dead to rights for the supreme piece of s*it that he is. I would watch that film more than I would admit to, because this guy is clearly a dumb-as-rocks huckster who thinks he’s much smarter than he is, and finally got what’s coming to him. However, this movie portrays Romanek as a misunderstood hero, but let’s be very clear: Romank is a convicted felon on child pornography charges, and to keep this movie on this platform, which does its best to cast doubts as to the validity of this case and charges, seems irresponsible on Netflix’s part.

Realistically, I’m sure this stupid documentary gets maybe one or two views a month and has most likely fallen under Netflix’s radar, but there has to be a process in place to remove or flag material that is no longer appropriate to house under the Netflix brand. This is Netflix we’re talking about, who booted Kevin Spacey from his own show for allegations (but no criminal charges, yet) of sexual misconduct. Additionally, they fired Danny Masterson for allegations of rape. Why the hell do they still have this pro-Romanek (who again, is a convicted felon on child pornography charges) documentary on their platform?!