The Great Hack is the type of documentary that becomes part of pop culture and everyone watching it thinks they’ve uncovered some great unknown. The Cambridge Analytica “scandal” is a modern-day scandal, in that, people’s naivety leads them to shock. It’s best to explain what happened by drawing the obvious comparisons with how things work in the Star Wars universe.

Okay, so Cambridge Analytica is the data observer for the Galactic Empire. It’s hard to pull the strings if you can’t run a bit of propaganda now and again. Cambridge Analytica sells a product that claims to know how voters can be swayed. So, they have the Death Star of press releases, right? No, they just have an extensive database. That’s it. Their leader, Alexander Nix, is a Sith Lord that sells the tool to campaigns needing an advantage. Some say, an unfair advantage.

Like any Sith, he needs an apprentice. Enter Brittany Kaiser. A bright-eyed, morally sound, successful left-wing orientated business developer. Under Nix’s spell, she experiences a step into the perceived Dark Side. Cambridge Analytica are making people not vote in campaigns that run counter to the expectation of the electorate. They plant seeds on the Internet, sometimes in the form of memes, and watch chaos ensue.

Just like Anakin, the Dark Side takes its toll physically. She goes from poster girl to a bloated mess of a character. Then, she decides to speak out against the organisation (who continue to proclaim innocence). And that’s about the gist of the whole, drawn-out affair.

The biggest conspiracy here is how Cambridge Analytica has managed to convince people to part with millions for dubious data returns. The scam is how Nix has packaged and sold something as a Golden Skeleton Key. Fair play for pulling off that deception. It goes to prove: there’s no such thing as bad press.

4/10