Making the most of its extensive access to Giancarlo Granda, the figure at the center of it all, Hulu’s “God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty” pulls back the curtain on a diabolical tale of sex, lies, hypocrisy and political intrigue — for flow reasons, a divine cocktail if ever there was one.
Dismissed as the “pool boy” in early media accounts, Granda and his sister Lilia portray him as naively drawn into the lifestyle of Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife, Becky, having met the former University heir Liberty and husband while providing beverage service at a posh Miami hotel.
Granda went on to have a long affair with Becki Falwell, claiming her husband was fully aware of the deal and was trying to set up real estate opportunities for Granda in part to keep his wife happy.
“They have this weird psychological control over me,” Granda says, while his sister — referring to her reservations about her brother’s actions at the time — says that when financial doors started opening for him, “I thought, ‘ As strange as this thing is. started, maybe it will turn into something good.”
As the title makes clear, this was not the case, and the whole story is complicated by Falwell’s political influence as an evangelical leader, giving then-candidate Donald Trump crucial support during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Filmmaker Billy Corben has created an entire body of documentaries around the Sunshine State and its colorful excesses, including “Cocaine Cowboys” and “The U.” “God Forbid” puts him very much in the same space, using cheeky dramatic recreations to visualize the premise, combined with voice-over interviews to flesh out the details.
“God Forbid” also detours to explain the history of Liberty’s founding under Jerry Falwell Sr., the younger Falwell’s somewhat awkward role as a scion of that empire, and the broader evolution of the evangelical movement around the issue of abortion as a political concentration point.
Granda is portrayed sympathetically, with plenty of text messages as well as input from his sister – with whom he had shared details, about the two of them – to support his account of events. He admits he was ambitious but basically in over his head dealing with the older Falwells while being dazzled by their money and connections. (The Falwells declined to be interviewed for the documentary.)
“God Forbid” also earns points for not overplaying its hand, telling the story in a relatively concise package – as opposed to expanding it in the increasingly popular documentary format – while still tying the central scandal to the political tides with which he was inextricably linked.
Jerry Falwell resigned from Liberty in 2020, acknowledging Becki Falwell’s relationship with Granda, while stating that he was “not involved.” He also alleged that Granda had tried to blackmail the couple, a charge Granda denied.
“God Forbid” clearly provides Granda with a friendly forum to tell his story, which includes how he came out on the other side of his 15 minutes of fame. Whether that translated into “something good” for him, as his sister hoped, in terms of giving the producers a seemingly irresistible subject, it certainly has for them.
“God Forbid: The Sex Scandal that Brought Down a Dynasty” premieres November 1 on Hulu.
