'Wedding.con' review: Scamming in love

True-crime docu-series 'Wedding.con' unveils the dark underbelly of matrimonial fraud and its impact on vulnerable women.

Getting scammed is not easy to recover from but being conned in love takes pain and heartache to new heights. Chilling tales of deceit, cybercrime and the frailties of law enforcement agencies lie at the heart of 'Wedding.con'. Tanuja Chandra's true-crime documentary series tells the complex story of five women who fell for scams while seeking love and marriage. The nuanced series is interspersed with fictional depictions of their harrowing experiences. Tanuja highlights the afflicted-yet-inspiring voices of the women by letting them narrate their stories.

The first season of the series has five episodes. If you’re wondering if there’s any truth to the title of Alice Walker’s popular book, ‘You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down’, this series is proof. She can be cheated on. Lied to. Taken advantage of.. by every man she's ever loved. Yet she is strong enough to gather the shreds of her dignity and rise like a Phoenix after betrayal!

The series sparks some discussions around women being judged for their choices. It highlights the deep-rooted sexism prevalent in our society. The episodes showcase the hostility towards women daring to be brave, independent, and adventurous. The show shines a light on how society is waiting for women to fail. The lack of stringent laws and the loopholes that stand in the way of justice are also explored.

The show aims to draw attention to the necessity for matrimonial sites to weed out scammers and for our legal system to tighten the noose around them. However, it would have been useful for audiences if the focus was on their modus operandi. Most of the discourse around learning about the offenders and their approach gets lost in translation between the switching narratives, but again... why take away the pain and agony of the betrayed women?