On Feb. 27, 2025 Hulu released one of the most awaited documentaries titled “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.” The documentary is the story of how one of the most famous and popular YouTube Channels “8 Passengers” was at its peak and how it took a turn for the worst.
The documentary starts off my Hulu showing doorbell footage of Ruby’s youngest son asking a neighbor to call the police for him as he has duct-tape and lots of cuts on his wrist. They then begin to introduce Kevin Franke (Ruby’s husband), Shari Franke (Ruby’s oldest daughter) and then Chad (Ruby’s oldest son). Hulu does a very good job of setting up the story and introducing the people they are going to interview and how they play a role in the story.
The next scene is the “8 Passengers” first ever YouTube video of them doing a gender reveal for the baby that Ruby is pregnant with. This is the start of the Family’s YouTube channel and Kevin explains how the deeper reason for Ruby starting the YouTube channel is because she didn’t feel appreciated enough so with the channel other people would appreciate her more.
The “8 passengers” YouTube channel grows and becomes very popular to younger audiences and families. Then when Mothers day rolls around YouTube on In “8 passengers” and Ruby and they keep gaining more subscribers by the day and video. The setup of the documentary is very good and even for someone like me who never watched the “8 Passengers” videos, but my sisters can still enjoy and understand what the documentary is about and the backstory to everything. The storytelling is a key part of the documentary’s success.
Chad Ruby’s oldest son Chad Franke begins to get in a lot of trouble at school and Ruby takes Chad’s bed as a punishment for not behaving in school. The Franke’s then hire a therapist for Chad named Jodi Hildebrandt. Jodi is a Morman therapist that had been known for her aggressive and extreme tactics and lessons. This part in the documentary begins to shift the perspective towards Jodi and Ruby as a duo and individuals.
Jodi eventually moves in with the Frankes and she and Ruby begin to make some questionable decisions with the YouTube channel and they begin to lose subscribers because people that watch the videos see that the kids are being treated unfairly and not good at all.
One day, Ruby’s youngest son Russell leaves the house and goes to the neighbors house and asks for him to call the cops, the cops arrive and they take russell to the hospital and can easily see that has been beat, dehydrated, malnutrition and had duct tape on his legs and arms. The cops then go into the house and get the rest of Ruby’s kid. Ruby and Jodi are then arrested on felony accounts for Child abuse.
This documentary was very good and very entertaining. Hulu did a very detailed job of how they gave the story of the “8 passengers” YouTube Channel and now deleted and how they rose to fame and then fell to not even being on the app anymore. I would highly recommend this documentary to anyone who used to watch the “8 passengers” or who likes YouTube family vlogs. I give this documentary a ⅘.
