It’s Netflix’s “summer of disaster,” with the streamer rolling out a new documentary each week under the Trainwreck anthology banner. Each of the eight films revisits a real-life event that spiraled out of control, from music festival tragedies to viral hoaxes and reality TV fiascos. These stories dominated headlines at the time, and now each of the installments give the ugly tales a deeper dive. At TV and City, we’re covering them all.
Trainwreck: The Real Project X hits Netflix on July 8.
By Elazar Abrahams
In 2012, a Dutch teenager’s Facebook invitation to her sixteenth birthday party accidentally went public, and the results were pure chaos. Inspired by the Hollywood movie Project X, thousands of teenagers across the Netherlands fixated on the event and RSVP’ed in droves. Despite ample warning signs, local police and officials failed to take the online hype seriously. When the crowd arrived in the small town of Haren, the event quickly spiraled into riots, vandalism, and property destruction. The girl’s family was forced to go into hiding, while the Netherlands reeled from the bizarre incident.
Trainwreck: The Real Project X is probably the least compelling of the series so far. It’s mildly interesting, especially if you weren’t familiar with the story, but compared to the weightier topics like the Astroworld tragedy or American Apparel’s workplace scandals, this one feels like a much smaller, less impactful disaster. The documentary itself is fine, but the stakes just aren’t that high. No one was seriously hurt, and the incident’s primary consequence was some local property damage and a media frenzy that quickly faded.
It’s also a strange tonal shift in the middle of a collection that’s otherwise dealing with death, scandal, and corporate malfeasance. Sure, the Facebook-to-riot pipeline is notable, but Netflix seems to be stretching the “trainwreck” definition pretty thin here. The story’s viral twist is mildly amusing, but the doc offers little beyond surface-level retelling. There’s no real emotional core or societal reflection that elevates it.
Ultimately, The Real Project X is a harmless but forgettable installment in the series. It’s a curiosity more than a must-watch.
I give Trainwreck: The Real Project X a C+.
TV and City 