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: Balloon Boy hits Netflix on July 15.
By Elazar Abrahams
In October 2009, the entire nation was captivated by a bizarre emergency unfolding over the skies of Colorado. A frantic father told authorities that his six-year-old son had accidentally floated away in a homemade helium balloon, setting off a massive rescue effort that involved helicopters, emergency responders, and national media coverage. The saga became an overnight sensation, dominating news cycles, only for the story to implode when it was discovered the boy was hiding safely at home the entire time. The case was swiftly labeled a hoax, with the parents charged and convicted of orchestrating the stunt for publicity.
Trainwreck: Balloon Boy revisits this infamous media circus but adds a genuinely intriguing wrinkle that many viewers may have missed: the family has recently resurfaced, and they’re now claiming the entire ordeal was misunderstood. According to them, the original confession was coerced under the threat of the mother’s deportation, and they maintain that it was never intended to be a hoax. In fact, the father has since been pardoned. This new explanation raises real questions about whether the story we all thought we knew is actually the whole truth, or if the family is rewriting history to repair their image.
That follow-up is what makes this installment the most interesting of the Trainwreck documentaries so far. It’s not just a recap of a viral moment, it’s an exploration of how public perception gets locked in, how quickly the media jumps to conclusions, and how difficult it can be to reverse a narrative once the world has already decided. Whether you believe the family’s new version or not, the doc forces you to grapple with that ambiguity.
Unfortunately, Balloon Boy still isn’t a particularly well-made documentary. It leans heavily into Netflix’s familiar true-crime packaging, complete with a slightly sensational, schlocky edge. It doesn’t fully escape the genre’s exploitative feel, even though the subject matter is far lighter than the tragedies covered in earlier episodes. Still, this is the rare Trainwreck installment that actually delivers something new and thought-provoking.
I give Trainwreck: Balloon Boy a B.
TV and City 