The production addresses one of the most bizarre cases of true crime.
If you think you’ve seen it all in true crime, Beauty and the Best could redefine what an “unbelievable story” means, and not just because it looks like a Hollywood script, but because everything here really happened. The South African documentary miniseries arrived on Netflix in September 2025 and delves into what many have already classified as one of the most bizarre cases of escape and manipulation in recent years.
The center of the narrative is Thabo Bester, a criminal convicted of murder and rape, nicknamed the “Facebook Rapist” for luring victims via social media before attacking them. Sentenced to life in prison, he reportedly “died” in a fire in his cell at Mangaung Correctional Center in 2022… until forensic evidence began to reveal a much more disturbing truth.
The body found in the cell was not that of Bester, but that of another victim, and from then on the investigation collapsed the official version. The daring escape, which involved faking his own death, led to one of the biggest cases of document manipulation and fraud in recent history.
The plot gets even stranger with the presence of Dr. Nandipha Magudumana, a celebrity doctor in South Africa with a solid career in dermatology and aesthetics. According to the docuseries, she played an essential role in the escape plan, claiming to be Bester’s “wife” to remove the body and facilitate his escape.
This unlikely connection between a violent killer and a respected public figure made national and international headlines, transforming the case into a mix of crime, seduction, media power and betrayal that Netflix explores in depth in its three episodes.
Directed by Anthony Molyneaux, Beauty and the Bester presents a non-linear narrative, interweaving interviews with journalists, family members, authorities and experts, as well as archive news and never-before-seen images. This fragmented montage creates palpable suspense, at the cost of some chronological confusion at times, said critics who attended the premiere.
While part of the public praises the intensity and “true suspense” of the story, others comment that the series could benefit from a more direct timeline, especially for those less accustomed to the investigative documentary format.
Perhaps the most cinematic episode in this story occurred off-screen: shortly before the premiere, Bester and Magudumana tried to legally prevent the release of the series, claiming that it could harm their right to a fair trial. Netflix won the dispute in court, and the series was released for viewing — an extra ingredient of controversy that only increased the public’s curiosity.
It’s not just another true crime documentary: Beauty and the Best crosses lines between media scandal, systemic failures in the prison system, and the power that influential people can wield even when involved in brutal crimes. The series does not offer easy answers, but it raises disturbing questions about truth, identity and how appearances can be deceiving, both in the media and in the justice system.
