How to Become a Tyrant (2021)
Ruling with an iron fist requires an aspiring dictator to know the playbook for absolute power, as history's despots prove in this sardonic docuseries.
Stars: Peter Dinklage, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Waller Newell
Full Cast: Ruth BenGhiat, Fathali Moghaddam, Asha Rangappa, Andrew Sullivan, Alastair Smith, Madeleine Albright, Mariam Mufti, Benjamin Radd, Milton Allimadi, Jodi Beggs, Jonathan Brent, Paul Fischer
Episode Guide
Season 1
July 9, 2021Episode 6 Rule Forever
July 9, 2021Episode 5 Create a New Society
July 9, 2021Episode 4 Control the Truth
July 9, 2021Episode 3 Reign Through Terror
July 9, 2021Episode 2 Crush Your Rivals
July 9, 2021Episode 1 Seize Power
Best How to Become a Tyrant Episodes
Top 20 (Ranked)
July 9, 2021
7.5 280 votesS1E2 Crush Your Rivals
7.5 280 votesS1E2 Crush Your Rivals July 9, 20217.5 214 votesS1E6 Rule Forever
7.5 214 votesS1E6 Rule Forever July 9, 20217.4 304 votesS1E1 Seize Power
7.4 304 votesS1E1 Seize Power July 9, 20217.4 243 votesS1E3 Reign Through Terror
7.4 243 votesS1E3 Reign Through Terror July 9, 20217.3 242 votesS1E4 Control the Truth
7.3 242 votesS1E4 Control the Truth July 9, 20217.3 223 votesS1E5 Create a New Society
7.3 223 votesS1E5 Create a New Society How to Become a Tyrant Trailer
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User Reviews
Watchseries; If you like documentaries, don't watch this. The animated drawings are childish. Why did they not use actual footage? Much more interesting.
If you are intrigued by war and dictators, Ken Burns the War is a much better watch.
If you like documentaries, don't watch this. The animated drawings are childish. Why did they not use actual footage? Much more interesting.
If you are intrigued by war and dictators, Ken Burns the War is a much better watch.
How to Become a Tyrant watchseries. Yeah they were dictators, but they didn't show how US imperialism supported some of those and finance them while they needed them, after they throw them to wild masses, anyway some interesting facts can be seen in it.
But in the end it's too much of entertainment over substance .
It's a highly complex topic that deserves better than a few neatly put together soundbites and anecdotes, which ultimately is what this TV show presents .
And certainly 6 short episode can't even cover the limited scope of the matter the makers chose to include .
Nice try, Netflix, but you are what you are .
No China are you kidding me? What are you trying to say Netflix??
Zidong mao isWhere is the evil mao? Forgotten. He was mortified. I feel disappointed.
"How to Become a Dictator" tries to oversimplify history but does a bad job at it. For example, analysing Saddam, they ignore that one reason he was popular (and remains popular with many Iraqis) is the prosperity Iraq had under him in healthcare, education, women's freedom, religious freedom for Christians and near-complete absence of street crime. They hated him for his brutality against his rivals and the war against Iran. He was preceded by very brutal dictators and succeeded by a military man from an occupying force, yet they don't include these in this documentary. If you don't present him in this fashion then you're being dishonest.
Many Russians miss the communist days of the Soviet Union. Many obviously are horrified by it. History and world leaders are very complicated and you can't just present them as "good guy" or "bad guy" like it's a Disney movie.
Last point, many of these brutal dictators and others not mentioned in this documentary stay in power because of excellent relationships they have with powerful western countries (USA, France as an example), and they lose their grip when that support stops for whatever reason.