The Last Days of August

The Last Days of August is Jon Ronson’s serial about the death of adult-film performer August Ames, and the online cruelty that surrounded her final days.

Ronson talks to people who loved her, people who worked with her, and people who participated in the pile-on. He is visibly uneasy about his own presence in the story.

The series is narrative reporting on shame and the internet, from a writer who has spent years on public shaming as a subject. It does not offer a neat villain and a moral you can wear.

Ronson’s softness is not a solution, and the show does not pretend that it is.