Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Developing Netflix Series About Physical And Spiritual Wellness

Goop, the controversial wellness brand created by Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, is expanding its empire. A new report says that the company is pausing production on its quarterly print magazine in order to focus on developing a docuseries at Netflix that's heading to the streaming service this fall. Read more about the Goop Netflix deal below, and find out how else Paltrow's company is working to extend its reach.Variety brings word that the untitled Goop Netflix series will "consist of 30-minute episodes hosted by the site's editors, chief content officer Elise Loehnen and Paltrow. The team will utilize experts, doctors, and researchers to examine issues relating to physical and spiritual wellness." The show also "seeks to dial up the aesthetics and quality of storytelling surrounding issues like mental, physical and sexual health — and address larger thematic questions the Goop audience has about leading optimal lives."

In addition to the Netflix series, the brand has locked an exclusive podcast partnership with Delta Airlines; Variety says the Goop podcast was one of the iTunes store's most-downloaded last year, and they're also developing "standalone podcasts with in-house beauty expert Jean Godfrey-June [...], a food program hosted by an award-winning chef, and a Goop book club featuring author interviews and reviews."

Paltrow created Goop in 2008. It began as a newsletter full of travel tips and recipes, but has since morphed into a full-blown lifestyle brand that's best summed up by this 2018 article from The New York Times:

[Goop is] a wellspring of both totally legitimate wellness tips and completely bonkers magical thinking: advice from psychotherapists and advice from doctors about how much Vitamin D to take (answer: a lot! Too much!) and vitamins for sale and body brushing and dieting and the afterlife and crystals and I swear to God something called Psychic Vampire Repellent, which is a "sprayable elixir" that uses "gem healing" to something something "bad vibes."

Goop has been slammed for being elitist (it regularly sells products that cost hundreds of dollars and refers to itself as being "aspirational" instead of practical) and it's been derided as peddling pseudoscience – one doctor even devoted an entire website to pointing out the company's flawed claims.

Here's an excerpt from Goop that seems to justify its strategy (and, coincidentally, uses the phrase "conscious uncoupling" without a hint of irony):

Many wellness themes, from ancient (yoga, cupping, and acupuncture) to emerging (gluten-free, conscious uncoupling) have found early boosts on goop—while initially derided, they've now become mainstream. This is primarily because the derision means that people begin to have conversations about them—they've examined them, laughed at them, looked deeper into them, adopted them, discarded them, perfected them.

Variety's piece doesn't mention any of the controversy surrounding the company, or indicate any potential problems that may result from Goop being given a larger platform.

To be clear, I'm not here to rain on anybody's parade – I appreciate anyone's desire to improve themselves – but before you aimlessly flip through Netflix selections and get sucked in to Goop's star power and "aspirational" lifestyle, it may be worth doing a little extra research to see exactly what you're getting into.