Dr. Rachael Gunn, aka Raygun, looks at the camera, talking about the warmups she has to do with her coach. These warmups help her be the best dancer she can be within the breakdancing scene blooming in Australia. Her ‘skills’ get her to qualify for the Olympics, where she has to undergo more rigorous training. The genre’s temporary stay as an Olympic sport means a point system where judges look for explosive moves. She tries to incorporate those kinds of moves, flying to Taiwan and to Paris with her coach. Her body goes through exhaustion and so do her parents who want to support their audacious daughter. The Olympics come, and so comes a performance so terrible that people concoct conspiracy theories about her.

This instalment of the Untold series has Netflix bringing out the big guns aka the Way Brothers. And they luck out the way most documentary filmmakers do in getting behind the scenes footage of her. Raygun is just like most millennials in that either she’s recording herself or someone is recording her. It makes sense for footage of her to exist because of her involvement within the breakdancing scene. That footage has her talking about her coach Samuel Free, who becomes her husband through thick and thin. At other times though she has to be just on her own because of her rigorous training and her media appearances. And Raygun: Breaking Badly shows an inconsistent athlete training only to get worse.

Archive footage is one of the elements that comprise Raygun: Breaking Badly and so does interviews of Raygun. The installment of the Untold series competently shows all sides of the story previously unseen. Interviews of female breakers have those women finally saying things about her abilities or lack thereof. This aspect of the installment is where it shines because it’s showing things that she probably may not know about. One of these interviews include her parents, especially her mother who had difficulty travelling because of her health. Her aneurysms made those plane trips difficult but she didn’t want her daughter to quit the Olympics. She and her husband laugh about those times now, having fun in Paris before their daughter’s viral moment.

Raygun’s viral moment comes and Raygun: Breaking Badly shows its aftermath, particularly the social online onslaught against her. Viewers get to see quasi-anonymous TikTokers who concoct conspiracy theories about her rigging the Olympic qualifying rounds. This is where I get to assume that the Australian breakdancing scene is like any art scene. The other interviewees confirm that she was the best female break dancer that time – she got lucky then. Sure, in artistic and maybe athletic communities, some people show up who are confident and less talented. But that’s the thing – she showed up and that’s part of the reason she rose to the Olympics. Yes, maybe we artists need to be meaner, but people don’t win unless they dare step up.

Netflix is the only platform to stream Raygun: Breaking Badly.