Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons focuses on the peculiar relationship between sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Leslie Wexner, the owner of the hugely successful lingerie brand. Matt Tyrnauer’s three-episode series for Hulu, which is being streamed in India on Lionsgate Play, serves as a companion piece to the Netflix documentary Jeffery Epstein: Filthy Rich.

Viewers who have been following the Epstein case and the indictment of his lover Ghislaine Maxwell will already be familiar with the timeline of events. Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons digs deeper into Wexner’s own possible role in enabling Epstein’s predations.

The film attempts to get to the heart of questions that remain unanswered. Why did Wexner, an astute businessman who overcame a hardscrabble childhood to build a Fortune 500 company, give Epstein unprecedented power of attorney over his financial operations? Why did Wexner stick by Epstein even after Epstein’s serial abuse of women come to light? What was the nature of Epstein’s hold over Wexner – was it old-fashioned blackmail or something far more sinister, involving espionage and governments?

There is speculation about the role played by America’s Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s spy service Mossad. Did Epstein actually hang himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for abusing and trafficking underage women, or….

Epstein’s circle of super-influential friends, ranging from Prince Andrew and Bill Gates to the former American presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, gives some credence to the conspiracy theories voiced by journalists in the film, if not actually proving them. While the documentary casts an even more unflattering light on Wexner’s reliance on Epstein, it works better as a bust-to-boom saga of a business that fell so hard for its own advertising spiel that it couldn’t keep up with changing times.

Using a raft of footage, especially of the glitzy fashion shows staged by the company until very recently, Tyrnauer provides fascinating insights into how women were invited to participate in their own objectification. Interviews with top-ranking former Victoria’s Secret executives – nearly all of them female – reveal Wexner’s brilliance in selling a simple and yet lucrative fantasy to women: if you wear Victoria’s Secret lingerie, you will be irresistible to men.

Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons 
Wexner’s ability to constantly up the ante served him well when he drew the fashion world into the bra-panty-cami business. Inspired by filmmaker Sidney Lumet and fashion designer Ralph Lauren, Wexler built a story around his brand, which included creating a fake British character named Victoria.