Review on: “The Mind of Jake Paul”

Jaeden Johnson, Entertainment Writer

Jake Paul is a YouTube influencer and personality who rose to fame on Vine. He has been videos with his brother Logan Paul for years back in Ohio. Until he left high school, Jake Paul left high school and moved to Hollywood to start a business with influencers, Alissa Violet and Nick Crompton.     

Moved into a house of influencers to work, collaborate, and have fun. This group was called, “Team 10, it blew up and instantly grew in popularity due to all the scandals with the members.  

Shane Dawson, YouTube influencer creates documentaries on people in the YouTube community who he is fascinated by. He was intrigued by the world of Jake Paul.   

The series started with Shane tweeting at Jake, and he instantly got backlash from fans. Jake Paul is not very well liked in the community, so people were unhappy when he announced it. To be honest, I was a little upset too. I’m not a fan of Jake Paul because I think that his videos are fake, and he starts drama to become popular and get views. Although I wasn’t too excited because I knew Jake would get following from this, I kept an open mind when watching this thrill enticing series.  

Part one out of the eight-part series, Shane talks to a drama channel called: “Inabber”. These influencers are talking about all the controversies like ex-girlfriend Alissa Violet, bullying the Martinez twins, the assault, contracts with the team 10 members, and suicide forest.   

In my opinion, this episode isn’t super solid. Shane is talking to a drama channel about conspiracies about what may be going on. This episode is almost like saying things about Jake without Jake there to defend himself. I do not think that’s what Shane was trying to do at all. Shane does conspiracy videos and he is interested in conspiracies, so I think for the first episode he wanted to start it off with getting the subject into our head.   

Jake not only causes drama and has scandals, but he also does a lot of insane, rebellious things on YouTube. He does pranks, stunts, and many things as a joke that cause scenes. He has also been seen in vlogs, just being a jerk to Team 10 members. This led to people thinking that Jake is a sociopath. This is what fascinated Shane, he wanted to start the series based on a question, “Is Jake Paul a sociopath?”  

Episode two starts with Shane talking to a certified therapist, Kati Morton. This episode was very alluring. Morton described all the symptoms of a sociopath and broke down everything for Shane, including saying the appalling statistic, “one out of twenty-five people are sociopaths.”  

Symptoms, according to a certified therapist, include: a lack of empathy, failure to conform to social norms, deceitfulness with constant lying and conning others, desire to have power or money, reckless disregard for the safety of others, consistent irresponsibility, lack of remorse, and manipulation.   

This episode just felt so real, and I could feel the goosebumps on my skin as Morton described these traits of a sociopath.    

Episode three was very dark. Shane got deep into the family life of Jake Paul including brother Logan Paul, dad Greg Paul, and mom Pamela Stepnick. Shane knew if he wanted to find out what Jake is like and get in his mind, he had to investigate what his parents and childhood were like.   

This episode is the one where I really felt pity for Jake because his dad lives with him and both his parents create videos but use their sons as clickbait. Everything was starting to make sense on why Jake is emotionally not connected like most, or why he comes off as cocky and competitive. It is almost like his parents are exploiting him by putting them in the thumbnail, and using captions like, “Which son do I like better.” If I saw my mom putting stuff like that on the internet, I’d be very upset and just question her, “Why would you even do this?”   

Episode 4 is about the “enemies of Jake Paul.” Nick Crompton, social media influencer has known Jake since the beginning and helped him start Team 10. Nick Crompton was one of Jakes best friends, but then he left Team 10 due to the drama with Jakes dad, Greg Paul. Shane interviews Nick to get an idea of what Jake was like before all the fame, because, in the first episode, Shane has noticed how different his content changed just within a year.  

In this interview, Shane talks about how former members, the Martinez twins left because of all the pranks every single day, but Nick exposes that all the pranks were fake. All the pranks that Jake pulls that he’s known to be a “jerk” for, they are all fake. Jake would tell a member that in the morning, he will prank them.  

If all their pranks are fake, it just makes me think that maybe Jake isn’t so crazy and he’s not a sociopath. He’s smart because he plans his pranks. Now knowing this information, I understand why the Team 10 members kept it a secret because they didn’t want their viewers to be ruined by the fact that their pranks are fake. 

Episode 5 is when Shane Dawson finally visit the team 10 house. Shane sneakily brings therapist Kati Morton along as his “producer” to observe Jake’s behaviors. After observing him all day, she finds herself having pity for him, and she does not believe Jake to be a sociopath because he is empathic and caring towards his girlfriend, Erika Costell. 

In my opinion, I don’t think Jake is a sociopath, I don’t think his relationship or anything, besides the pranks, are fake. Jake is insanely intelligent. He moved to Hollywood straight out of high school started taking acting lessons, he built a business, was on a TV show, and he still made content every day. Jake physically and mentally works so hard, and he has people in the Team 10 house he genuinely cares about. 

Many people hate him, but I dislike the old Jake. Jake Paul has changed. All his controversies have changed him. In episode 6, Shane sits down and talks to Erika about Alissa Violet, Jakes ex-girlfriend, and his dysfunctional family. 

As a viewer, I can see Erika and Jake really do care and love each other, their relationship isn’t fake at all. All the scandals he faced with Alissa and beef with Faze Banks, Alissa Violet’s current boyfriend are 100% real. Although he does show some sociopathic tendencies, he just wants to make his family and friends proud.  

Episode seven, Shane sits down with ex-girlfriend Alissa violet, because she wanted to tell her side of the story. To summarize what happened, Jake and Alissa we’re off and on, and they were never “officially dating,” so Jake would bring other girls’ home with him. This mental abuse was getting to Alissa’s head because she just wanted to be with him and be official.  

One day Alissa could not take it, so she wanted to be a “savage” like Jake. She invited Logan Paul over, without the intention of hooking up, but it happened, and she felt awful. The news ended up getting to Jake, and he kicked her out. Alissa wanted to tell her story because viewers we’re “slut-shaming” her, and they didn’t know the full mentally abusive relationship behind it.   

I am personally a huge fan of Alissa Violet, and I could really feel how nervous she was to finally tell her truth. Shane truly captured the different stories behind one big topic, and he got a better perspective.   

In episode 8, Shane finally does his big interview with Jake and ask him everything, all the drama, controversies, and the truth behind why he did things.  

My final thoughts of this series are that Jake is not a sociopath. Therapist, Kati Morton even said she didn’t think he was a sociopath, because he does show empathy, and from the interview, you can tell he does care and has a “heart,” because he almost cries in certain clips.  

I think Erika Costell is someone he should hold onto, because Jake trust her, and after all that happened with Alissa and his brother, he started developing trust issues. Erika taught him to feel and love again, and what its like to put trust into someone you love. Jake confesses he never spoke about how he felt because he was so hated, but “They can’t hate you from telling the truth, and everyone is on the same level, there is no right or wrong side to take because every side has its issues.” Said Shane.