Leah Remini thought she was done with Scientology after she wrote her best-selling memoir “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology.”
The actress, best known for her role on the long-running CBS sitcom “King of Queens,” wrote the book to come to terms with leaving the church she had called home since she was 9.
Then a sad thing happened and kept happening — people kept reaching out on social media for help.
So she decided she had to do something about it.
The result is this new docuseries — “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” — in which she meets with those whose families have been torn apart by the church’s more abusive practices.
While no current Scientology spokesperson appears in the series, just about every segment of the hourlong episode ends with an onscreen note that the church disagrees with the statements being made and points viewers to a website for a fuller look at the church’s side.
The church’s response fits with the characterizations here, of an organization that sends out tanks to take out flies.
Remini was introduced to the church when her stepfather married her mom. The church, founded by L. Ron Hubbard, promises to help people reach their full potential and, through its good works, save the planet, the kind of optimism that is catnip to young people.
For Remini, it all began unraveling at Tom Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes in 2006 when Remini innocently asked about the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige, wife to leader David, and was retaliated against.
She doesn’t tolerate bullies and is ready here to pull back the curtain on the church’s most egregious practice, “disconnection,” in which people are urged to shun a family member critical of the church.
Amy Scobee, a former church leader who helped run the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles and at one point was assigned to hire nothing but Scientologists to serve as domestic help to megastar and member Tom Cruise, recalls years of torment.
She alleges the church covered for a member who sexually abused her when she was a teenager. At 16, she signed the standard billion-year contract to join the Sea Organization, the church’s paramilitary arm. She was leaving home for the first time and was advised to lie to her father that she was going to model in Paris.
She witnessed leader Miscavige beating people who angered him.
“I am rationalizing insanity,” she said.
She was ultimately branded a suppressive person — one who is considered a threat to the church — and her mother, Bonny, was told to disconnect from her.
“That wasn’t a good day,” Bonny says.
The show, like so many unscripted series, can be repetitive.
Subsequent episodes promise to share more stories of Miscavige behaving badly and families torn asunder. The teaser for the season also indicates someone — perhaps a private investigator — follows Remini and her associate, Mike Rinder, another prominent ex-Scientologist, trying to intimidate them.
They obviously don’t know Remini.
But in taking a light to an alley few dare to tread, Remini may have given some viewers out there more than a hope and a prayer.
