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The first big surprise of “OnlyFantasy” is where it begins: with journalist Leon Neyfakh interviewing his little sister Annie. “I’m your brother. It could be awkward, but it doesn’t have to be,” he floats cautiously. 

“I don’t think it’s awkward,” she replies. “I’ve had people from OnlyFans message you, so you can’t get more awkward than that.” 

“Dude, I cannot believe that I forgot that.”

As opening beats go, a halting conversation between siblings is pretty standard episode one fare. But for those familiar with Neyfakh’s work, this moment represents a seismic departure. That he has a sister at all, much less one with experience as an OnlyFans creator, is far more personal stuff than Neyfakh tends to reveal. It’s listeners’ first clue that “OnlyFantasy” will be an intimate, searching, and deeply vulnerable affair.

Best-known for creating the anthology history series “Slow Burn” and “Fiasco,” Neyfakh’s typical approach as a reporter is to mostly keep himself out of the storyline. It’s a logical choice when dramatizing historical scandals like Watergate or Benghazi, or when examining the complicated legacy of a pop icon. In fact, one of Neyfakh’s great gifts is his ability to trust that his subject matter is compelling, without tacking on some ponderous meta-story about why it matters to him, personally. 

But in “OnlyFantasy,” Audible’s six-part series made in partnership with Neyfakh’s Prologue Projects, his personal inclusion in the narrative feels not only earned, but essential. Here is a creator who normally keeps his audience at a distance, choosing instead to leave himself exposed. How better to level the playing field when covering the world of OnlyFans? 

A Professional Girlfriend’s Journey

Granted, as personal revelations go, Neyfakh’s exposure is minuscule compared to that of his cohost, comedian and OnlyFans creator Gracie Canaan. If Neyfakh is the show’s designated naïf, Canaan is its openhearted explorer, using her experience in online sex work to gain access to the wilder corners of OnlyFans, or as creators call it, OF. 

Without Canaan, it is hard to imagine this series transcending the realm of anthropological study. Listeners would surely learn a lot, but as visitors to a strange land. Canaan, on the other hand, lives here. She has literal skin in the game. 

Canaan’s OF handle is “Professional Girlfriend.” It’s an innocent enough persona, which keeps her self-described “prudish” cohost from melting with embarrassment. And for the listener, it’s easy enough to imagine oneself in this Professional Girlfriend’s shoes. Canaan begins the series as a creator with a small but devoted following. Her OF account exists mostly to pay down her student loans and free up time to pursue a standup career. Relative to Neyfakh, she is an OF expert. But as “OnlyFantasy” heats up, Canaan soon realizes how little she really knows about the platform and its potential for dizzying entrepreneurial heights and crushing ugliness. 

Early in the series, Canaan articulates a belief that an account like hers can “save men” — said tongue-in-cheek, but with feeling. Her theory is that OF gives men a forum to be sensitive and giving in a society that scorns such qualities. But what of subscribers who pour thousands of dollars into OF behind their partners’ backs? What of creators who gaslight subscribers and take advantage of their deepest fears? What of the Andrew Tates of the world, who weaponize the OF economy to enslave women and brainwash men? What of Canaan’s new subscribers that spam her inbox, insisting she “show pussy” or else?

Winning The OnlyFans Wards

If it seems like OnlyFans is having a zeitgeisty moment, that’s because it is. On HBO, a major plotline in the uneven third season of “Euphoria” revolves around Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie becoming an OF creator, quickly hitting a wall of humiliating exploitation. Meanwhile, A24’s starry Apple TV adaptation of the novel “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” approaches its subject from a more sympathetic POV. Wired’s Jason Parham declared “Margo” the winner of “TV’s OnlyFans Wars,” noting that the show “wants to humanize the experience of sex workers rather than catastrophize the extremes of the profession.” 

But even as prestige television is having fun exploring OF’s narrative possibilities, the broader discourse can often feel stuck at Morality Corner. “Is it wrong to sell your body online?” is certainly a question, but probably the least interesting one you can ask. Thankfully, “OnlyFantasy” doesn’t spend much time on it. Neyfakh and Canaan, along with their adroit producing and story team, deftly sidestep the quagmire of moralizing about sex work itself. They’re much more interested in the many forms virtual sex work can take, and the oddball characters populating that world. 

It would spoil the fun to reveal too much about the star players of “OnlyFantasy,” but suffice to say they make up a hearty variety of quirky folk. Neyfakh and Canaan interview everyone from a sexagenarian creator to a corporate agency manager to a “Drag Race” alum and former “chatter,” the low-wage ghostwriters who operate in the gray areas of OF’s rules. One fascinating angle of the series is discovering all the invisible satellite jobs that have sprung up in the shadow of the OF economy. And depending on the episode and who has the mic, OF can sound like the world’s greatest invention, or the tool by which humankind will wreak its own destruction. 

This is not to say that “OnlyFantasy” is wholly incurious about Right vs. Wrong. But right and wrong in this context are intensely personal concepts, defined mainly by the promises people make to each other. One of the most satisfying journeys of the series is Canaan’s own, as she forces herself to reckon with what operating morally means to her, and how she can use her internal compass to navigate her career as an OF creator. 

As for Neyfakh, this is his most personal work yet, and that’s for the good. Throughout the series, he shares as much as he expects others to share, yet assiduously avoids the Podcaster’s Trap of making the journey all about himself. His goal, as he states outright, is simply to understand. Judged on those terms, “OnlyFantasy” absolutely satisfies.