by Mike Lunsford, Editor-In-Chief Great Geek Refuge

Our world can be a beautiful place. Whether it’s a gorgeous summer day, a spectacular sunset, or an interaction between a person and an adorable animal, there is a myriad of things that can inspire this beauty. We’ve delved into this in previous articles when I discussed Making It or The Great British Baking Show. As I review Hulu’s latest anthology series The Act, do not expect beauty or cute or calming television. The Act shows you a dark side to humanity that is almost unbelievable — until you find out that this particular story is based on a true story. Let’s dive in.

The Act follows the story of Gypsy Blanchard (Joey King, Ramona and Beezus), who uses a wheelchair due to an illness. Growing up, her relationship with her overprotective mother Dee Dee (Patricia Arquette, True Romance) begins to sour as she increasingly insists on her independence. She rebels as her mother tries to tighten her grip on her teenage daughter. Dee Dee becomes more abusive, controlling, and manipulative as Gypsy desperately seeks romance. The relationship turns even more toxic as Gypsy discovers that her mother has been keeping a great deal from her.

Now, in keeping with the spirit of these “What to Watch” reviews, I won’t spoil the reveal for those of you who don’t know anything about the real life story of Gypsy and Dee Dee Blanchard. Needless to say, this is a story that is too shocking to be fictional. But, for the sake of this review, everything that follows this paragraph will be a spoiler. Here is the unspoiled review:

The series is captivating, emotionally involving and heartbreaking. The first few episodes are incredible and keep you riveted to the series. It does drag on a bit towards the end and was probably 2 episodes longer than it needed to be. In the end though, the drag out didn’t take much away from the end result. 7.5 out of 10 Dramas-based-on-true-stories. It’s worth your time and makes you want to know more about the real story it was based on.

**** SPOILERS AHEAD*****

The Act is messed up. Plain and simple, this show made me feel sick. This is not an indictment on the quality of the show or the professionalism of the writers, actors, and directors. No, this show was performed well, written respectfully and directed in a way that kept it interesting. In fact, Patricia Arquette and Joey King are incredible in this series. It’s the subject matter that made watching this show so uncomfortable. Dee Dee successfully deceived not only Gypsy but also her family, friends, and medical professionals into believing her child was ill. It is suggested that she suffers from Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (formerly known as Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome), a mental illness in which a caregiver exaggerates or fakes another person's illness to gain sympathy. But it didn’t stop there. Gypsy was also told she was younger than she actually was. Dee Dee did that to control her and gain more profit from her illness.

The show builds to a fever pitch as Gypsy’s desire to grow up and find love is met with Dee Dee’s need to keep Gypsy a child forever. It’s the classic “unstoppable force meets immovable object” match up: Gypsy is tenacious in her natural desires and needs—but based on Dee Dee’s sometimes violent and often insane outbursts—she’s not backing down either. What further complicates matters is the legality of what they are doing. Dee Dee has Gypsy sign over her rights and explains to her that “it’s the only way to protect her,” if someone were to find out that they were essentially grifting people out of their money. Their whole operation was predicated on people feeling bad for poor little Gypsy, the sick girl with cancer who can’t walk. They were given thousands of dollars, a free house from Habitat For Humanity, free trips to Disney World, and millions of dollars worth of free merchandise and equipment. Dee Dee’s psychological disorder may have been at the root of the problem, but it manifested over time into a full blown exercise in criminal deceit. She knew she was doing wrong and continued to do it is beyond the scope of the Munchausen By Proxy diagnosis. It was a ticking time bomb. The truth would have to come out and it was going to be messy no matter how it plays out.

Eventually, Gypsy covertly creates an online dating profile and ends up finding a boyfriend. She tells Nick (Callum Worthy, Austin & Ally) all about the issues she has with her mother and the two begin plotting how to get Gypsy away from the iron fist rule of Dee Dee. The two of them come up with a murder scheme, but it was Nick who did the killing. However, were they justified in killing Dee Dee who was treating Gypsy like a prisoner? When it comes down to what we know, how much was true? Did Gypsy fabricate pieces of the story to make her situation seem worse? It’s been stated that Gypsy knew that Nick was developmentally delayed. He was easily swayed to her “damsel in distress” bit, even if it was in fact, true. But she liked the attention it got her. It all became a role play for her, a way to disassociate. You see this as the series heads towards its finale and as you see Gypsy exhibiting the same sort of controlling and manipulative behaviors Dee Dee would use on her towards Nick. Whether this was intentional to get what she wanted or just her imitating the behavior she had seen for decades is up for debate. I don’t believe Gypsy knew who she was to begin with. The girl played so many roles in her life that her mother put upon her. This poor girl will have to deal with unravelling these issues for the rest of her life. Ultimately, 3 lives were lost: Dee Dee was dead, Nick had a life imprisonment sentence and Gypsy will be attempting to pick up the pieces and figure out who she actually is for the rest of her life.

The series was well received and garnered many good reviews. However, if you ask the real Gypsy Blanchard, it doesn’t matter because they never got permission from her to make a series about her life. Gypsy’s family was also upset because they were promised proceeds from the Hulu series and never received anything. In fact, communication was cut off with the producers and they have not heard back.

From reading through online depictions and other reviews, the series is fairly accurate to what happened. There are certain liberties taken with parts of the source material, gaps are filled in with narrative choices and certain interactions have changed to increase the impact of events. It could be part design or that no one truly knows what exactly happened, but you are left wondering who was really guilty here? Whose story can you trust? Was Dee Dee the monster Gypsy made her out to be? Was Gypsy just as manipulative and controlling as her mother? If she was, can you blame her given the example she was shown as a child? The series is truly fascinating when it comes to these questions raised.

As stated above, I give The Act a 7.5 out of 10. The show is engaging to watch, it' makes you feel awful for poor little Gypsy but in the end…how much of what she was telling you is fabricated? Can she be trusted or is all of her story…wait for… the act? (see what I did there?)

If you want to know more about the real life story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother Dee Dee, you can read the article by Harper’s Bazaar right here or watch the youTube video here.

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