‘The Act’ Is a Great Drama and a Terrible Take on True Crime

There’s no arguing with its critical acclaim, many fans, and Patricia Arquette’s stunning performance: Hulu’s The Act is having a much-deserved moment. Yet as gripping as this shocking drama is week to week, it’s time that we come to terms with something. As great of a show as The Act is, it’s a brutal take on the true crime story at its center.

It would be one thing if The Act could exist on its own. Created by Nick Antosca and Michelle Dean, as a strict drama The Act is a surreal, warped, and engrossing look at child abuse. The series revolves around Gypsy Rose Blanchard (Joey King), a young woman who was told her entire life she suffered from a laundry list of illnesses and disabilities while in the care of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard (Arquette). All of these claims turn out to be a lie as Gypsy Rose breaks further and further away from her mother.

As a drama, The Act stands as a perverse look at mental, emotional, and physical abuse between its mother and  daughter. While Arquette’s Dee Dee manipulates her daughter with her sweetly poisonous Louisiana drawl, Gypsy Rose fights back in her own small and progressively cruel ways, sneaking sugar, intentionally “forgetting” her period and staining a rug, lying to her mother about going to the bathroom but actually buying the knife that will kill her. Arquette and King are a campy tour de force, two deadly women trying to outsmart and out act each other through the fog of their own lies. When The Act is at its best it feels tonally similar to Joan Crawford and Bette Davis’ horrifying clash of divas, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

However, The Act can’t stand on its own. Its very much a story rooted in a real story and real abuse, and once you remember that the series starts to feel a lot less fun.

It’s not that The Act glosses over the many ways Gypsy Rose was abused or that it fails to highlight just how complicated her relationship was with her mother. It portrays both of those things, and King and Arquette do a masterful job blending their characters’ love for one another with hatred and pain. But more often than not The Act leans toward the salacious parts of its central story rather than its underlying horror. Dee Dee’s murdered body is shown multiple times with the curious smugness of an episode of Law & Order. Long periods of the this season are dedicated to King dressed in various cosplay costumes and calling the boyfriend who would later murder her mother “Daddy.” When forced to make a choice between being more somber or more dramatized, The Act almost always chooses the latter.

Levity in true crime can be fine. Bravo’s Dirty John did an excellent job transforming its story of murder and betrayal into an addictive semi-soap opera. But considering the severity of and complexity of Gypsy Rose’s crimes and her mother’s murder, The Act‘s lighter choices can feel more crass than bold.

That’s a frustrating problem to have, especially since other shows have proven that true crime adaptations can be as respectful as they are insightful. FX’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story took one of the most tragic and senseless serial killer cases in recent history and restructured it into a powerful story about deep-seated homophobia and ineffective police forces. The Act could have been that. Its predecessor did that. Mommy Dead and Dearest, Erin Lee Carr’s documentary about Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s case, is a nuanced film that forces its many interview subjects to confront why this happened. Why did so many people and so many medical professionals fail to spot Dee Dee’s abusive behavior and misleading medical records? Why was this sweet girl driven to murder her own mother? And after she committed this horrendous act, why are we so quick to defend Gypsy Rose?

An eight-episode series could have expanded on all of these themes, pushing them to their absolute limits and challenging the flaws in our healthcare system. Instead it revolves around the dueling egos of its central manipulative mother and daughter pair. The Act is a great, pulpy drama; it just needed that extra push to treat the subject matter a little more responsibly.

Watch The Act on Hulu