Just as there are many types of crime in the world – bank robbery, money laundering, Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl, etc – so too are there many varieties of true crime television. From the tabloid documentary to the gritty drama, streaming has had a go at them all. But Disney+’s new thriller, Good American Family, has an altogether different take on a milieu built on the suffering of strangers: it is deathly dull.
Its snoozy qualities are a surprise, considering the presence of likable Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo, playing an influencer mother who may or may not be the villain of the piece. And also because the real-life case on which it is based is so eye-poppingly bizarre – involving claims of false identity, drugging, emotional manipulation and worse.
These are all terrible subjects, but none could be described as dreary. Yet Good American Family commits the egregious sin of attempting to send the viewer to sleep at every turn.
It tells the story of Kristine and Michael Barnett (Pompeo and Mark Duplass) who adopt a seven-year-old-child with dwarfism from Ukraine only to conclude she is in fact an adult posing as a minor. There are many twists – though Good American Family gives the ending away with the opening.
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The tale rewinds to 2010. The Barnetts are the parents of boys but desperate for a daughter to “complete” their family. When the girl they were looking after with a view to adoption is instead given over to the care of a blood relative, Michael is heartbroken – but Kristine appears unmoved. It’s almost as if the child she had thought of as her own is now dead to her – but, never mind, there is the possibility of a second chance when an agency asks if they might be interested in adopting Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid).
Viewers familiar with the real case – a genuine scandal in the United States – will be aware of the many twists and turns to follow. As the drama unspools, it becomes unclear who the hero or the monster is – or, indeed, which side is gaslighting the other. And yet, a potentially gripping story never comes to life – one major flaw being Pompeo’s inability to bring any nuance to Kristine. Torn between depicting her as a devil posing as an angel of mercy or a well-meaning yet naive woman caught up in difficult circumstances, she settles on a state of elevated befuddlement. You never believe in Kristine as a real individual – or that Natalia’s experiences are based on actual events, which is bizarre as it all really did happen – a fact Disney’s bland series fails to sell.
