Good American Family TV Review: The shocking true story becomes a bland drama series

Plot: Told from multiple points of view, as a means to explore issues of perspective, bias, and trauma, this compelling drama is inspired by the disturbing stories surrounding a Midwestern couple who adopts a girl with a rare form of dwarfism. But as they begin to raise her alongside their three biological children, mystery emerges around her age and background, and they slowly start to suspect she may not be who she says she is. As they defend their family from the daughter they’ve grown to believe is a threat, she fights her own battle to confront her past and what her future holds, in a showdown that ultimately plays out in the tabloids and the courtroom. 

Review: The idea that there are two sides to every story has never been truer than in the bizarre saga of Natalia Grace. Adopted at the age of seven, Natalia Grace’s story became national news when it was discovered that she was abandoned by her parents, who claimed she was actually a twenty-two-year-old posing as a child. The subsequent court case and DNA testing revealed the truth, but there is still a divide between Natalia Grace’s claims about herself and those of her adoptive mother, Kristine Barnett. While a Max documentary series centered on Natalia Grace’s story, the new Hulu dramatized series Good American Family tackles multiple points of view, including those of the Barnetts. Led by Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass, Good American Family is a pulpy and overwrought melodrama straight out of the classic primetime made-for-television fare of the Eighties and Nineties.

Good American Family follows Kristine Barnett (Ellen Pompeo), a devoted advocate for children with special needs who is opening a center for disabled kids in honor of her autistic son, Jacob (Aias Dalman). Having recently lost out on adopting a daughter, Kristine and her husband, Michael (Mark Duplass), are experiencing a rift in their marriage. When the sudden opportunity arises to adopt a young girl in desperate need of a foster family, Kristine and Mark jump at the chance and bring Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid) into their home. Knowing she suffers from a form of dwarfism, the Barnetts are caught off guard by Natalia’s bizarre behavior, including tantrums, outbursts, and physical threats. While Michael is still enamored with having a daughter, Kristine begins to think that Natalia is actually an adult posing as a child to con them, something seemingly inspired by the film Orphan.

The early episodes of Good American Family show Natalia’s bizarre behavior and the growing suspicion held by Kristine, which she convinces her family and friends to believe. As the behaviors get worse, Kristine and Michael legally get Natalia’s birth date changed from 2003 to 1989 before renting her an apartment and abandoning her. Natalia is forced to fend for herself to survive before she is taken in by Cynthia (Christina Hendricks) and Antwon Mans (Jerod Haynes). The Mans family believe Natalia’s story and assist her in taking legal action against the Barnetts. This fight takes the series through the 2022 legal proceedings against Kristine and Michael. Showing us the events as they occurred and flashbacks to different perspectives through the years illustrates the story in a way that does not draw any concrete conclusions but delivers a more balanced story than I anticipated.

While the intensity and shocking elements of Natalia Grace’s story are enough on their own to build a dramatic series around, Good American Family leans heavily into the melodramatic and pulpy side of the narrative. At times, Mark Duplass and Ellen Pompeo seem to be acting in an overwrought series that borders on comedy. There are more nuanced performances from Dule Hill as Detective Brandon Drysdale and Sarayi Blue as Kristine’s friend Val, but the most impressive turn is from Imogen Faith Reid. Reid, a 27-year-old actress, plays Natalia Grace from age seven through sixteen, convincingly acting progressively more mature as the timeline advances. In the early episodes, some of her mannerisms and outbursts play on the horror movie paranoia experienced by Kristine Barnett. Still, it does not go so far over the top that it defies believability. The same cannot be said about Pompeo and Duplass, who often feel like caricatures of the real Barnetts. Pompeo, who has spent almost twenty years starring on Grey’s Anatomy, often wavers between Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest and a more balanced portrayal of who Kristine Barnett actually is. Because of the nature of the real events, Good American Family does not take sides but convincingly leaves the interpretation open to the audience as to who is telling the truth.

Created by Katie Robbins (Sunny, The Affair), who serves as co-showrunner alongside Sarah Sutherland (Nine Perfect Strangers), Good American Family was also written by Eoghan O’Donnell, Jaquen Tee Castellanos, and Samantha Levenshus. Directing duties fell to Liz Garbus (Yellowjackets), Stacie Passon, Seith Mann, Eva Vives, and Iain MacDonald. Each of the eight episodes takes the story in near-sequential order through the adoption of Natalia Grace through the results of the much-publicized trial. Suppose you are unfamiliar with how things have turned out for Natalia and the Barnetts. In that case, the series outlines the events pretty well while also laying enough theories and alternative ideas that you may question who is telling the truth. The hard facts are closely aligned with what the media has revealed, but that does not stop the series from posing some wrinkles in the story that elevate the drama for entertainment purposes.

Remembering that this series is inspired by the truth rather than a true story is a good disclaimer going into things. Whatever you believe about what happened to Natalia Grace, Good American Family offers a balanced portrait of who was responsible for which acts. At the end of the day, whether Natalia or Kristine, and Michael Barnett were to blame for what took place during their familial bond, no one looks good by the end. In fact, a closing note at the end of the finale reveals another shocking fact that came to light during the production of the series, making Good American Family even more tragic. As intriguing as the story is, Good American Family too often embraces performances and storytelling that feel inauthentic and silly, undermining the sadness of this story. Anything involving children being harmed is hard to watch, but how callously this production treats it sometimes makes it feel inappropriate and borderline disrespectful.

Good American Family is now streaming on Hulu.

Mark Duplass

BELOW AVERAGE

5

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