We live in an era where true crime stories deliver narratives more sinister, complex and haunting than many scriptwriters can dream up. That's because scriptwriters tend to be normal people and are limited only by their creative abilities, whereas real people … well, real people are often beyond imagination.
The reason true crime TV is so successful is thanks to the near limitless ability of human beings to dream up unique plots and horrors. So it is with The Act. A true story, exclusive to Lightbox, that challenges every preconceived notion you might have about mother-daughter relationships. On a scale starting with Little Miss Sunshine and Mamma Mia, this pushes the dial just past Mommie Dearest.
What lifts The Act to the highest level of "can't look away" shock is the way it marries true crime to everyone's pet hates of bad parenting and scam artists. Add to that the age-old dramatic forces of love and revenge and it's truly compelling.
The Act is as engaging as it is disturbing largely due to the magnetic performances of the co-leads – Patricia Arquette as the devious Dee Dee Blanchard and Joey King (Slenderman, Kissing Booth) as her chronically ill daughter Gypsy. Chloë Sevigny plays suspicious next door neighbour Mel.
Dee Dee and Gypsy are small-town celebrities who benefit from Make-A-Wish trips and charity dinners that fund Gypsy's fight against leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and a deadly allergy to sugar, among other ailments.
Gypsy, while an adult, is said to have the mental capacity of a 7-year-old due to her premature birth. But the whole range of illnesses are made up and embellished by Dee Dee, who suffers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare psychological disorder where a primary caregiver, nearly always the mother, deliberately keeps her child sick to draw attention to herself.
King's performance is phenomenal, not just in what appears to be her physical transformation but her ability to inhabit Gypsy's tormented soul and low IQ.
And Arquette is barely recognisable as the award-winning actress. She had to pile on weight to play Dee Dee as well as changing other aspects of her appearance. Again, she fully occupies the character bringing a deep rawness to an already a bone-bare reality.
Chloe Sevigny plays neighbour Mel who is suspicious about Dee Dee's behaviour towards daughter Gypsy.
The gradual unfurling of the truth following Dee Dee's murder – no spoiler here – reveals Russian Doll layers of co-dependency and deception.
In many ways, this type of true crime story is not so much about what happened – but why. It's not what the characters do that fascinates as much as what motivates them.
And that's another thing about true crime – even when you think you know the story there's so much to be gained from the retelling. In the case of The Act, the storytelling is lifted thanks to the role of Michelle Dean, the journalist who wrote the original, jaw-dropping story for BuzzFeed. Dean is part of the show's creative team as well as executive producer and she ensures this account stays real and raw.
Watch The Act now on LIGHTBOX.