Hulu is already positioning “The Act” as an umbrella title that the streaming service intends to re-use to dramatize other high-profile crimes, chronicling self-contained stories over each subsequent season. That said, given the cloying nature of Dee Dee’s persona, watching does begin to feel like a bit of an ordeal. “The Act” remains oddly fascinating, perhaps especially so as the strange, sad relationship between the needy Gypsy and disturbed Nick (Calum Worthy) develops. It’s a bit like being subjected to an adult speaking baby-talk, a cross between Blanche DuBois and Kate McKinnon impersonating Jeff Sessions on “Saturday Night Live.”

“I can dress up in my princess dress and make friends!” Gypsy squeals in a high-pitched voice at one point, before her view of her mom begins to seriously sour.Īs for Arquette, she conveys the martyr-like qualities that Dee Dee projected in her efforts to wring money and gifts from the situation, but does so using a honeyed, breathless voice.

Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard Courtesy of HBOĪnyone who has seen footage of the Blanchards understands how stilted their behavior was, qualities that the actresses have dutifully captured. The murder, meanwhile, is presented in glimpses, letting the narrative play as a flashback from the body being discovered. The story unfolds partly through the eyes of a neighbor, Mel (Chloe Sevigny), who is initially skeptical when the Blanchards and their sob stories take up residence across the street, as well as said neighbor’s daughter (AnnaSophia Robb), who becomes a sort of confidant for Gypsy.

Here, that includes jabbing her with an epi-pen every time her daughter comes into contact with sugar, even though it’s later revealed that isn’t actually allergic. The story of the Blanchards – which ended with Dee Dee’s murder, leading to the convictions of Gypsy Rose and her boyfriend – has already been told, quite well, in the HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest.”īased on a Buzzfeed article by Michelle Dean, who adapted the series with Nick Antosca, “The Act” has the latitude to tease that out over eight episodes, casting Patricia Arquette – fresh off her standout turn in “Escape at Dannemora” – as Dee Dee and Joey King as the pipsqueak-voiced Gypsy.įor those unfamiliar, Dee Dee kept Gypsy in a perpetual child-like state, while convincing the girl that she suffered from an array of maladies with which she wasn’t actually afflicted, a form of abuse by a caregiver known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Yet while this Hulu limited series captures the unsettling con game played by the mother, be forewarned that replicating these events can be as off-putting as the actual characters.

“The Act” offers the second dramatization of the ill-fated relationship between Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard in two months, and it’s easily the better of the two.

What true story is the act based on