Amariani Garcia
Lantern Staff
A new Hulu Series called “The Act,” based on real events in 2015, premiered on Wednesday, March 20.
The star role Joey King, also in The Kissing Booth, plays Gypsy, a naïve child that turns out to be an adult. The very dramatic series heightens Gypsy’s childlike features as they display her life up until the very moment.
In the beginning, Gypsy is born, and her mother Dee Dee Blanchard (Patricia Arquette) believes her child is sick and demands attention. It is believed her mother had suffered from Munchausen by Proxy, a pattern of behavior in which caretakers make up or induce mental and physical illness in a person for “no obvious benefit other than attention or sympathy,” according to Wiki.
Her mother would tell people Gypsy had leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, was wheel-chair bound and had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old child because of brain damage she sustained from being born prematurely. She demanded around the clock care, and looked to charity and others to help pay the cost of Gypsy’s medicine, surgeries and at home care. Her mother received thousands of dollars from charities, and they built her home after a sudden leave from her family home.
Dee’s family believed that she was sick as they caught her shaving Gypsy’s head and watching her force medicine down Gypsy’s throat to make it seem like she was ill. They called social services and notified authorities, but once Dee noticed change in her family, she picked up her and Gypsy’s belongings, moved to a new state and changed their last names.
Gypsy’s father had tried to reason with Dee and find new doctors to prove Gypsy’s sicknesses. Dee lied that her husband is abusive and that she ran away from home to get away from him. Of course, they believed her, and she gained the sympathy of charities dealing with women who had been in the same situation and helped her relocate again.
As Gypsy gets older, she became friends with her new neighbors, Mel and Lacey, who had a cellphone, which she has never had. She confided in her and told her that she could walk and that her mother forces her to be sick for money. They did not believe her, thinking she had a mental illnesses.
Gypsy had believed she was still a teenager and wanted to do what every other teenager does, which led her to buy a phone and be active on social media such as Facebook. She created countless profiles and fell in love with a boy online. They planned to run away together, but her mom weighed heavily on her mind. They had made a plan that would help Gypsy run away. Gypsy had not known that he would go through with it, believing that he was joking.
The trailer can be found on Hulu and IMDb where it starts with Gypsy in an orange suit, crying hysterically, at the courthouse being convicted.
I would give it a 10/10. I like how it’s based on true events and depicts a true crime drama dealing with those who are mentally ill.
