'The Act': The Bizarre True Crime Story Coming to Hulu

The new seasonal anthology The Act is based on the troubling case of Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard. The story follows Gypsy Blanchard (Joey King), a girl who desperately wants to escape from the toxic clutches of her abusive mother Dee Dee (Patricia Arquette). AnnaSophia Robb and Chloë Sevigny co-star as mother/daughter nearby neighbors to the Blanchards. This true crime case was also the subject of the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest in 2017. The first season is based on Michelle Dean’s Buzzfeed article “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered.” Dean and Nick Antosca (Channel Zero), teamed to write the show for Hulu.

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental health problem, and a form of child/elder abuse. The caregiver creates or causes an illness for someone in their care usually a child or elder. Usually to gain sympathy or attention for the caregiver. However, it is still unclear if the sufferers actually buy into their own fraudulent dealings.

Dean recently stated that while, “reading Michelle’s article I found myself wondering what was it like to live in that house. What it was like to have the day to day experience Gypsy and Dee Dee had.” He went further to say the their relationship was a “love story” that “became toxic,” describing the series as “a psychological horror story.”

The Act will stream on Hulu on March 20th. You can check out the teaser trailer below!