The action begins, in 2015, with a concerned neighbor climbing through a window of the little pink house and encountering a hoard of kitsch: mounds of stuffed animals, given to Gypsy by strangers who were moved by the plight of a sick child. It’s more a ready-made parable of toxic parenthood or a mass-cultural case study than a thriller.

The virtues of “The Act” are often distinct from the details of its dramatic arc. To know that the title of the article was “Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter to be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom Murdered” is not to have the plot of the series spoiled. By the end of the first episode, a yellow barricade of police tape further cordons off the building-an “American Gothic” showpiece.Ĭreated by Michelle Dean and Nick Antosca, “The Act” adapts Dean’s 2016 true-crime story about the Blanchards into a semi-fictional exploration of emotional truths. Posts on the ramp’s railing evoke a white-picket fence from one angle and a fortified barrier from most others.

Its owner, Dee Dee Blanchard (Patricia Arquette), brings her daughter, Gypsy Rose (Joey King), into the little pink house by pushing the girl, in a wheelchair, up a ramp. It’s a bungalow with a Pepto-Bismol tint.

The central setting of “The Act,” now on Hulu, is a humble home in Springfield, Missouri.

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