Munchhausen by proxy: the mental disorder brought on by a caregiver when they fabricate an illness to a person, typically a child, under their care.
This is the syndrome that hangs in the backdrop of Hulu's newest web series "The Act". This show is based off the real events of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who murders her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, after years of being led to believe that she was disabled and chronically ill during her childhood and most of her adolescence.
The web series has been a bombshell since its release a few weeks ago, as it has received widespread critical acclaim with Rotten Tomatoes rating it a score of 91%.
It's no doubt that these shows are interesting and it's easy to see why people are so invested in them. After all, it's not every day you hear stories like these.
Or is it?
Take a look at any Internet-based video service. Whether it's Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime it's easy to see that the media in the modern century is surrounded by true crime anthology series and documentaries. In late January, Netflix released the docuseries "Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes", and has previously had shows like "Making a Murderer", "American Crime Story", "Abducted in Plain Sight", and "The Keepers", just to name a few. It's safe to say that viewers are thoroughly obsessed with diving into mysteries and looking into the mind of a perpetrator who has committed heinous crimes.
The question that must be answered though is why. What exactly is so compelling about entertainment that is twisted and gruesome in its nature?
I must admit though that I love watching these type of shows. I found myself completely immersed in "The Act" after watching it and quickly looking up the documentary "Mommy Dead and Dearest" on Youtube to obtain the information that had yet to be revealed in the show.
Everyone likes a good mystery and we all like to get scared (admit it, you do). There's a thrill factor by watching television like this, and it further emphasizes the fascination that we feel by seeing and questioning why a person could do something so horrific. "The Act", just like the others before it, is surrounded by areas of intrigue and it forces you to think about the actions of others.
What makes "The Act" stand out from the rest is that you feel a strong sense of sympathy for the protagonist, Gypsy. It doesn't make sense what happened to her, and my roommate and I often question if her actions were justifiable (it was, after all, an intense and different kind of physical and psychological abuse) and if she deserved the prison time she was sentenced with.
What this does is reinforce that anyone can do something like this. What made everyone so interested by Ted Bundy is that he was generally known as a handsome, charismatic guy and could pass as a regular person walking down the street. The same can actually be said for most true crime shows, and we can see that with Gypsy's story. It's jarring to think that someone like Gypsy had the mentality to do something like this, and this plugs into one of our deepest fears: anyone can be a killer.
We watch these shows to understand a person's motivation, and these shows keep coming about because of the immediate interest in them. These shows make a profit, and it's easy to see why. People need to know what they don't understand, and these shows do just that.
