The Family left fans with unanswered questions and pending theories when ABC canceled the show after just one season. Although I sadly can't say that there will be another season, I can say that there is an eerily-similar documentary on Netflix that may at least allow fans to imagine what might have happened had there been a second season... and to have their minds blown a bit over the fact that the plot of the show they loved basically happened in real life.
For those of you who didn't watch The Family, it was a story of a well-known politician wife, husband, sister and brother who have their son/sibling returned to them after he goes missing out of thin air years earlier, only to find out that the boy they have welcomed into their home is an imposter. The story is extremely intriguing but seemingly far-fetched... until you learn the story of The Imposter and realize that the unbelievable events did, in fact, play out in the real world.
In addition to the fact that a real family letting a real stranger who they may or may not believe to be their son into their home is automatically that much creepier, the true story's "imposter" has a very cunning, manipulative manner about him that will have your head shaking in disbelief and your eyes glued to the screen for every single one of the 98 minutes that seem to fly by.
Knowing that someone actually was able to convince multiple authority figures, the general public, and an entire family that they were who they said they were despite their obvious physical differences is mind-boggling.
Like in The Family, you'll watch the impersonator go to great lengths to barely pull off his elaborate facade an unbelievable number of times, you'll question whether he's faking his identity in good or bad intentions, and you'll wait for him to slip up or the family to realize (or admit) that the stranger living in their home is not their son.
And every once in a while you'll have to check in with yourself to remember that this insane situation ACTUALLY happened — the story you learned from The Family is no longer a fantasy.
Although the documentary, unlike the ABC show, tells its story until the end and ends the story a bit differently, it does still leave you with the same ultimate question to decide for yourself: how much does the family really know about their son's disappearance?
