"The Act" on Hulu

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Bachtoven, Mar 21, 2019.

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  1. Bachtoven

    Bachtoven Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    US
    Has anyone seen this? It;' an incredibly disturbing story about a deeply twisted relationship between a mother and daughter starring Patricia Arquette. It's based on a true story, which makes it even worse!
     
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  2. bmasters9

    bmasters9 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fountain Inn, SC
    I just started on Hulu's release of the first two episodes, and it looks very dark (subject-matter-wise, that is)!
     
  3. I saw the first episode last night. Yeah, talk about a bleak tone.

    It's sad, yet it still has my curiosity piqued given the subject matter of Munchausen Syndrome. It's one thing to be mentally ill, yourself, with this rare condition, but quite another bury someone else with it, let alone a child.

    There's good acting here (for the most part).

    It seems Hulu has the market covered with dark dramas. This and Handmaid's Tale. What a trip.
     
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  4. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Watched the 20/20 episode,
    disturbing, but also pretty
    fascinating.
     
  5. Ha! This thread is getting zero traction. It's pretty well made. It's enough to capture my 12 and 15 year old, once they found out what it was about. It's hard to grasp.

    Ep. 3 wasn't quite as dark as the first two episodes (though it's difficult to escape the ultimate truth when her mother let's her guard down). The big revelation: *SPOILERS*
    she's 19!
    I don't know if that's the way it played out in real life, bad damn, that was hardcore. That means she's older than her neighbor's daughter and not a little kid at all. No wonder she's finally feeling these emotions and stirrings that had escaped her for so long.

    It's weird having the kids watching it with us, but they are truly fascinated, so oh well. It's interesting to hear their opinions after seeing an episode. Not exactly Leave it Beaver.
     
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  6. I'm watching, and it's good.
    The real story it's based on is pretty tragic. I feel bad for the real Gypsy. Even though what she and her boyfriend did was bad, was her mother any less a monster?
    The acting of Joey King is especially good. And I've always liked Patricia Arquette.
    I wonder what they'll do for the next season.
     
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  7. bmasters9

    bmasters9 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Fountain Inn, SC
    One thing I wonder-- will Warner Bros. or some other studio (when this first-season Act is fully played out) put out a DVD/Blu of it, w/audio commentary by Joey King, among other things? If they do, I'll be one of those who gets it!
     
  8. bartels76

    bartels76 Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    CT
    I'm caught up right now. Now that they sorta allude to what's going to go down I decided to watch The Mommy Dearest and Dead documentry on HBO as at this point I feel like there aren't many spoilers left.
    I read that Gypsy and her family were not compensated for The Act so there is a lawsuit looming.

    Anyways, the series is well done and if you haven't seen Patricia Arquette in Escape at Dannemora you need to immediately check that out. She's at her career pear right now.
     
  9. Ep. 4? Meh. Ep. 5? Really turned up the heat.

    It's the sign of a good show where you feel a little empathy for even the worst villain. There's something in each character where I feel they could have been redeemed, yet the choices they're making always takes them down the wrong path.

    In Episode 5, talk about some awkward moments! I just kept thinking that if Gypsy had reached out to neighbors this whole thing could have been avoided. Perhaps she just wasn't capable of it.

    I only have a notion of how the story ends (I've stayed away from reading about it), but damn I wonder if BDSM really played a role in all of this. The wrong people at the wrong time.
     
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  10. So, I finished this. It was a pretty well done show. Well worth the watch.

    In the final analysis, they could have probably done this in 6 episodes instead of 8. There was fluff. Two episodes in particular were extra fluffy. My wife thought that the final episode could have been trimmed, too. Eh, give or take. Whatever. I would recommend the show, but it wasn't absolutely top-notch, just good enough for anybody interested in weirdness and dark moods.

    I had written that I had stayed away from reading about the events that happened in real life. When the show was over I immediately Googled the true life events and found that they amazingly mirrored what was on the TV series pretty well. Remarkably well, actually.
    The whole BDSM thing was intact, as well as getting it on in the movie theater, in addition to every major plot point in the whole series...even down to the Wolverine character!

    I noted that the female doctor who had suspicions that Dee Dee was a liar was a male in real life. The doctor had suspected that it was Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, yet that wasn't mentioned until the end of the series. By making the doctor a female the whole series became one step closer to being extremely female-centric. Indeed, this was like a Lifetime series on jet fuel!

    The showrunners even made good on Dee Dee's backstory that she had either poisoned her mother, or at the very least neglected her mother to the point of starvation. The bits about Gypsy's father was true, as well. He paid child support forever and was always trying to get in contact with his daughter, yet Dee Dee wouldn't let him. What they left out was very interesting, in that Dee Dee had beaten Gypsy Rose on several occasions. I wonder why they left that part out, when so much was over the top, as is, where truth is stranger than fiction?

    Lastly, in an equally twisted bit of fate, when Dee Dee was cremated, Dee Dee's stepmother flushed her cremated remains down the toilet. It seems that the rest of her family back home didn't think too much of Dee Dee, including her own father.

    Patricia Arquette was good, but looks nothing like the real Dee Dee. It's like Arquette is the more modern Kathy Bates these days. Joey King only nominally looked like the real Gypsy Rose (good casting, by the way), although big kudos for capturing the spirit of Gypsy Rose in just about every way possible.
     
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