The Hulu hit TV show Good American Family is a slow build up of an intense show that keeps you at the edge of your seat by the end of each episode. The way they portray the story outdid my expectations.
The show was released March 19th on Hulu, which releases a new episode each Wednesday until the season finale which is April 30th. Katie Robbins, the show’s creator, is a relatively new director as she only really has one other show under her career, that show being Sunny which is on Apple TV.
Good American Family is based on the true story of Natalia Grace and her adoptive parents Kristine and Michael Barnett. The beginning of the show gives us a warning that some of the story has been modified.
The show starts in Indiana, with both Kristine and Michael lamenting over their foster child, a loving daughter, leaving them to go back to their original family. Shortly after First Path, an adoption center, calls Kristine and tells her about a seven year old girl who has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita is in need of a home. When the family travels to the adoption center they are told they have to pay 7,000 dollars worth of past surgeries to the previous family of Natalia Grace. Ultimately they agree although they were not 100 percent convinced. Kristine later finds out in the second episode that they were being sued by many people because First Path were falsifying documents that involved children’s’ ages and taking away children and giving them to other families. Kristine didn’t tell her husband as he loved the child. He also had been fired from his job and Natalia was one of the only good things in his life.
Natalia then starts doing suspicious stuff like taking knives and cutting up stuffed animals. Kristine later walks in accidentally on Natalia and notices that she has pubic hair. She later finds out she was using socks for her menstruation. This is when Kristine starts questioning her age. She then investigates and finds out Natalia was born in Ukraine. After various incidents like calling CPSon them and almost causing Kristine to crash they decide to do something about it.They trap her in the garage and because of noise complaint police shows up and search the house, but the police believe the parents as they had enough evidence. After finding the necessary documents and getting them signed by various doctors, they are able to change her age to 22. Then they rent an apartment for her and leave her there to take care of herself. That’s where I finished half of the show as the other rest will be released weekly.
After watching the show I’ve done more research on the story as it’s very unique and intriguing. Natalia believes the orphan, which is a very popular movie, is a mimic of her life. I enjoyed the show so far, especially certain actors like Ellen Pompeo, who starred in Grey’s Anatomy.
This is a show I would advise to binge watch once it releases all the episodes as I found it a bit annoying to wait a week for what’s happening next. If not, definitely research on the story of Natalia Grace and how there’s two sides of the story and nobody really knows the truth. The two sides of the story being brother she was a child at the time who was just messed up in the head while being in foster care or she really was an adult who used people to get what she wanted. In my opinion, after researching she definitely was a danger to the family regardless of her age.