Good American Family

People can be both cruel and kind, and that goes for almost everyone in “Good American Family,” making it a much more complicated show than its initial offering hints at. So watch to the end for a thoughtful mediation on guilt, justice, and redemption. It’s worth it.

The Rashomon technique really shines. Every character’s perspective feels authentic and true. The difference between each perspective lies in the omissions, and in that gulf lies the truth.

Creator Katie Robbins (Sunny) synthesizes the myriad perspectives into a solid and engaging dramatization of this headline-grabbing saga.

A whiff of luridness never quite goes away, even as this drama depicts, with some skill, all these complicated psychologies — the unravelling façade of a good American family, and one giant can of worms beyond.

While those who are already passionately steeped in Natalia Grace lore will be those who click most frantically on Good American Family, it will ultimately be of more worth for those less familiar with who she really is. Because those who know will know more than the series has time to tell us and awareness of the story’s twists and turns will reduce a boilerplate true crime series to something even less essential.

It’s a mad and messy saga recounted from dueling perspectives—both of which are nothing shy of outrageous.

The shortcomings of how it's told and what tools the writers use are undeniably there to weaken the viewing experience. I wish that instead of employing a sensationalist approach that often opts for exploitative, misleading, and anger-inducing portrayals, there could've been a more straightforward and unembellished way to tell Natalia's maddening yet ultimately affecting life story — because it's one that's worth being heard.

When the external reality of Natalia’s life inevitably intrudes, “Good American Family” buckles under the weight. Even as the whole disappoints, however, “Good American Family” stands out in parts. There’s just enough harrowing sorrow, eye-popping oddity and acting — whether good or hammy, there’s undeniably a lot of it — to make for a transfixing watch.

Good American Family does redeem itself in the back half, but it's a stretch to say it ever justifies its existence. Ultimately, this series ends up just being another true-crime title you can watch in the background — and it certainly doesn't break any of the molds it set out to smash.

The show drags out its run, finding salvation only whenever Natalia Grace confronts her past directly. The trial’s outcomes are already there for all to see, and the lengthy run-up to them will likely prompt a quick Google search from viewers. And that’s honestly a better, healthier option than sticking with Good American Family.

It veers wildly in tone, from tawdry horror – Natalia appearing at the foot of the Barnetts’ bed in the dead of night, clutching a teddy in one hand and a carving knife in the other – to heart-tugging melodrama, via moments of comedy. While the story itself is gripping, the drama is oddly tacky.

Without the distance of time, or the liberation of broad creative license, or the ambition to focus on a bigger picture, it yields not much more than a re-enactment of facts we already know, stretched over eight difficult hours. It becomes just so much more grist for the true-crime mill.

It becomes a challenge to endure a show that jerks its audience around this much, and cannot decide whether it wants to be tabloid-level trashy television with horror leanings, a serious depiction of human failings, an expose of the dark side of the adoption world, the story of a marriage falling apart, or something else.

This hamfisted and half-hearted approach to a rippped-from-the-headlines series has nothing new to say.