08-05-2025
Good American Family delivers a gripping and horrific true story
A couple adopts who they believe is an 8-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism, but questions soon arise concerning the actual identity of the adoptee.
Before starting Good American Family, I didn't know much about Natalia Grace's story, though I did see the headlines. So, when my editor asked me to review it, I already had preconceived notions about what happened. I'll try to avoid any spoilers in this review, save for what is well known, in case you, like me, thought you knew the full extent of what happened between the Barnetts and their young daughter. But here's a short summary before I begin:
Ukrainian-born American Natalia Grace was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett in 2010 at seven. But after she began acting out and displaying what her adoptive parents described as dangerous behavioural issues, they were convinced Grace wasn't actually a child but a grown woman intent on inflicting harm on their family. The Barnetts had her re-aged to 22, changing her birth year from 2003 to 1989 and moving her into her own apartment, leaving her to fend for herself.
This story almost seems too wild and egregious to be true. I have to credit that to the writers and creator Katie Robbins and co-showrunner Sarah Sutherland, who expertly weaved together the accounts of the Barnetts and Natalia Grace. The first few episodes of the series released together share the Barnetts' accounts – while the first episode is directed by Liz Garbus – and the episodes that follow, released weekly, give Grace's account.
The series and situation appear to be something out of a horror movie, and I'll be honest, this played well into what I thought I knew. And again, credit is due to the writers and directors for sucking you in, ending each episode with a more peculiar revelation than the last. At first, you can't help but believe the Barnetts' account.
Mark Duplass as Michael Barnett and Ellen Pompeo as Kristine
Without a doubt, Ellen Pompeo and Mark Duplass deliver outstanding performances as Kristine and Michael Barnett, while newcomer Imogen Faith Reid shines brilliantly as Natalia Grace. Pompeo leads the cast, and does well in showcasing the duality of her character. She appears nurturing, sometimes controlling. Then, altogether terrifying. On the other hand, Duplass fades so well into the background that it feels like a skill in and of itself to portray someone as so helpless, hopeless, and so, so pap (trust me, there isn't a more apt word).
Imogen Faith Reid as Natalia
Reid, who has a different kind of dwarfism from her character and worked with a movement coach to master Grace's movements, is right up there with Pompeo. Frightening and formidable to begin with, only to have her completely questioning your own humanity as she shares her side of the story, giving a wholly captivating and unforgettable performance.
While the show dramatises the true story with the initial accounts from the Barnetts, it's a thriller of sorts, and it's very difficult to decipher what is real from the narrative Kristine, specifically, alleged. Similarly, although pieces of the puzzle come together with Grace's account, there's still a lot of controversy and conspiracy around what actually happened. So again, Robbins and Sutherland did well in telling this story while offering enough twists and turns, and as a journalist, I have to acknowledge and commend them for including as many accounts as they did.
And yet, the horrors that emerged are etched into my mind forever, and one can't dispute the real-life photos of Grace from 2003 versus today and the duplexity and honesty of Reid's performance as a child, teen, and young adult—because Grace did, in fact, transition from childhood to adulthood, as evidenced in the 2023 restoration of her birth year back to 2003 following medical tests and DNA analysis.
And so, despite the conflicting stories and bias surrounding the case, which the show indicates has much to do with a campaign that included doing a lot of press for Michael and then-semi famous Kristine Barnett. And considering what I thought I knew, I'm ashamed to say it worked, didn't it? But I digress.
The show concludes that Grace was still a child, left in an apartment, and unable to cook or clean herself. She was a child when she was ordered to clean the kitchen and accused of poisoning her mom and allegedly pushing her into an electric fence. And she was a child whose only period, she claims in the series, occurred the day her adoptive mom showed her how to use a tampon after finding bloodied socks in her closet. I won't get into that last one, but it's safe to say it's all just disturbing enough to make you stop and think while you feel your skin crawl.
In the final episode, Reid's Grace, now an adult, confronts her adoptive father, convinced the two 'were facing the same monster' in Kristine. In a heartbreaking moment, she tells him, 'But Michael, I was a kid. You were supposed to be my dad.'
The scene is similar to a real-life confrontation the two had in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace and is a poignant reminder that an injustice was done to Grace. And the rest makes for viewing that is as gripping as it is horrific, especially if you hadn't followed the story as closely as I'm sure many would've in the US. In which case, I'd give Good American Family a watch for an engrossing true(ish?) story.
