Late in Hulu’s new sequence Good American Household comes a second of irony that’s grow to be all too acquainted in true crime docudramas. The fictionalized Natalia Grace Barnett — at this level within the story a teen, being performed by the 27-year-old Imogen Religion Reid — glowingly reads supportive feedback from random web strangers. “I really feel so unhealthy I doubted you, Natalia,” one remark reads, “However I suppose that’s what the media wished.”
Ah, sure: the traditional narrative that the media made a sophisticated scenario worse, being proffered by a bit of media that’s at present making it worse.
Good American Household dramatizes the twisted saga of Natalia Grace, a Ukraine-born adoptee who was born in 2003, 1989, or someplace in between, in accordance with a litany of contradicting tales and court docket data. The brand new sequence’ interminable eight episodes rehash the saga many People first realized about in 2019, when her second set of adoptive mother and father, Michael and Kristine Barnett, gained media consideration for adopting after which abandoning her within the US once they moved to Canada with out her. The Barnetts publicly claimed that their daughter was an evil, murderous 20-something con artist pretending to be a bit lady.
Sure, it’s the plot of the film Orphan, however in actual life. (To be clear, Natalia Grace’s story didn’t encourage the 2009 film, as she was adopted in 2010, however could nicely have been impressed by it.) The Barnetts’ conduct resulted in finally unsuccessful felony expenses of neglect. Although the messy particulars of this forwards and backwards are recounted for viewers, together with the accompanying media spectacle, the Hulu sequence finally does little to justify itself, both as leisure or as an extra examination of an abuse sufferer whose whole life has been lived below a magnifying glass because of her abuse.
Right here’s what to know concerning the saga of Natalia — and why the Hulu docuseries in all probability isn’t the final time you’ll be listening to her identify, although it in all probability ought to be.
Natalia was 6 or 7 — or perhaps 8 or 9 — when she was adopted in 2010
By their very own telling, Indiana residents Kristine and Michael Barnett and their three sons have been an all-American household: Kristine would go on to writer a much-lauded ebook about elevating her son Jacob, who’s a high-functioning baby prodigy. The memoir, The Spark, was so standard it was nominated for a Goodreads Alternative Award in 2013 — however whereas it particulars Kristine Barnett’s miraculous job parenting her sons, it reportedly accommodates no point out in any way of the little lady she adopted alongside them.
The Barnetts adopted Natalia in 2010. In keeping with Michael Barnett, they have been solely given 24 hours by a shady adoption company to decide about adopting her, and have been supplied little or no details about Natalia’s background and medical historical past. What we all know is that Natalia’s beginning mom had been born in Latvia and was dwelling in Ukraine on the time of Natalia’s beginning, which was listed on Natalia’s beginning certificates as September 4, 2003. She positioned Natalia in an orphanage. In 2008, on the age of 5, she was delivered to the US by Dyan and Gary Ciccone, a New Hampshire couple with ties to an space adoption company centered on Russian adoptees. What occurred is unclear, however Natalia’s unsuccessful placement underscores the usually murky and dysfunctional means of adoption, particularly worldwide adoptions, which may exploit youngsters.
Imogen Religion Reid, Ellen Pompeo, and Mark Duplass in Good American Household. Disney/Ser Baffo
The Barnetts instantly bumped into issues with the adoption. They claimed that Natalia, who was born with dwarfism, was exhibiting indicators of puberty, together with menstruation and pubic hair, regardless of being solely 6 or 7 in accordance with her official beginning certificates. They additionally claimed that Natalia had tried repeatedly to kill them, together with by inserting thumbtacks on the steps, pouring Pine Sol into espresso, wielding knives, and allegedly pulling Kristine Barnett into an electrical fence. In keeping with Michael Barnett, their response to those incidents included begging the police to arrest their 7-year-old; police declined. Little one companies have been alerted to the scenario, nevertheless, and started investigating the couple’s remedy of their daughter. Throughout the identical interval, the Barnetts had Natalia seen by numerous medical specialists, apparently in makes an attempt to find out her “actual” age. Medical suppliers within the Barnetts’ lives have since come ahead to allege that they informed the Barnetts Natalia was a toddler.
To today, it’s not absolutely clear whether or not the Barnetts really believed their very own lie about Natalia being an grownup, or whether or not they simply made it up as an excuse to be rid of her. Kristine Barnett has fallen again on the medical recommendation she claims she was given by specialists, whereas Michael Barnett has emphasised the court docket rulings regarding her age; the brand new Hulu docuseries depicts him as being manipulated by Kristine’s personal narcissism, although not with out culpability.
In 2012, the Barnetts efficiently petitioned a probate court docket to vary Natalia’s official beginning yr from 2003 to 1989, which made her legally 22 years previous as an alternative of 8. In keeping with court docket paperwork, the change was made “based mostly on age estimates supplied by a major care doctor and a social employee,” with out holding an evidentiary listening to or offering Natalia along with her personal authorized consultant within the matter. This additionally meant that the kid companies case was closed, since Natalia was now legally an grownup.
Across the time of this ruling, Natalia spent 9 weeks in a psychological hospital. She additionally hung out at a midway home. The Barnetts rented two subsequent residences for her, together with one in Lafayette, Indiana — a call made, in accordance with court docket testimony from a state police detective, “As a result of Kristine stated Lafayette is a white-trash city and no one goes to care or fear about (Natalia).” The Barnetts additionally appeared to disbelieve that the bodily disabilities related to Natalia’s medical situation have been actual; although she had used a walker since she was a toddler, the condo they rented for her was on the second flooring of a home with no straightforward avenue entry. After relocating Natalia to this remoted, inaccessible home in Lafayette, the Barnetts moved to Canada with their sons in 2013, leaving her behind. Natalia by no means noticed Kristine Barnett once more.
The couple divorced in 2014 — however their entanglement with Natalia was solely simply starting.
The courts perpetuate a incorrect after which fail to redress it
Following her abandonment by the Barnetts in 2013, Natalia was taken in by Cynthia and Antwon Mans and their youngsters. (Some reviews say the Mans have 10 youngsters, others say 5.) Over the subsequent decade, Natalia and others tried repeatedly to have her age change reversed within the courts, just for the courts to reaffirm that she was an grownup. Natalia was legally thought of an grownup for many of her childhood. At one level, per court docket data, the Mans tried to achieve authorized guardianship over Natalia, just for Michael Barnett to dam their efforts as a result of, he claimed, Natalia was an grownup.
“All I used to be informed was, ‘You’re 22 now,’” Natalia later informed ID’s multi-season docuseries concerning the saga, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. “‘Each time someone asks you what your age is, you say you’re 22 and also you tried to homicide your loved ones.’ I used to be taught to lie.”
Prosecutors quickly turned occupied with Natalia’s case. Confusion over Natalia’s precise age started to dominate the investigation into the Barnetts’ conduct, which was severe sufficient that they have been every charged individually in 2019 with felony counts associated to each baby neglect and neglect of a dependent (grownup). The kid neglect expenses have been finally dismissed as a result of excellent quandary of her age.
In 2023, a DNA lab carried out testing that appeared to conclusively put the matter of Natalia’s age to relaxation: she was possible round two years older than the age indicated by her beginning certificates on the time of her adoption, born round 2001. On the time of her adoption, she would have been 8 or 9, and on the time of her abandonment in Lafayette, she would have been 11 or 12 — not 23, because the court docket system legally claimed.
However as a result of the unique court docket ruling nonetheless stood, in 2020, prosecutors needed to drop all expenses associated to baby neglect. At Michael Barnett’s 2022 trial for neglect of a dependent grownup, Natalia testified in opposition to her adopted father. She alleged that she had fallen repeatedly whereas making an attempt to navigate her inaccessible condo, and that the Barnetts had left her to fend for herself with out instructing her find out how to entry her incapacity funds or carry out fundamental duties like laundry or meals preparation.
Michael Barnett’s lawyer, nevertheless, was capable of efficiently allege that at 23 — the one age Natalia was legally permitted to acknowledge below the court docket ruling — she ought to have been capable of do all of these duties as a functioning grownup. Protection attorneys additionally implied that the Mans household have been manipulating and exploiting Natalia — allegations of stealing advantages that may linger after the trial. Jurors finally discovered Michael Barnett not responsible on the neglect cost, and the pending expenses in opposition to Kristine Barnett have been subsequently dropped.
From there, regardless of the mudslinging, it appeared as if issues have been lastly resolved between Natalia and the Barnetts. By that time, nevertheless, the Barnetts, Natalia, and the Mans have been one thing greater than a set of dysfunctional squabbling households — they have been all actuality stars.
From one messy scenario to a different
In late 2019, the information of felony expenses laid in opposition to the Barnetts started to make headlines, and the lives of all concerned irrevocably modified. Tabloid media shortly labeled Natalia a “‘Psycho’ dwarf,” and Natalia and the Mans household went on Dr. Phil — and all of this was inside weeks of the story coming to gentle.
Then got here ID’s multi-season docuseries, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, which started airing in 2023 shortly after the court docket proceedings. By that time, Natalia was dwelling with the Mans household, who the docuseries framed as her saviors. The Mans, who claimed Natalia had by no means been harmful in any respect, formally adopted her in 2023 — when she was round 21 — in a splashy occasion that made up a part of the present’s second season.
The strain to supply TV drama could have been an excessive amount of for the Mans household, nevertheless. Regardless of caring for Natalia for almost a decade with out points, they abruptly dramatically leaned into the “Natalia is evil” theme, with Antwon Mans calling the present’s producers to allege that her conduct had been disturbing and egocentric. The ID producers, naturally, revealed this improvement as a stunning twist and a season-ending cliffhanger.
Within the documentary’s third season, Natalia accused the Mans household of bodily and emotional abuse. To the Hollywood Reporter, ID president Jason Sarlanis described the docuseries’ resolution to delve into Natalia’s time with the Mans as “do(ing) proper by our viewers” — whether or not anybody thought of doing proper by Natalia and her new household dynamic was much less clear.
In 2023, Natalia left the Mans household’s Nashville residence and moved in with yet one more household: The DePauls, a household of little individuals who reportedly wished to undertake Natalia all the way in which again in 2009, previous to her adoption by the Barnetts. The ID sequence filmed them serving to Natalia dramatically “escape” from the Mans in the midst of the evening, into a brand new healthful life with a household who hopefully may lastly perceive her.
A contented ending? Sure and no. Whereas there’s little left to say about Natalia’s story at this level, it’s clearly going to maintain going within the public eye. In January 2025, Individuals positioned now 23-year-old Natalia on the duvet, with the lurid headline “Sufferer or Villain?” although years of reporting inside its personal pages make the reply abundantly clear. Hulu’s Good American Household equally performs with blaming a disabled baby for her personal abuse. On prime of that, the present drags out over eight episodes and includes a parade of flat, boring characters. Ellen Pompeo as Kristine is very one-note, narcissistic and brittle with little nuance, whereas Mark Duplass as Michael goes via a histrionic and unbelievable sequence of emotional swings as he wrestles with who to consider. The Mans are depicted as well-meaning grifters who rescue Natalia however aren’t with out their very own points.
Although it finally absolutely accepts the framing that the Barnetts emotionally and bodily abused and gaslit Natalia to a heartbreaking diploma, it additionally initially perpetuates the concept Natalia’s conduct is alarming and disturbing. Above all, casting 27-year-old Reid to play a toddler 20 years youthful on the time the sequence begins does extra to confuse the narrative than make clear it. Whereas the narrative depicts Natalia as discovering closure, it’s laborious to not see the present leaving the door open for an additional season, simply as ID has performed many times.
What’s extra, Nicole DePaul just lately alleged on Fb that the docudrama had not compensated Natalia in any method for using her story — although they have been, she claimed, compensating Kristine Barnett, maybe within the hopes of staving off a lawsuit. (Hulu didn’t reply for remark.)
This wouldn’t be the primary time {that a} high-profile true crime docudrama has been castigated for exploiting victims. However as an alternative of studying any classes from these different circumstances, and even from Natalia’s personal story, it appears we’re destined to repeat these identical errors within the quest for drama — with diminishing returns.
