With the rise inpopularity of true crime TV shows and movies, Hulu has created adramatized retelling of the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard in its new show, The Act. The show shares the life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee, exploring what led Gypsy and her boyfriend, Nick, to eventually kill Dee Dee. 

The Act highlights our underlying human desire for a true villain: it fulfills our desire for things to be black and white instead of grey. In an ideal world, the bad guy—the villain— would be clearly identifiable, yet, in more cases than not, there is no obvious evil behind a bad event. There are situational circumstances, illnesses, blind faith, ignorance that play into the evil in our lives. While, logically that makes sense, it can be difficult and distressing not being able to place blame for a seemingly horrible event in our lives. 

The Act on Hulu is a prime example of the difficulty of defining a villain. The show’s protagonist, Gypsy,was told that she has      leukemia, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, sleep apnea, and severe asthma, among other aliments.  Bound to her wheelchair, feeding tube, a pharmacy of prescriptions and mother, she symbolized tragedy.

     However, things are not as simple as they seem. It’s not Gypsy that’s ill but rather her mother.  The series, told from the point of view of Dee Dee, who is believed to have Munchausen syndrome, misleads the viewers to this conclusion. 

               Many, upon watching The Act believe that Gypsy should not have been sent to prison. She killed her mother to escape her abuse. However, Gypsy manipulated her boyfriend, Nicholas, who has Dissociative Identity Disorder, into the murder. While Gypsy believed this was her best option for gaining her freedom,she did in fact murder. But was it in self-defense? 

Our desires for a black and white world lead us to this uneasy feeling that there needs to be justice both for the murder of Dee Dee but also for what happened to Gypsy. While Gypsy’s actions had a purpose that is understandable to the average person, Dee Dee’s actions do not. In our quest for a villain, most will place the title onto Dee Dee.      

This constant quest for a clearly identifiable evil in a world where it is increasingly difficult to find an obvious villain brings us into uncharted territory. When a relationship ends, who is in the wrong? Am I the villain for not forgiving someone? Or is the other person the villain for how they behaved? In the end someone always gets blamed – someone always becomes the villain. Yet, in an increasingly complex world, the villain in a situation can be dynamic, changing with one’s perspective. 

When it comes to personal situations such as failed friendships and/or intimate relationships,it’s almost a self-serving bias that turns the opposing party, the former friend or lover, into a cold and distant figure, a villain in our quest. However, with time, as we take a step back and observe the facts from afar, black and white slowly fades into varying shades of gray.  While this search for a villainin painful situations may protect us and give us an explanation in the moment, as we begin to look at situations as complex events—as exemplified by The Act—we begin to notice that there is often no one villain and hero.

By Lilly Delehanty

Duke Student, pink purveyor and resident expert on surviving and thriving.