So many true-crime stories are out there. So many documentaries and docu-series have been made about real-life illegality. Many of them are on Netflix. The more incredible true-crime stories have been adapted into fictionalized narratives. Tiger King (2020) is a prime example, which became Peacock's Joe vs. Carole (2022). Going back, Man on Wire (2008) became Robert Zemeckis' The Walk (2015). Often, the fictionalized versions aren't as good as the documentaries. This series might be the one exception.
Jan Broberg is an actress who is currently 60-years-old. With her mother, Broberg published a book called Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story (2003). That book was the basis for Netflix's Abducted in Plain Sight (2019). For those who missed the book, the Netflix documentary details what happened to Broberg that makes her experience so significant and so unbelievable. The broad strokes is that in the 1970's, Broberg was kidnapped twice by the same guy, the best friend to her parents. The documentary lays out what happened and how the perpetrator got away with it, but this series provides more insight.
Anna Paquin (X-Men and The Piano) stars as Mary Anne Broberg, the mother to Jan, her eldest daughter. Mary Anne has two, other daughters who are younger. Mainly, she's a housewife who is married to a man who works at a flower shop. What isn't emphasized is the fact that she and her family are Mormons, a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS. She and her family live in Pocatello, Idaho.
It's not clear how great the LDS community is in Pocatello, but it seems to have a significant, if not dominant presence there. Mary Anne and her family befriend another family they met at the church. That family happens to live in the same neighborhood just a few doors down. That friendship was most likely fueled by their church association, but they bond in a way that feels very fast and very exclusive of any other family.
Colin Hanks (Fargo and Roswell) co-stars as Bob Broberg, the husband to Mary Anne and the father to their three daughters. He works as a florist. He likely owns or is the boss of that local flower shop. He loves his family, but later he engages in a homosexual act, after confessing to homosexual acts when he was younger. Later, it's expressed that the sex life between him and his wife isn't that great, but this is after it's revealed his wife had an affair.
There are of course a lot of stereotypes and bigotries about gay men. On paper, a man who engages in homosexual acts and who works at a flower shop might be assumed to be gay. Resisting those stereotypes makes this series feel less homophobic. It should also be said that if a man has a gay experience, it doesn't make him homosexual. Plus, Bob's act was arguably coerced or manipulated. The series suggests or hints there's more to it, but the series can't or won't dig deeper into that, which is likely reflective of LDS' stance on homosexuality.
Jake Lacy (The White Lotus and The Office) also co-stars as Bob Berchtold, the best friend and neighbor to Mary Anne and Bob. Because the two men have the same, first name, Bob Berchtold is referred as "Brother B" or just "B." He has a wife and three sons, along with a baby daughter. Yet, in 1972, when Jan is only 10, Brother B starts to develop an obsession with her. It's not identified until it's too late, but Brother B is revealed to be a pedophile, a term not widely known at that time.
This is not something that magically came upon him. It came from a pattern of behavior that had been known for years. Brother B knew that he could face legal jeopardy for it, so, by the time, he was introduced to Jan, he had developed a system of lies and manipulation in order to hide his pedophilia and get what he wanted, which was to rape little girls. The series, written by Nick Antosca (The Act and Channel Zero), never shows the rape or sexual assault, but the creepy promise of it happening or having happened looms over pretty much every moment.
McKenna Grace (The Handmaid's Tale and Young Sheldon) plays Jan Broberg in her high school years. In a lot of ways, she is a very naive and very gullible girl. She's told a literal, fantastical story and believes it. She was a little girl when she was first told it, much in the way children are told about Santa Claus. Yet, she's never dispelled of this fantastical story, even as she grows up. I'm not sure this series does a good job of underlining why she would be so gullible. It's not to blame her for it. It's simply to understand the greater dynamics.
Brother B kidnaps Jan in 1974 and held her captive for 37 days. In order to get her to do what he wanted, he told her an insane story about aliens who were threatening her sisters. He basically blackmailed her without making it feel like the threat was coming from him. He then went on to conduct a sick form of seduction. But, the insane story is so insane that it's still a wonder why Jan would buy it without question or go so many years without really questioning it. This series overlooks a possible explanation.
The founder of LDS and of Mormonism is Joseph Smith. Smith could also be accused of lying and manipulating people to get what he wanted, using a fantastical story. What he wanted was polygamy, which included the marrying of some minors or underage, teenage girls. It's ironic that this series is about condemning what Bob Berchtold did but not what Joseph Smith did, even though both are absolutely analogous. If a person could buy what Smith was selling, they could buy what Berchtold was selling too.
The only time this series gets close to this analogy and the condemnation of the church on a grander scale is a scene in Episode 7. Austin Stowell (Fantasy Island and Battle of the Sexes) plays Pete Welsh, the FBI agent assigned to the Broberg case. When Brother B kidnaps Jan the second time, Pete goes to the LDS leaders to get more information. What Pete learns ties the church and its faith to Brother B's crimes.
Unfortunately, this one scene is the only such link the series makes between the LDS church and what happened. The revelation occurs with Pete who is not reportedly a Mormon, but he may well be so. Yet, it's never shared with the family. Given that there's a scene involving Mary Anne being excommunicated, it would've been dramatically interesting to see her learn that revelation. Paquin's performance otherwise is Emmy-worthy and the range she's given, going from being seduced to sheer anger, is a knockout.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 9 eps.
Available on Peacock.
