The Curious Case of Natalia Grace

What we get here are 6 episodes of Michael Barnett overacting all sorts of scenarii, the focus always on him instead of the main subject which is Natalia.

The filmmakers wallow in all the trashiest sensationalist aspects of the story and, especially Barnett's character, instead of giving a serious account of facts (no doctor is interviewed to give a scientific opinion on her age, no psychiatrist on her mental state). She is not even given the chance to express herself at any point.

We're only given Michael Barnett's version which is ridiculous most of the time, so fake it's cringeworthy.

This curious story deserved a serious approach, and I feel really bad for the people who were used to make this pseudo-documentary : Natalia and the hell she endured, and also the boys, Jake mostly, who is obviously traumatised by what happened in this house.

This is trash, and Michael Barnett is unsufferable.

This guy is a drama queen from the word go, he's ridiculous and performative and annoying and nearly makes this series unwatchable. He can't just answer a question, he has to twist his stupid face around and gesture wildly like a bad vaudeville hack. He's clearly a liar. The story is compelling but this guy is the WORST. He's oddly effeminate and cartoon-level expressive and tries to drive the narrative, and he's really kind of gross. How did the producers let him have so much leeway? If he's asked a question he doesn't want to answer he either cries like a toddler or rages out and storms off. He dresses like a 9th grader. Poor Natalia, and I feel for those other kids (the biological boys).

A lot of intentional hype by people participating in the documentary. Overall, it's a puzzling but good story. However, some of the biggest questions were NOT answered.

1. How were the parents able to change her age so easily? This seems to be a more serious SYSTEMIC issue because this allows sexual predators to potentially abuse the system.

2. Why the court is allowed to disregard the girl's real biological age? Seems like it's a play to cover their own grave mistake.

3. Recall after Natalia started living by herself on her own in the first neighborhood, neighbors didn't particularly like her. I could not reconcile what was said with the fact that she is completely innocent.

The story is very compelling and wild on its own, I don't understand why parts are done in a corny, early-2000s TLC reality show style. The show is so ridiculously overproduced, it can be hard to watch and take seriously.

It only gets worse with season 2. Just tell the story and don't add the sensational nonsense that cheapens it.

If you can stomach the scenes that seem like it's the umpteenth time someone delivered a line, there is still a really good story to unpack and some of the interviews are a breath of fresh air that helped me hang in there.

That's all I had to say about the show but had to add more text to meet the minimum. :/

I'm giving this documentary a high rating solely because I went in believing that this could have been a case of an adult posing as a child and I came out thinking the exact opposite.

Michael Barnett was not believable in the least and did himself no favors with the show. I disliked him immediately. I feel bad for their prodigy son who really seems to have suffered some trauma but mostly I feel bad for Natalia. It's quite obvious, if you pay any amount of attention, that she was not an adult but in fact, a child. She was left to fend for herself by an uncaring and highly materialistic family. There was a lot of abuse. That was evident. How much more though? Because I have a feeling she suffered even more than we know.