The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

Gypsy Rose Blanchard did not have cancer, or any other disease her mother claimed she had. She was a victim of her mother's cruel manipulations and Munchausen by Proxy (now called "Fictitious Illness Imposed by Another"). But make no mistake - as the documentary reveals - she is still a very sick woman.

Lifetime devotes gallons of hours to interviews of her explaining her life and abuse, as well as a very dull last 2 episodes about her prison dating and marriage. There's no real fact checking, no real lens or questioning, just her framing her narrative. The whole thing is massive manipulation allowed to run wild.

Through no fault of her own, Gypsy Rose was forced to living as a perpetual sick child. But after 8 years in prison, she still spins stories and narratives that serve her needs, not essentially the needs of the truth or mentally healthy thought. She's still the fairytale loving free spirit child, except she's in prison for murder. (shhh, we're supposed to forget that part).

She doesn't need to "tell her story" - she needs intensive psychotherapy and some years in healthy normalcy. She's got a head full of messed up ideas about everything from what love is to what accountability means. Her equally immature "husband" (now ex-husband) is another sad case of a man with no real world experience who is dating a captive girl and fantasizing about a relationship that isn't' really there.

Giving her a platform (compete with manipulative dreamy shots of her walking alone on a prison yard and sitting in a prison doorway as the rain falls around her) isn't the cure she needs. A halfway house, a job, and therapy is the cure she needs.

The real hero of this whole story is Kristy Blanchard, her stepmother, who patiently hopes for her, prays for her and gives her solid advice. She's gone way out of her way for a child who was never hers, and she is the only one in this story who has earned a right to be heard.

This whole series is overly long, incredibly slow and grating, and just really a sad cash grab on a story that is as compelling as it is horrible.

It doesn't come to any kind of conclusion. After episode 6 it just stops. Which is fitting, because this story is never going to end. Gypsy Rose is going to go from show to show, podcast to pulpit telling it over and over, with her sing-song narrative and "Dreams come true" finale. She's gone from her mother's prison, to actual prison, to the prison of media attention. From the day she and her boyfriend killed her mother, she's getting better press. She's just not getting better.

A genuinely interesting story whose telling transmogrifies into a painful set of confessionals from the Real World. It's absolutely not a documentary. It is an exhausting, overwrought slog through prison 'romance', in a painful reality television style. Yes - has a really interesting and compelling backstory of the extremes of parental neglect and abuse, tragic consequences, etc. But you end up with so many unanswered questions about the crimes, the people involved and the actual important and relevant facts that it is totally unfulfilling as any sort of storytelling - let alone a documentary. Such a potentially sympathetic person and story squandered.

After discovering this documentary post, "Gypsy's Revenge," I noticed a significant contrast with the film. This documentary, which spans seven episodes and nearly five hours, delves more deeply than the two-hour film, impacting perceptions of Gypsy Rose, Dee Dee, and the numerous adults in their lives who, over twenty-three years, missed opportunities to avert tragedy. This lengthy format is both enlightening and heart-wrenching. Initially, I viewed Gypsy as manipulative, especially involving Nicholas Godejohn in her mother's demise. However, this extensive series paints a fuller picture. Gypsy and Nick, shaped by troubled upbringing, social isolation, and intellectual impairments and challenges, are seen more clearly. Gypsy, in particular, was molded by abuse and trauma, leading to a range of psychological issues and her eventual drastic actions. Her repeated attempts to escape her mother's control before turning to a dire solution are poignant. Given the circumstances, this documentary made me question the fairness of her guilty plea. Dee Dee's abuse, reminiscent of "Misery's" Annie Wilkes, could have spiraled into even more extreme cruelty. Now, as Gypsy Rose candidly addresses her past and expresses genuine remorse, she deserves a chance at normalcy and a joyful life. I'm hopeful she's on that path.

(Reviewed through the first four episodes)

It's difficult to separate a documentary from its subject matter, but I've tried to do that by basing my rating on the fact that so far this has basically been three hours of Gypsy & her supporters talking about Gypsy. It's all rather self-serving, and there's virtually no counterpoint given. If you want to feel sorry for her you'll find reasons to do so here... assuming you can believe such a practiced liar.

Being a true crime fan, I'm pretty familiar with the case. It was easy to sympathize with her early on because her mother was so very evil & manipulative. But hearing her words at length here reminds that she is a trained liar who has told so many stories about what went on that it's difficult to think that we're finally hearing the absolute truth here.

She does cop to some unpleasant things, so one could use that as evidence she's finally owning up. But in the last 20 minutes of episode 4 she says, "It feels like after everything that I have been through, why keep me here? It's not going to bring my mother back." That doesn't sound like someone with a conscience to me.

Believe her or not, this simply isn't much of a documentary, nor is it really "prison confessions". It's a one-sided platform for Gypsy to attempt to continue to control the narrative, without fear of contradiction. As a result, it fails as a documentary & deserves my rating of 5 stars.

On the other side of the coin, letting her and her supporters spin their own narrative for three solid hours does show a thoughtful viewer that Gypsy hasn't really changed much. She's still telling stories that suit her purpose, and we're still left wondering where the truth is and whether or not she understands her own culpability in all of this. Perhaps illustrating this by using her own words is what the producers had in mind all along, but with no other context provided that seems like a generous conclusion to draw.

In the end, this mess has in fact changed my view of Gypsy, but not in the way she obviously would have hoped. It's pretty clear from her own words that she learned very well from her master-manipulator mother, a skill that she has continued to hone in prison. Because to Gypsy, everything is all about Gypsy.

It's tragic what happened to this young lady, her mother definitely abused her and her trust. That being said, she IS a murderer and a manipulator and used that horny, slow boy as a weapon. Now he's serving life and she's making a show about getting married to some Easter-egg of a human? Let's not forget, this guy is the exact same as those sad women who write fan mail to serial killers.

I watched the entire series just to see if there was anything new they would convey. If you're wondering, there's not. It's 6 episodes of "I killed my mother, BUT.." the whole thing puts me in mind of the self-serving Casey Anthony "special" that came out a few years ago. It's a desperate attempt to hold on to the fleeting 15 minutes for a despicable act.

This girl was abused, no argument. But rather than go to the authorities or any number of people on the planet, she chose to USE some rando in the internet to do her dirty work. The only reason the prosecutor cut her the deal is because they knew when she got in the stand and boo-hooed in her little girl voice the jury might have found her not guilty so they figured some prison is better than no prison.

In reality, she deserves to spend her life behind bars, not getting married and doing book signings. Does this little killer realize she's not "free"? She's on PAROLE!