Typically, I don't watch this kind of stuff. I don't watch real-life crime shows, docu-dramas, etc. I find them exploitative and watching them feels dirty. Like tragedy porn. But when children are involved, I'm sometimes drawn to these kinds of programs. I guess a part of me wants to know if the kids came out of it okay. If they got their lives back together. I'm usually disappointed. Rarely, if ever, is there a happy ending when abuse is involved. And so it goes. This two season series reveals a lot of ugly. So much so that I kept putting it aside. I would watch an episode or two, then stop. It was just too sad. There are lies upon lies. Manipulations and fabricated tales. When all is said and done, however, I came to a few "truths" I will hold onto. (Perhaps the draw of these things is to play judge and jury? To feel empowered to judge others?) Is Natalia Grace a sociopath? No. Was she an adult masquerading as a child? Absolutely no. She was a child. And from birth she was saddled with health issues, abused and passed along. To more abuse. She was ten, and had suffered a LOT, by the time she finally found herself in a situation where she was treated with decency. Where she was finally hugged and valued. Where she was treated as a child and truly cared for. Does she have issues? Oh my, yes. She is angry. Defensive. Perhaps abusive in some ways. It was all she ever knew. But here's another bottom line for me. She was surrounded by adults. Were some abusive? Absolutely. But others, like her stepfather, say they couldn't stop the abuse. Couldn't help. And that, my friends, is just bull****. There were adults and a child. Blaming the child for her behavior as a result of her abuse, refusing, as the adults, to step in, is criminal. Period.
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