The Curious Case of Natalia Grace--A Review

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 I had read an article and decided to give this docuseries a chance. Boy was I engrossed in the first season. You constantly felt the tug of who is lying? Who is telling the truth? I finished the first season in one day and was looking forward to the meeting of Natalia and her adoptive father, Michael. I have to say that he came across as a douche bag. I didn't believe his story that he was abused. I do think he was manipulated. He talked about Kristen, the mother using sex as a weapon against him. He seemed to want to do a lot to please her as well as turn a blind eye to the abuse. I really wanted both him and Kristen in jail.

The second set of episodes were supposed to represent Natalia's point of view. They did firmly establish in my mind that she was really a child at the time of all this and not an adult. We also learned that she was probably sexually abused in the orphanage and that could explain why she came on sexually to men. However, I still feel icky at the idea that she came on to male kids. I was hoping that the second season would clarify what happened, but it only seemed to make things murkier. The one thing that perturbed me in Natalia and Michael's meeting was how frequently they would answer "I don't remember that or I can't recall". To me, it's a dead giveaway that someone is lying. It's a convenient way to keep oneself from self-incrimination.

I had expected a happy ending when Natalia got adopted, but the producers instead featured a call from her adoptive parents saying she was lying about things. I don't know if I could take another series, but then again who can stop watching such a train wreck? I think this is one of the rare true crime series where you are not sure if there are any heroes and that everyone is a villian.

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