I waited far too long to watched this critically acclaimed miniseries, but I did finally sit down to watch A Friend of the Family.
First of all, let me say how severely messed up this is! I know that since this is a television adaptation there are bound to be a few things here and there that are dramatized, but still. The overall story is just plain nasty. The Broberg family are keen to welcome the Berchtold family into their neighborhood as well as their Mormon church in the early 70s. Bob and Mary Ann Broberg click almost immediately with Bob and Gail Berchtold. They garner a friendship that turns very personal and eventually intimate, very quickly. It’s clear early on though that Bob is a sociopath, and it’s also clear that he’s got his eyes set on the eldest Broberg daughter, Jan. Yuck. Yuck, yuck, yuck.
This series doesn’t keep you waiting too long. Over the course of several scenes, we see how Bob, or ‘B,’ makes himself out to be the most loved guy in the room, and he involves himself in Jan’s life as much as possible. Jan’s father is a little suspicious, but still doesn’t put a stop to anything going on. By the time Jan is twelve, ‘B’ has concocted the perfect plan to kidnap Jan and attempts to make her his wife. Did I mention the word ‘yuck’ earlier? He tells Jan they’re going horseback riding, drugs her and takes her in a camper van to the middle of nowhere, staging the whole thing as an alien invasion type thing. He has Jan convinced that she is part alien and that she must complete a mission that involves both marrying and having a baby with her “male companion,” which just so happens to be B. There are threats to her siblings which is what keeps Jan into this whole charade, but it is absolutely horrible to watch.
The Brobergs are at least wise enough to realize that B has to be the one who took Jan. They do everything in their power to get Jan back, and with the help of the FBI, they succeed. But that’s about when the wheels fall off. Jan refuses to speak about the situation because she fears her sisters will be hurt if she spills about the mission. B also has some dirt in a sexual nature to use against both Bob and Mary Ann. Fear gets the best of the Brobergs and B walks away with basically just a slap on the wrist. The Brobergs do their best to distance themselves from the Berchtolds, but they are obviously a weak bunch and keep sliding back into B’s allure. If I were the Brobergs I would have moved immediately and as far away as I could!
Because you know what, two years later, B kidnaps Jan again! At this point, I know Jan is still only fourteen, but how could she still believe in this alien thing? Maybe it’s her way of coping with the trauma she wasn’t fully aware that she faced. Either way, she sure makes it hard on her family when she flies out to be with B behind their backs, yells at them for constantly watching over her, and still refusing to talk about what happened two years earlier. Eventually, the truth finally seeks Jan out and she gets B to pay for his crimes, but it was a long, and sometimes frustrating road to get there. I can appreciate the fact that this all went down in the 70s and stuff like tis hopefully wouldn’t fly so easily today, but gosh, the Brobergs deserved a slap or two to bring them back to reality.
The series went on a bit long for my liking, but the performances were solid. Especially that of Jake Lacy as Bob Berchtold. I’m used to seeing him play pretty affable guys, so watching him use that skill for this disgusting person was quite impressive. Something else that knocked my socks off was seeing the actual Jan Broberg play her own therapist in a few scenes later in the series. No pressure for McKenna Grace! Overall though, a wildly fascinating story.