Peacock’s ‘A Friend of the Family’ Is Even More Terrifying Than the Crimes That Inspired It: TV Review

variety.com:

Joshua Alston In Peacock’s true-crime drama “A Friend of the Family,” Bob Broberg (Colin Hanks) pleads with his wife Mary Ann (Anna Paquin) to help him understand her egregious lapse in judgment. “Don’t you have better sense?

It doesn’t make any sense…why would you do such a thing?” Those also happen to be the questions bandied about on Twitter when “Abducted in Plain Sight,” a 2017 documentary about the Brobergs, went viral after landing on Netflix.

According to what passes for consensus on social media, while the Brobergs endured a horrible ordeal, they bear most of the responsibility because of the unconscionable decisions they made. “A Friend of the Family” is written with an acute awareness of the backlash that met the Brobergs after they shared how they were manipulated and nearly destroyed by a malignant narcissist.

It begins with a statement from the Brobergs daughter Jan, the primary victim in the story, who serves as a producer on “Family” along with Mary Ann. “I know it may seem unbelievable, but we lived in a different world back then,” Jan says. “I’m telling my family’s story today because so many people believe it could never happen to them.” As compelling and frightening as “Family” can be, it never quite makes the case that what happened to the Brobergs could happen to anyone.