Fact and fiction collide in true-life drama series and companion doccies

The two-part HBO documentary I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v Michelle Carter was released in 2019. It told the chilling tale of how 17-year-old Michelle Carter encouraged – urged – her boyfriend Conrad Roy, 18, to commit suicide via text messages in 2014, and the ensuing court case that ultimately saw her convicted for involuntary manslaughter as a result of reckless and negligent behaviour.

Michelle Carter declined to be interviewed for the documentary (her 15-month jail sentence was effected in February 2019; she was released a year later due to good conduct) but that didn’t stop Hulu from producing an eight-episode drama series, The Girl From Plainville, based on the shocking story. Both are available to stream and binge now on Showmax.

“Based on a true story” and “inspired by real events” are phrases we are all familiar with in the realm of entertainment streaming, and nothing new. But when you have the scripted drama available alongside the factual documentary, it expands the viewing experience. The question is, which do you watch first?

That’s a tough one, and you only get one chance of making that decision. Same with the book-or-movie conundrum. For the purposes of this article, and since I Love You, Now Die has been on the platform for a while, we’ll assume you watched it first. This means The Girl From Plainville will fill in a lot more detail – fictionalised, it must be noted. In fact, there are parts that assume the viewer already knows about Michelle’s obsession with the teen series Glee, and that her sentencing was deferred based on her unsuccessful appeal on the grounds that her texts were protected speech under the First Amendment.

The casting for The Girl From Plainville is remarkable. Elle Fanning as Michelle Carter is – for all her court appearances certainly, which we see in the documentary – uncanny in resemblance and mannerisms, from the way she walks to the swing of her hair. As is Colton Ryan as Conrad Roy III, a long-troubled teen who had social anxiety, depression, and had attempted suicide before. Oscar nominee Chloë Sevigny plays his mom Lynn, another striking likeness.

This is carried throughout the series for almost every character, even in the small roles, something you will notice if you have previously seen the doccie or related media. If you have really sharp eyes you’ll notice a clip from the documentary playing on the television in the background as Michelle’s father and sister argue about having the news on.

The series goes back to the beginning of Michelle and Conrad’s relationship.They met only a few times during the two years they knew each other, but exchanged thousands of text messages. It is the modern way, and no less intense or valid than real-life contact. We are invited to get to know the teenagers and the intricacies of navigating their societies, the angst and self-doubt, their friends – or lack thereof – and how the troubled pair bonded through shared experiences; neither were strangers to therapy and medication.

It’s a complex and layered situation, as divisive as it is tragic.

“The Girl From Plainville‘s emphasis on subjective feelings over objective truths makes it a more thoughtful and interesting example of the ripped-from-the-headlines miniseries than most. From that angle, its ambiguity feels like an acknowledgment of the bitter truth that there is no explanation that’s going to make sense of the self-inflicted death of an 18-year-old boy, or his 17-year-old girlfriend’s refusal to stop him,” says The Hollywood Reporter. “The best this series can do is try and understand what was going through these young minds as they traveled down this path — and in doing so, restore to them some of the humanity that’s gotten lost in the life-shattering fallout.”

at’s happening and set out to stop him and bring him to trial. Spoiler: Duntsch is serving life in prison. He will be up for parole in 2045, when he is 74.

More than 20 years old, HBO’s Band of Brothers remains one of the best miniseries ever made, and due to its nature, stands the test of time and should be on your must-watch-before-I-die list. Over 10 episodes, it recalls the history of “Easy” Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division (that full name just sounds so cool), from jump training in the United States through its participation in major actions in Europe, up until Japan’s capitulation and the end of World War II.

Created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, Band of Brothers has an all-star cast, even if some of them weren’t even stars back then, like Damien Lewis (Billions, Homeland).

We Stand Alone Together: The Men Of Easy Company is a short-ish (74 minutes) documentary released at the same time. Each episode of Band of Brothers includes interviews with veterans; the documentary features the same men, and some of the same interviews – but longer and in more depth. Personally, I did not feel it to be essential viewing; the spirit, heroism, sacrifice and courage of Easy Company is well documented in the miniseries.