# The Girl from Plainville (2022)

> A dramatization of the controversial case in which a teenage girl was convicted for encouraging her boyfriend's suicide through texts and calls.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/89470

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 8
- Episode runtime: 44 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime
- Created by: Liz Hannah, Patrick Macmanus
- Network: Hulu
- Cast: Elle Fanning, Chloë Sevigny, Colton Ryan, Cara Buono, Kai Lennox, Norbert Leo Butz, Aya Cash, Kylie Liya Page
- TMDB rating: 6.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12851512/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: sombre, tense, unsettling, restrained

## What critics say

Audience reception is mixed, with viewers praising the lead performances and the serious handling of a difficult true story while finding parts of the telling uneven.

## Synopsis

The Girl from Plainville (2022) is an American limited series created by Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus for Hulu. Elle Fanning plays Michelle Carter, a magnetic teenager whose intense bond with her boyfriend Conrad Roy III (Colton Ryan) becomes the centre of a case that gripped the nation. Chloë Sevigny plays Conrad's mother Lynn Roy, whose grief sharpens into a fight for justice, while Cara Buono plays Michelle's mother Gail Carter, caught between protecting her daughter and facing what she has done. Across eight episodes of roughly forty-four minutes each, the drama moves between the private world of late-night phone calls and text messages and the public machinery of a Massachusetts courtroom, where prosecutors must prove that words alone can be a crime. The engine of the series is the tension between what was said and what was meant, and between families who each believe the truth is on their side. Tone is sombre, tense and deeply unsettling, with a restrained, procedural pace that lets the quiet domestic scenes carry as much weight as the trial. Its handling of a real tragedy is careful and grounded. Fans of The Staircase, Impeachment: American Crime Story and The Thing About Pam will find resonance in its true crime sensibility and its interest in the human cost of a headline case.

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