Sunday, May 12, 2019

The Review: Mommy Dead And Dearest



Mommy Dead And Dearest 8/10

When your own father suggests flushing your ashes down the toilet you know you have to be one of the most ain't shit humans to ever walk the planet. I just watched Mommy Dead And Dearest on HBO and my god it is nuts. I know that there is a series on Hulu but I ain't got time to be watching people pretend to be real folks when I can watch the actual people involved tell their story? By the way. The song during the credits? I get it. It has the name of the girl that this is about but seriously? That was super classless. This is about a girl named Gypsy Rose Blanchard who along with her boyfriend were charged for murdering her mother Dee Dee Blanchard. I had heard a little bit about this like the fact that the mom was pretending the daughter was sick for attention and money. What I did not know was that this little girl was now in her early 20's and that her mother had a whole laundry list of issues that she said her daughter had.


Dee Dee said that Gypsy Rose had leukemia, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, respiratory issues, sleep apnea, salivary glands removed, vision and hearing impairments, and all kinda random shit. Now when you read all that you probably wonder why she was being treated for shit that can be tested. In some cases her her salivary glands being removed surgically her mom gave her something to make her drool more. She made her pretend not to be able to use her legs. She would drug her constantly and even when she was sleeping. A doctor or two suggested that the mother was suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy which is a “condition where a caregiver creates the appearance of health problems in another person, typically their child.”


Another question you may ask is where was her father. He was 17 when Gypsy Rose was born and Dee Dee was 24. They spit up pretty early in her life and he had almost no contact with them. Dee Dee was lying to him about all of this stuff as well. You probably wonder why she did not tell any of her friends. Well, she stopped going to school in the second grade (because she was getting “sicker”) and her mother was always around her. Always. If she said something she should not have her mother, who was always holding her hand, would squeeze it and abuse her later. She ended up meeting this guy named Nicholas Godejohn on a Christian dating site (of course!). They had an online relationship that developed to her running away once and then being leashed to her bed for a few weeks. They ended up texting about murdering Dee Dee which Gypsy Rose suggested and Nicholas, who has his own mental issues as well as being arrested in 2013 for jerking it in a McDonald's while watching porn for nine hours, was happy to do.


Gypsy Rose ended up getting 10 years in prison while Nicholas got life. Watching the actual police interviews as well as from Gypsy Rose and her father and people who knew the family growing up was done really well. Dee Dee's own family seemed to hate her guts and she poisoned her step-mom back in the day. The family is like “Fugdahbeh.” I felt bad that Gypsy Rose has to do any time but I understand why she did. I also understand why she had her mom taken out because if she had not the shit would still be happening right now. This girl had no way out of that situation and using some horned up weirdo she met online was the perfect mixture of right and wrong. It I sad that the first time she gets to be free she is locked up in jail. She seems to be turning out more normal that I would expect growing up the way she did.

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