Hulu's The Act is a dishy guilty pleasure wrapped up in a prestige TV bow

The A.V. Club

Patricia Arquette and Joey King deliver awards-worthy performances on the anthology series based on the Buzzfeed article, "Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom Murdered," according to Katie Rife. "As always with true crime—a genre where we always know, or at the very least can find out, how the story ends—the gratification of The Act is in the telling," says Rife. "And the show, spread out over 10 leisurely hours that greatly expand on Lifetime’s condensed treatment of the story in the recent TV movie Love You To Death, only gets more compelling with every new reveal. From the very first shot of the pilot episode—a hallway littered with overflowing plastic bins full of toys—The Act takes a dishy joy in serving up the perverse details of Dee Dee’s long con. These details are presented in two primary ways: First, there’s the commendably meticulous costumes and production design, which place Gypsy and Dee Dee in a psychotically juvenile world full of stuffed animals, princess dresses, and feminine shades of pink and purple. Juxtaposed with sinister scenes of abuse straight out of a Stephen King novel, the effect is truly unnerving—and extremely effective in conveying Gypsy’s stunted emotional state."

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• The Act is too lurid, making for a weird and often uncomfortable viewing experience
• Patricia Arquette's work on The Act might be as great as her Escape at Dannemora performance
• The mix of melodrama and sometimes grisly details gives The Act the vibe of an old-fashioned thriller
• The Act is just weird enough to work
• Why The Act used an "unsettling" Jackson 5 song
• Joey King says a role like this required an audition "because it’s a role that requires a lot of care and a lot of commitment. It’s very demanding"
• Patricia Arquette on filming The Act: "There were moments where it was nauseating. Even though everything was pretend, sometimes it looked so real"