‘Good American Family’ Review

This review was made possible by Popped receiving advanced screeners of Good American Family from Disney+.

Based on a true story, Good American Family is a drama limited series based on the adoption of Natalia Grace (Imogen Reid) by Kristine (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass), a child with dwarfism who the Barnetts decide to abandon after she starts to display peculiar behavior, falsely claiming she had been an adult pretending to be a child to justify doing so. The series premiered with its first 5 episodes now streaming on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland, with new episodes airing weekly.

Ellen Pompeo and Imogen Reid Shine in ‘Good American Family’

Now I am nowhere near familiar with Ellen Pompeo’s extensive library as an actor, including 437 episodes on the hit ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy. In this new role, Pompeo stars as Kristine Barnett, a fiercely determined mother fighting to clear her name. Unlike her long-running role as Meredith Grey, Pompeo trades the hospital scrubs for a courtroom battle, stepping into a world of controversy, media frenzy, and maternal instinct. Her interactions with Natalia Grace, played by Imogen Reid, are compelling, capturing the escalating tension and ambiguity surrounding Natalia’s true identity. Reid’s performance adds depth, portraying Natalia with a complexity that keeps audiences questioning. Reid can shift effectively between moments of menacing ambiguity and vulnerability, capturing the character’s forced maturity despite her youthful appearance. I came into Good American Family knowing nothing about the real-life Natalia Grace case, which made the show’s twists hit with genuine force. What starts out as a seemingly bizarre adoption story quickly spirals into something much more unsettling, leaving you constantly questioning what and who to believe.

Mark Duplass delivers a nuanced portrayal of Michael Barnett, embodying the “good cop”, but also a weaker-abled counterpart of the parental duo with some authenticity and less depth than Pompeo’s Kristine offers. His character offers a genuine likability, often serving as a calming counterbalance to his wife’s more volatile demeanor. Throughout the series, Duplass adeptly navigates Michael’s internal struggles, capturing the essence of a father torn between loyalty to his family and confronting unsettling truths.

Building A Social Audience for ‘Good American Family’

The series’ structure, shifting between timelines, effectively builds suspense and provides insight into the characters’ motivations and is easily one of the strongest elements of the series. While Good American Family doesn’t break new ground in the true-crime or limited series genre, it incorporates elements reminiscent of Dopesick and The Act, offering a blend of familial drama and psychological intrigue. ​Thankfully, it avoids getting too confusing with its chronology, allowing space for the characters and their contradictions to breathe.

The comparisons to other material don’t stop there, with the show’s characters self-referencing the film Orphan, which sees a couple who adopt a nine-year-old girl named Esther after losing their baby. At first, she seems sweet, but strange things start happening. The mother eventually finds out that Esther isn’t a child at all; she’s actually a 33-year-old woman with a medical condition that makes her look young. While Good American Family is anchored in real-life events, it plays out more like a true crime thriller than a straight-up biography. It’s not Orphan, even though the comparisons are inevitable. But for a story this wild, the visual style is surprisingly flat. The direction doesn’t always match the intensity of the plot, and there are moments where you can feel the show pulling its punches — perhaps a side effect of legal concerns — hinted at by the disclaimer that opens every episode, explaining how elements of the story have been dramatised.

This is clearly not my usual cup of tea, but a lot of my interest in this title is down to various out-of-context clips I’ve seen on social media, particularly TikTok. We live in such a fascinating age of social media, where apps like TikTok can have an immense power to build micro-audiences. For streaming TV, this shift is nothing short of transformative. Shows no longer need to rely solely on traditional trailers, critic reviews, or banner ads to generate interest. Instead, all it takes is one standout clip — a moment of unhinged acting or a quotable line (“Chicken Jockey”) — to go viral and suddenly a niche series is front and centre on everyone’s “For You” page.

In the case of Good American Family, that’s exactly what happened. It wasn’t the official Disney+ campaign that pulled me in, but rather a flood of chaotic, out-of-context edits on TikTok. Ellen Pompeo’s wild-eyed delivery, melodramatic monologues, and the sheer audacity of some scenes got picked apart, stitched, remixed, and memed into a kind of ironic hype machine. It’s entertainment in its own right — a show being consumed through clips before it’s even watched in full. This micro-marketing doesn’t guarantee longevity or quality, but it does change the game for discoverability. Streaming platforms now benefit from an organic, decentralised form of promotion where fandoms are built through trends, reaction videos, and cultural commentary.

The Emotional Weight of Imogen Reid’s Performance

Some of the scenes where Natalia Grace is on her own are incredibly difficult to watch. Seeing how she was abandoned, left to fend for herself, is depicted in a way that, despite her chaotic behaviour during her time with the Barnetts, she is clearly a child struggling on her own. It’s a painful reminder that no matter how strange or unsettling her actions may have seemed, this was still a vulnerable girl navigating trauma, mistrust, and repeated rejection.

We have to see her adapt to new changes, living on her own and finding out just how alone she is. She finds herself seeing Kristine on TV, becoming excited about a book all about her family, only to find out she’s been omitted hugely from past events, leading to even more turmoil and upset. She soon gets up to scratch with living by herself, but it’s something a child shouldn’t be doing, and it’s shocking to realise as you watch that this actually happened. I think of all the episodes, the sixth is my favourite for the show — it’s when we really centralise on Natalia, and her character has the space to grow and give us a better sense of who she is. Christina Hendricks joins the series at this stage as Cynthia Mans, as we see a more true-to-life story, with Hendricks’ character taking in Natalia and giving her a real sense of family… although the reality of The Mans Family is quite upsetting upon the conclusion of the show and the developments revealed about their history of adoption…

‘Good American Family’ – Final Thoughts

Good American Family might not break new ground in storytelling, but its bizarre true story, bolstered by strong performances and its viral afterlife on social media, makes it hard to ignore. For fans of true crime with a surreal edge – it’s worth watching, even if it doesn’t always stick the landing.

The first 5 episodes of Good American Family are now streaming on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland, with new episodes arriving weekly. Check out the trailer below: