The following contains spoilers for The Girl from Plainville, now streaming on Hulu. It also contains discussion of suicide.
The Girl from Plainville follows Conrad Roy and his girlfriend Michelle Carter in a dramatization of the tragedy that made headlines across the nation. The Hulu series focuses on their relationship up to the moment Conrad ended his life at the encouragement of Michelle. Michelle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for her role in Conrad’s death, but the characters’ relationship is what makes the limited series worth watching — especially the depiction of teen mental health.
Conrad and Michelle both dealt with mental health issues and had medical histories including various therapies, hospital stays and medications. These untreated underlying causes contributed to Conrad’s death and Michelle’s conviction. While scripted series have also tried to discuss mental health, such as Jonah Byrde’s issues in Ozark and Rue’s story arc in Euphoria, The Girl From Plainville stands out because it’s based on a true story. It’s another series that will hopefully educate viewers about mental health concerns.
In The Girl From Plainville, Michelle showed significant signs of difficulty socializing with others and regulating her emotions. She also struggled with separating real life from media, quoting Glee and creating musical scenarios in her head. Daydreaming and fantasizing are completely normal, as escapism is a common tactic to deal with the everyday world, but Michelle was unable to grasp that life wasn’t a scripted TV drama.
Michelle went to a mental hospital, and Conrad was extremely upset by this and punished her emotionally when she was released. Her history with medication is also often mentioned in the series, indicating she needed medical assistance in regulating something going on with her mentally. These issues can be common for teens as they navigate their complicated emotions, and struggling with the transition to adulthood can be normal. But Michelle’s obsession with the media prompted her to overly romanticize Conrad’s mental health, creating an unhealthily codependent bond between them.
Conrad had his fair share of treatment as well. He had attempted suicide two years prior and stayed in a hospital to recover. The show’s portrayal of Conrad’s embarrassment over this event was incredibly realistic; he expressed hating everyone’s eyes on him after the event. Everyone was ensuring he was okay and making sure he wouldn’t repeat the act, and he felt smothered by attention. His focus was on wishing he wasn’t mentally ill in the first place rather than accepting it as truth and moving forward to treat his depression.
The refusal to acknowledge these deeper issues is fairly common in people with depression. The illness sometimes doesn’t feel like it can be fixed or solved, especially if they’ve lived with it for most of their lives. Conrad’s refusal to receive help put Michelle in a position of being his validation. He leaned heavily on her for comfort, and he would also use her as an emotional outlet when he turned his internal rage outward. The Girl from Plainville showcased how difficult it can be to treat mental illness when the victim insists on hiding the wound.
A breakthrough in the series was when Michelle’s lawyer called a medical expert to testify at her trial. The doctor explained that the medications Conrad and Michelle were taking could have caused their behaviors and thus led to Conrad’s death. His explanation brought the show into a more grounded reality about the complications and risks of taking medication for mental health issues, especially for teens. In so doing, The Girl From Plainville broached an issue that other portrayals of mental health don’t often cover — and pointed out how the subject is never simple.
The Girl from Plainville is available to stream now on Hulu. If you or someone you know is in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at (800) 273-8255.
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