Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A Friend Of The Family’ On Peacock, About The Abductions Of Jan Broberg, Committed By A Family Friend

It’s unusual to see the real-life subject of a true crime scripted series appear as herself before the show begins. But the story of how Jan Broberg was abducted not once, but twice by the same family friend, years apart, is one that most people would find hard to believe. The most unbelievable part is that after the first kidnapping, the friend was welcomed back into the Broberg family fold. Can a scripted series capture how strange the Broberg actually was?

A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The real-life Jan Broberg on the set of A Friend Of the Family. She thanks viewers for watching then assures that “I know it seems unbelievable, but we lived in different times back then.”

The Gist: “Pocatello, Idaho, 1975.” Jan Broberg (Hendrix Yancey) says goodnight to her mother Mary Ann (Anna Paquin). After the lights go out, Jan hears a thump. She tries to relax and go to sleep, then we see a shadow in her room.

“A few years earlier,” we see the Broberg family as your average, LDS-churchgoing group who do things like puzzles and games together. Bob Broberg (Colin Hanks), a local florist, gets the family ready to meet a new family, the Berchtolds. He met Bob Berchtold (Jake Lacy) outside of church and they got on so well that they figured their families could get together.

When they meet Bob Berchtold, who tells everyone to call him “B” so as not to be confused with Bob Broberg, he seems like a friendly guy, who encourages Jan and the other Broberg girls to put on a talent show with his three kids. Jan seems to be infatuated with the Berchtolds, listening in as B’s wife Gail (Lio Tipton) tells the Brobergs a story about how her father might have seen a UFO.

As the months go on, the two families spend a lot of time with each other, to the point where Bob Broberg starts to get concerned that B is becoming too close to Mary Ann and his kids. It comes to a head when B persuades Mary Ann to let Jan go horseback riding after school, not telling her that Bob had already said no to him. B also gets really physically close to Mary Ann as he asks, which would have confirmed Bob’s fears had he been there to see it.

Jan gets in B’s car, but finds that they’re not going anywhere near the stables where she’ll go riding. As it gets later into the night, hours after B said he’d bring Jan back, Mary Ann and Bob ask Gail questions about where her husband might be. Little do they know that Bob’s car is parked on a dark road, window smashed out, and Jan is tied to a bed in a remote RV.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A documentary about the Broberg case, Abducted In Plain Sight, should give you some good background to just how messed up this case is. Aesthetically, A Friend Of The Family reminds us of another recent true crime series, The Act.

Our Take: The story behind A Friend Of The Family, created by Nick Antosca (Brand New Cherry Flavor, the aforementioned The Act), is a complex one that takes place over years. B Berchtold was so good at manipulating people that he was able to still be a family friend while being continuously threatening to Jan Broberg. Despite the fact that he kidnapped Jan once, the Brobergs didn’t press charges and somehow decided it was OK to have B spend time with the family, leading to a second abduction when Jan was older.

There are layers to this case, including both Broberg parents having affairs with B and enough creepy manipulations to make your head spin. What Antosca has done in the first episode is set up just how manipulative B could be, with just the simple horseback riding request. He deftly played Joe against Mary Ann, knowing Joe wasn’t the angry type and also knowing just how charming he could be to both. When he whispers to Mary Ann, “I wish I had met you sooner,” you know his powers of persuasion are strong.

Lacy has made a living lately out of playing seemingly decent guys with a dark, exceedingly creepy side, and those skills come together as B. He’s creepily charming when he first hangs out with the Brobergs; you know there’s something up, but he toes the line between friendly and creepy and inches over it just enough to let you know things aren’t right. But Hanks is equally good as the flustered Bob Broberg, who doesn’t want to get angry but, dang it, he can’t help himself. Paquin also does a good job as Mary Ann, who opens her heart to everyone, sometimes to her detriment.

As the layers of the Broberg case become more complicated, we wonder how well Antosca will be able to keep things straight for the viewer. But the true story behind the drama is so weird, so crazy, so harrowingly creepy that just seeing how it plays out will be fascinating to watch.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Jan is strapped to a bed in the RV. She calls out for B, but no one answers. A speaker keeps blaring the words “Female companion” over and over.

Sleeper Star: We haven’t yet seen Mckenna Grace, who plays the older version of Jan. It’ll be interesting to see how older Jan feels with her kidnapper still hanging around, despite what happened.

Most Pilot-y Line: “If you could ride horses, you could take Jan yourself,” Mary Ann tells Bob on the phone. “I’m allergic to horses!” Bob exclaims. “B isn’t!” she replies. That’s a hell of a break, Bob, living in Idaho and being allergic to horses. Anyway, it may have been the truth, but it felt like such an out-of-place silly line.

Our Call: STREAM IT. A Friend Of The Family already reaches creepy, harrowing heights by the end of the first episode, and it has only scratched the surface of how much B Berchtold manipulated the Broberg family.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.