For those who have been involved in a high-profile, newsmaking, scandalous and highly unusual criminal case in the 2000s or 2010s, it’s only a matter of time before one of the major streaming platforms orders up a limited series inspired by that story, with disclaimers stating, “While this program is based on real events, certain parts have been fictionalized solely for dramatic purposes and are not intended to reflect on any actual person or entity.”
That’s the title card we see before every episode of the well-made, deliberately paced and decidedly unsensational Hulu series “The Girl From Plainville,” which is based on the odd and disturbing and ultimately tragic relationship of 17-year-old Michelle Carter and 18-year-old Conrad Roy, who saw each other in person only a handful of times but shared thousands of texts, emails and phone calls — with Conrad expressing an increasingly pressing desire to end his life and Michelle urging him to do so, even telling him to get back in his truck as it filled with lethal carbon monoxide. (The series is based on journalist Jesse Barron’s stellar reporting in Esquire magazine.)
