The situation by now is completely rote: Netflix releases or acquires a true crime documentary, everyone watches it, then everyone throws themselves into the ensuing discourse. The latest documentary to get this treatment is Abducted in Plain Sight – which didn’t land on the streaming service with any real explosive force, meaning that everyone’s reactions are coming through in dribs and drabs.
The universal response has been this: what the fuck is happening. What. What.
Let me give you a quick summary of this alternatively odd, disturbing and infuriating documentary. Abducted in Plain Sight concerns the abduction and abuse of Jan Broberg by pedophile Robert Berchtold, a family friend and fellow member of the local Mormon Church. I won’t spoil what else transpires over the Abducted‘s 90 minute runtime, but I will tell you this: it is insane.
You will yell at your TV. You will not be able to even begin to mentally apprehend how badly Jan’s family failed her. It involves faked alien abductions, unfathomable lies, what seems like the world’s most derelict parents, and – yes – a completely baffling wristy. I will say no more on this. You’re just going to have to watch it!
This cocktail of dark weirdness – freshly distributed by Netflix – has catapulted the doco to a much wider audience, after it was originally screened back in 2017. The reactions are fairly united!
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1092603618698690562
https://twitter.com/itsindysev/status/1091839267523973120
The entirety of Abducted in Plain Sight on Netflix pic.twitter.com/Fg0vRUhxF3
— el (@elliepeters218) February 4, 2019
abducted in plain sight some wild shit, the 70s was not okay
— father (@father) February 4, 2019
https://twitter.com/tiarachel91/status/1092598064081195008
https://twitter.com/calvinstowell/status/1092132104576618496
tired: Fyre Festival blowjob guy
wired: ABDUCTED IN PLAIN SIGHT handjob dad
— Brett (@BrettRedacted) February 4, 2019
Fair warning if you haven’t watched and are deciding to do so based on my article and the above shocked tweets: the doco is quite disturbing! It deals with sexual abuse in some detail. So just be aware of that.
But if you can stomach it: Abducted in Plain Sight is a thoroughly mystifying portrait of how a group of strange people linked by spiralling blackmail can result in the most insane outcome imaginable.
