The release of the true crime limited series ‘A Friend of the Family’ has been officially announced, and it will be broadcast on Peacock on October 6th.
Something is amiss with the Broberg family’s neighbor in the chilling new trailer for A Friend of the Family.The series tells the true story of the abduction and abuse of Jan Broberg from the ages of 12-16.
The Peacock crime thriller is based on the harrowing true story of how obsessive family friend Robert Berchtold (Jake Lacy) manipulated the Broberg family in order to take their daughter from them.
Colin Hanks plays family patriarch Bob, who seems to sense there is something wrong with his neighbor’s relationship with his wife, Mary Ann (Anna Paquin) and his daughter, Jan. Hanks, 44, is nearly unrecognizable in his role as the “big-hearted, kind” Bob, whose description calls him “the very model of a suburban patriarch.”
The series traces several years of Jan’s life, from her younger days, portrayed by Hendrix Yancey, to her teenage years (McKenna Grace), with the real-life Jan Broberg serving as a producer on the show, alongside her mother.
In a stunning statement from Jan, she shares that the series tells the story of her “loving, trusting, educated family” and how her entire world changed one day.
In 1972, her family met “the nicest new family at church,” and a years-long friendship ensued. “Then on a normal afternoon, the father kidnapped me — and from age 12 to 16 I was sexually assaulted and severely brainwashed by this man who I trusted,” she wrote.
The trailer shows federal agents arriving at the Broberg’s home to interrogate them about their relationship with Berchtold. “He’s practically a member of the family,” Mary Ann says.
“No one thinks that their best friend is a monster,” Agent Pete Welsh (Austin Stowell) tells them. “But he has all the hallmarks of a psychopathic personality.”
Later, Hanks’s character erupts at Berchtold’s wife Gail (Lio Tipton). “Your husband kidnapped her again!”
Showrunner Nick Antosca (Candy, The Act) called it a “wrenching, complicated story to work on.” He thanked the entire Broberg family, and Jan in particular, for their openness throughout the process. “This is a story about survival, and a larger story about the American psyche and the institutions of family, religion, and community,” he said in a statement.
As the series tells the dark story of her family and their neighbor’s manipulation of them, Jan hopes it will make people “angry” in order to raise awareness for these kinds of stories of abuse and start a conversation.
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