In the vein of programming like the Serial podcast and The Case of: Jon Benet Ramsey, HBO is releasing a true crime documentary for early next year.
Unlike Jon Benet, the case HBO is planning to explore is tied closer to our current times. HBO announced the arrival of their new documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest that will be hitting the small screen in March of 2017.
Mommy Dead and Dearest follows the disturbing real-life tale of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. The case garnered massive media attention first as the heartbreaking case of matricide, but soon other ominous details began to emerge from the family. Gypsy Rose is the sick daughter of Dee Dee Blanchard, who was confined to a wheelchair and couldn’t see much of the outside world. Dee Dee was admired for her strength by the rest of her community. That admiration came to a stunning decline when the message “that Bitch is Dead” appeared on Facebook, and investigators found Dee Dee murdered in her home with Gypsy Rose nowhere in sight.
Child abuse, mental illness, love, and social media commingle in this tragic tale of Dee Dee’s murder and the abuse of Gypsy Rose. Mommy Dead and Dearest was given exclusive prison access to Gypsy Rose, and the documentary looks heavily into the mental conditions that plague this case.
Erin Lee Carr (HBO’s Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop) produced and directed HBO’s latest project, alongside producer Andrew Rossi, as well co-producers Andrew Coffman and Alison Byrne.