The new Netflix series The Politician features a Munchausen by proxy storyline and the show is drawing comparisons to Hulu’s The Act, which just won an Emmy Award last weekend.
Jessica Lange plays a grandmother who pretends that her granddaughter, played by Zoey Deutch, has cancer to get free stuff and to keep her granddaughter close to her.
The Act starred Patricia Arquette and Joey King and told the true story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard. If you weren’t aware already, Gypsy was involved in the murder of her mother Dee Dee after discovering that she was perfectly healthy following years of being treated for various illnesses she didn’t actually have.
Zoey talked about the comparisons between the two shows in a new interview with THR.
“The one thing that’s similar is the Munchausen by proxy element,” she said. “But at its core, it’s very different because Infinity really believes that she is what she’s told she is. And she believes that because she has to. She’s doing what she has to to survive.”
The Politician is also a satirical comedy while The Act was a drama.
“What was made very clear from the beginning is that this was going to be a show unlike anything else, and it would be okay if we were sometimes confused by the tone,” Zoey said about the tone of the show. “That’s fine. That’s normal. Because it’s talking about very serious issues, about sexuality and gender and politics, but it’s a satire. It’s a comedy. So I just remember talking about that a lot and remembering that it’s a little bit more textured and different than just comedy/drama, black and white. Jessica and I, our world is in its own microcosm. It’s its own world.”
