If you’ve been hooked on Peacock’s dramatized series, A Friend of the Family, and want to separate the truth from the fiction, the streamer has you covered via a companion documentary titled A Friend of the Family: True Evil. In a trailer released today, Peacock pulls back the curtain and gives audiences an all-access pass to the family at the center of it all: the Brobergs.
The teaser includes old photographs and filmed footage of the Brobergs’ lives before, during, and after it was ripped to shreds by Robert “B” Berchtold. While the entire family was affected in a multitude of ways, it was daughter Jan Broberg who faced the most terror at the hands of Berchtold. Both the scripted series and the documentary follow the story of Broberg’s abduction by the family friend, who not only groomed her but also seduced both her mother and father.
The trailer reveals Broberg’s attempts to unveil the monster for who he is alongside her supportive family members while an interviewer poses questions to dig deeper into the truth. Audiences will also see the tear-filled meeting of Broberg and another woman who was groomed and manipulated by Berchtold. With the two never having sat down face-to-face, their first time swapping stories and traumas is sure to be both healing and challenging.
Centered around Broberg’s difficult true tale of a childhood ruined by a predatory adult, A Friend of the Family follows Broberg (Hendrix Yancey and Mckenna Grace) at the ages of both 12 and 14 when she’s kidnapped by Berchtold (Jake Lacy). The first abduction happened in 1974 with the second in 1976 with Broberg’s entire family trapped by Berchtold’s charisma. After meeting Berchtold in their LDS church, parents Bob Broberg (Colin Hanks) and Mary Ann Broberg (Anna Paquin) find themselves mesmerized by the manipulative man, and both carry out affairs with him. Meanwhile, they have no idea of the extreme damage being done by giving Berchtold access to their children. The Nick Antosca-created series also stars Lio Tipton as Berchtold’s wife Gail Berchtold and Austin Stowell as FBI Agent Peter Walsh.
Along with A Friend of the Family: True Evil, Netflix also has a documentary currently available for streaming that tells the unbelievably sad events titled Abducted in Plain Sight. Directed by celebrated documentary filmmaker Skye Borgman (I Just Killed My Dad, Sins of Our Mother), the 2017 feature was the first look into the haunting and disturbing story of the man who took so much from an entire family.
Check out the trailer for A Friend of the Family: True Evil and get both the dramatized and real account of what happened to Jan Broberg and her family with both productions now streaming on Peacock.