The Girl From Plainville Review: Mirrorball (Season 1 Episode 5)
The Girl From Plainville Season 1 Episode 5, “Mirrorball,” shows the difficulties of telling a story based on true events.
“Mirrorball” suffers from having a limited amount of source material. In addition, because this is a fictionalized version of Michelle Carter and Conrad “Coco” Roy’s story, it takes some liberties with characters, facts, and method of storytelling.
However, The Girl From Plainville seems to want to give a semi-accurate portrayal of this story.
This makes the show admirable. Unfortunately, it also hurts the series because there is a limited number of known public facts.
“Mirrorball” feels repetitive because the TV series only has text messages, the court trial, and interviews to reference when developing this story and exploring their mental state.
It is recycling old material because The Girl From Plainville has established Coco’s social anxiety, his parents’ complicated relationship, and Michelle’s need for attention in previous episodes. Unfortunately, it only adds a few new details to the story.
We learn how Michelle’s sexuality may play a part in her actions with Coco, but that’s a weak defense — as the show displays. The episode also dives slightly deeper into Michelle’s eating disorder.
However, it only scratches the surface of that element. It seems to rely more on stereotypes associated with eating disorders instead of pushing things further by exploring the reasons behind Michelle’s complicated relationship with food and her body. Viewers only briefly hear her discuss it with Coco.
This episode, much like The Girl From Plainville Season 1 Episode 4, “Can’t Fight This Feeling,” manages to give some humanity to the justice system with Katie (Aya Cash) and Michelle’s lawyer, Joseph Cataldo (Michael Mosley). In addition, Katie shows some sympathy for Lynn (Chloe Sevigny).
This makes it appear that she’s not solely taking this case to advance her career. She may also want to provide a sense of comfort and justice for Lynn.
Joseph doesn’t come off as slimy as he once did because he mentions the Patriots. On this episode, in particular, he seems concerned about Michelle’s mental state. He also seems a little appalled that she told Coco to drink bleach. This gives him more layers than someone just looking for a fame boost.
On The Girl From Plainville, he seems to want to win this trial and maybe not be for its glory. However, his motives could be more complex and human.
The introduction of a man who wants to argue that prescription drugs combined with Michelle’s eating disorder may have altered her mental state provides “Mirrorball” with one of its most interesting scenes. This is an element that I think many may not have considered, at least those only vaguely familiar with the case.
This argument could change viewers’ perspectives of Michelle’s actions.
One of the strongest elements of “Mirrorball” and the show, in general, are the scenes with Elle Fanning and Colton Ryan as Michelle and Coco. Unfortunately, viewers haven’t seen many real-life face-to-face interactions between Coco and Michelle because they only met in person a few times before his death.
Seeing them interact in person highlights how good Ryan and Fanning are as these characters.
There is a difference in the chemistry between them in person and through texts. This feels typical of most online relationships versus their real-life meetings because a bit of awkwardness is expected in person compared to the freedom of talking through texts.
This real-life interaction, like all their interactions, is surrounded by darkness. Viewers watch as these two kids flirt, fumble through sexual encounters, and engage in typical teen romance things with the knowledge of how this all ends.
The Girl From Plainville‘s story of Michelle and Coco isn’t a teenage dream but a nightmare in the making.
“Mirrorball” highlights The Girl From Plainville would have worked better as a four or five-part miniseries instead of eight episodes. However, this story may not need eight episodes to tell it.
Other Thoughts:
- The flashbacks throughout this episode are hard to follow. Maybe the makeup and costumes are a little too subtle because scenes like Michelle learning about her grandmother’s death only became apparent as a flashback when she texts Coco about it.
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What did you think of this episode of The Girl From Plainville? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New episodes of The Girl From Plainville stream Tuesdays on Hulu.
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Jerrica Tisdale
Jerrica Tisdale is your favorite neighborhood pop culture junkie. She will annoy you with random TV and film facts, while complaining about whatever is the hottest new book. She has been a TV fan all her life but writing about it for over a decade. You may find her work all over the internet especially reality TV rants. She is a senior writer at Tell-Tale TV.