biiaanccca 's review for:

The Family Experiment by John Marrs

5.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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The Family Experiment is a chaotic, high-stakes social experiment that quickly spirals into betrayal, murder, and shocking revelations. Presented in a Black Mirror-esque format, it follows multiple couples competing to raise a child, with the highest-rated pair ultimately winning. The prize: keeping their AI child, or taking the money to raise their own child. Viewers engage through chat, statuses, and social media updates, which I especially enjoyed. 

The Couples & Their Stories:

• Kitty & Rufus -
  Rufus killed their meta child
• Jaden & Selena –
  Jaden spent all Salena’s money saved for IVF on gambling, and had multiple other kids while in a relationship with her
• Woody & Tina –
  Tina favored Belle and Woody favored Izzy, their child locked in their basement for almost murdering a classmate
• Zoe & Dimitri –
  Infamously sold their son, Adam, but he is revealed to be alive
• Cadman & Gabrielle -
  Camden is obsessesed with having Gabrielle for himself, and goes as far as to drugging him
• Hudson –
  Secretly Leo, ultimately kills “Hudson” (his previous identity)
• Matteo –
  Ends up being adopted by Cristoff and his wife, living a happy life

Some Events & Twists I liked

• Rufus murdered his and his wife’s meta baby by shaking too hard
• Salena divorced Jaden (and he was later murdered), which led Malachi to be eliminated after she refused to continue with the experiment
• Cadman sold his parents’ house out from under them
• Izzy killed Belle, disguised as Tina through her avatar
• Cadman orchestrated their meta child, River, to receive Amazonite. River proceeds to sell it, resulting in another meta child’s death, which gets River eliminated
• Zoe and Dimitri sold their son, Adam, to child traffickers
• The grand finale pitted Dimitri, Zoe, and Hudson against each other, with viewers watching their final showdown
   
• Hudson won the experiment, but did not keep his meta child Alice