The new Girl From Plainville trailer attempts to make sense of one of the most controversial cases in modern American history.
Elle Fanning stars as Michelle Carter in the Hulu limited series about Carter's unprecedented case. In 2017, 19-year-old Carter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend Conrad Roy III.
In what became known as the "texting suicide case," Carter repeatedly encouraged Roy to take his own life via text. Most expressly, Carter was found guilty based her final phone call with Roy, in which she ordered him to get back in his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide. Roy died by suicide in July 2014 at the age of 18.
In the trailer, the walls begin to close in around Carter as the community attempts to make sense of the tragedy. The case, described as "precedent setting," brought a number of new, modern questions to the courtroom, namely how technology and coercion can be implicit in murder.
Carter was largely demonized for her role in Roy's death. Fanning, made over with Carter's distinguishable hair and eyebrows, attempts to paint a portrait of a girl misunderstood. "All he thought about was dying," she says. "I really just wanted to help him."
The series will follow Carter through her 2017 trial and feature flashbacks of her relationship with Roy, played by Colton Ryan.
In an interview with Esquire, consulting producer Jesse Barron—who wrote the feature on which the series is based on—said it was important not to villainize Carter. "You have to go beyond [just humanizing these characters] and actually tell a story where the psychology gets way more complicated," he argued. "The forces get way more multifarious and visible."
Carter was sentenced to two two-and-a-half years, with 15 of those months due to be served in prison. In January 2020, she was released three months early for good conduct.
The Hulu Original limited series is written and executive produced by co-showrunners Liz Hannah and Patrick Macmanus, along with Elle Fanning and Brittany Kahan Ward.
The Girl From Plainville premieres on Hulu with three episodes on March 29.