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Thomas & Friends
Over 24 seasons, Thomas & Friends has taught young viewers important lessons about being helpful, teamwork and admitting your mistakes.
Conrad took his life in the parking lot of a K-Mart in Fairhaven, Mass., and everyone who had a relationship with him is grieving—his family, his friends and his girlfriend, Michelle.
The only problem is that Conrad’s family barely even knows who Michelle is.
She’s from the town of Plainville, about an hour north of Fairhaven. She and Conrad barely ever met up—there’s not even a photo of them together. Were it not for the 317 pages of texts and a goodbye note written by Conrad to Michelle, there’d be little indication that the two even knew each other.
But as Detective Gordon begins looking into those texts to understand the circumstances of Conrad’s death, he finds many that contain substantially more than just normal conversation between two dating high schoolers. He discovers that Michelle knew about Conrad’s plans to take his life.
In fact, she was the one who encouraged him to do it.
The Girl from Plainville is a dramatized retelling of the famous Commonwealth v. Carter case, in which Michelle Carter was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2017, both for encouraging her boyfriend Conrad Roy to commit suicide as well as for not performing any action to prevent it. On the day Roy ultimately took his life via carbon monoxide poisoning in a car, Carter told him to “get back in” the running car after he expressed second thoughts. The prosecution claimed that Carter wanted Roy to die in order to gain attention: She could play the part of a grieving girlfriend in need of comfort.
Carter appealed the ruling, arguing that her conviction was a violation of the First Amendment, and the question was asked whether someone could be held responsible for another’s suicide merely based on their words. For instance, if someone were to tell another to “kill themselves” in a multiplayer video game, could they be held responsible for it if the person actually did? In the case, however, the Massachusetts high court wrote that they are “not punishing words alone, as the defendant claims, but reckless or wanton words causing death. The speech at issue is thus integral to a course of criminal conduct and thus does not raise any constitutional problem.”
Carter was released from prison in January 2020 after serving 12 months of her 15-month sentence based on good behavior. She is currently serving five years on probation.
In this dramatized version of events, we are taken back to the very beginning—when Conrad and Michelle first meet. The two discover that both are taking pills for various mental illnesses including depression and anxiety, and they take solace in opening up to one another about their individual struggles. And as the show jumps between the aftermath of Conrad’s death and the events preceding it, we begin to see a depiction of the struggles both grew up with.
It also runs with the prosecution’s narrative—that Carter just wanted attention. In the drama, Michelle goes from crying one moment to worrying about her appearance at Conrad’s wake the next. She practices crying in front of the mirror, even going as far as to use quotes from stars in Glee to describe her pain—something that happened in the realcase.
And as Michelle manipulates and disregards others to make herself the central star in her own self-made story, we are exposed to various unsavory things. Characters use heavy swears, including the f-word and “g–d–n.” We hear references to oral sex. Plenty of characters drink, and Conrad’s father is portrayed as abusive with his son. There’s also a brief argument regarding church and cremation, and another brief scene describes a lesbian couple in Glee. And, of course, the subject matter deals with teen suicide.
As The Girl from Plainville joins Hulu’s ranks of based-on-a-true-story TV shows about young women committing or dealing with criminal activity (the others being Pam & Tommy and The Dropout), we’re left to wonder just how much pain these shows cause to those who are forced to relive through a dramatic retelling of the trauma they thought was finally put behind them. Though Roy’s mother, Lynn St. Denis, worries that The Girl from Plainville may “attempt to defend some of [Carter’s] needless and evil actions,” she hopes the series will draw attention to her work with lawmakers on a proposed bill called Conrad’s Law, which would criminalize suicide coercion in Massachusetts.
After Conrad commits suicide, girlfriend Michelle begins planning a fundraiser to bring awareness to mental illness. While investigating Conrad’s death, Detective Gordon discovers texts that indicate Michelle’s involvement in Conrad’s suicide.
Michelle and Conrad text one another about Conrad’s planned suicide. A police officer searching for Conrad is told that Conrad smokes “a little pot.” Conrad’s body is found in his car, and we see that he killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. A cross dangles from Conrad’s rearview mirror. In a suicide note, Conrad tells Michelle that they will meet up again in Heaven.
Michelle’s mother drinks wine, and her father drinks a beer. Another couple of people drink at a wake. Conrad’s ashes are thrown into the ocean. Conrad’s friend Rob mentions that Conrad had previously tried to commit suicide via drug overdose.
The f-word is used 12 times, and the s-word is used three times. There’s a crude word for male genitalia used once. “A–,” “h—” and “crap” are all used once. God’s name is misused once, and Jesus’ name is inappropriately used twice.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
Over 24 seasons, Thomas & Friends has taught young viewers important lessons about being helpful, teamwork and admitting your mistakes.
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