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Hulu’s Good American Family aired its penultimate episode, If You Tell a Story Well Enough, on April 23. In the episode, viewers saw Detective Brandon Drysdale take up Natalia's case. The character is played by Dulé Hill, and is fictional, based on the composite of the real-life detectives who worked on Natalia Grace's case.
Good American Family follows the story of Kristine and Michael Barnett, who adopt a six-year-old Ukrainian girl, Natalia Grace. The Hulu series examines the changing dynamics of the Barnett family following Natalia's adoption. Told across eight episodes, the plot presents the audience with different sides of the story and the different perspectives of each character.
Who is Detective Brandon Drysdale based on in Good American Family?
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Good American Family is a fictionalised account of a series of true events, inspired by the case of Natalia Grace, who was adopted and eventually abandoned by the Barnett family. While the characters of Natalia, Kristine Barnett, and Michael Barnett are real, Detective Brandon Drysdale, portrayed by Dulé Hill, is fictional.
Detective Brandon Drysdale enters the picture early on in the show, but in the real timeline of events, the police do not get officially involved in the case until 2019, when charges are levied against the Barnetts for neglecting their dependent, Natalia Grace. The real-life Barnett couple was arrested in 2019 after details about the case came to light, and they were found guilty of neglect.
Detective Drysdale is not based on any one particular detective who worked on the case at that time. This is because, in reality, more than one detective worked on the case, from Michael Barnett’s interview to the couple's arrest.
Many law enforcement personnel worked on the case to get to the bottom of the claims made by Natalia against her adoptive parents, as well as the Barnetts against Natalia, and the character of Detective Brandon Drysdale is an amalgamation of all of them.
For the sake of simplifying the case to present it in the form of a series and streamlining the events, all the officers working on the case have been combined into a composite whole represented by Drysdale.
Drysdale is an important character on Good American Family as his investigation and interrogation of the characters bring forth different narratives to the audience. His presence on the show adds a nuanced perspective on the matter and a more detailed outlook on the differences in the characters' stories, making viewers question every narrative.
All about Dulé Hill, who plays Detective Brandon Drysdale in Good American Family
Karim Dulé Hill is an American actor best known for his role as Charlie Young in the NBC drama television series The West Wing, for which he bagged a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He is also familiar to audiences as the pharmaceutical salesman-private detective Burton "Gus" Guster on the USA Network television comedy-drama Psych.
Dulé Hill has also appeared in movies like Holes, The Guardian, and She's All That, and has a recurring role on Ballers. He has played Alex Williams in the last three seasons of Suits and Bill Williams in the 2021 remake of The Wonder Years.
Viewers can catch Good American Family on Hulu now.
