11 "Based On A True Story" TV Shows That Were Criticized By The Real-Life People And Families They Are About

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"You should have called the families."

This post contains mentions of suicide and sexual assault.

1. First, the family of Griselda Blanco reportedly sued Sofía Vergara and Netflix to try and halt the release of the limited series Griselda, which tells the story of Griselda, who created one of the most profitable cocaine cartels in history. According to a lawsuit obtained by Entertainment Tonight, Griselda's son, Michael, alleged he had been shopping his mother's story around Hollywood for years, even giving interviews, and Netflix did not utilize any of his details or consultations from his interviews.

2. Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the inspiration for Martha in Baby Reindeer, recently sued Netflix for a reported $170 million. According to Variety, Fiona is alleging "defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and violations of her right of publicity."

3. Following the release of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Nicole Brown's sister, Tanya, and Ron Goldman's family criticized the series. Namely, they called out the cast, saying, "You should have called the families." Goldman's father added in a joint interview with Dr. Phil, "A whole new generation who never saw this take place is going to see this series and assume that everything is fact."

4. In 2020, former prosecutor Linda Fairstein sued Netflix, director Ava DuVernay, and co-writer Attica Locke for defamation, claiming that she was wrongly portrayed in When They See Us, which portrayed the famous Central Park jogger case. According to Variety, the suit claimed that the series depicted Fairstein as a "racist, unethical villain who is determined to jail innocent children of color at any cost."

5. Several family members of Jeffrey Dahmer's victims criticized Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story when it began streaming on Netflix in 2022. Eric Perry, whose cousin was one of Dahmer's victims, said that because the murders are public record, producers are reportedly not required to notify the victims' families, so they found out the series was happening alongside the public.

6. Gianni Versace's family released a statement criticizing The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story upon its release in 2018, stating that they had no involvement in the series. A statement shared with Entertainment Weekly read, "Since Versace did not authorize the book on which it is partly based nor has it taken part in the writing of the screenplay, this TV series should only be considered as a work of fiction."

7. Rachel DeLoache Williams, who was portrayed in Inventing Anna, filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix in 2022. Per Variety, the lawsuit claimed that Williams, who notably attended a trip to Morocco with Anna "Delvey" Sorokin where she reportedly tried to steal $62,000 from her, was depicted as "unethical," "greedy," "snobbish," and "disloyal."

8. Oleksiy Breus, a Chernobyl engineer, had some criticism of a few of the main characters, namely Viktor Bryukhanov, Nikolai Fomin, and Anatoly Dyatlov, in the limited series Chernobyl. In an interview with BBC, Breus said, "Their characters are distorted and misrepresented as if they were villains. They were nothing like that."

9. John Major, who served as the Prime Minister of the UK from 1990–1997, reportedly described The Crown as a "barrel-load of nonsense," according to The Guardian. Major's comments came after he was depicted in a Season 5 episode meeting with Prince Charles about Queen Elizabeth II's reign.

10. Nona Gaprindashvili, the first woman to be named a grandmaster in chess, sued Netflix after a single sentence in The Queen's Gambit implied that she'd "never faced a man" during a tournament. Gaprindashvili was seeking millions, and claimed the show is a "devastating falsehood, undermining and degrading her accomplishments before an audience of many millions," according to the New York Times.

11. And finally, the family of Conrad Roy, the boy who killed himself after his girlfriend encouraged him over text, said in an interview with ABC News' 20/20 that they had "no involvement" in the 2022 TV series The Girl from Plainville. Lynn Roy, Conrad's mom, reportedly hoped the show focused more on mental health awareness and "showed" Conrad more than Michelle Carter.

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