Virginia Russell

I give this a five star rating for a few reasons. The story in itself, which actually did happen, is crazy, unbelievable, and horrendous. That being said, everyone who watched this show should’ve known to some degree what to expect. I love Julia and she is an amazing actress!!! Watch some of her interviews and maybe you’ll be as impressed with her as I am. Plus she is Ruth, no one else could portray that character as well as Julia! I have watched many videos of the real Anna and she is very bizarre, distant, dodges questions, makes everything all about her and her endeavors, and yes… her accent is extremely strange. To that point, I think Julia nailed it. The real Anna was from Russia, pretending to be from Germany, now in the states so it was a strange mixture for sure. A lot of journalists (who are trying to make a name for themselves and a cover story) are really truly that passionate, animated, and borderline annoying with their persistence and often have blinders on the “project” they are working on. Was it a little over the top? Perhaps! However, I have met people in real life who act very similarly. She did make a lot of faces and I, too, noticed that but it didn’t kill her character, nor her acting. The main characters who were based on real people made the story more exciting. I did not see the need for all the extra people but it was made perfectly clear that there was some based on truth, and some not. For the story the series was portraying, it kept my interest and I think it was a job well done. I have watched way worse in my time on a series that lasted for 6/7/8 years long which fell flat somewhere in the middle but I was so invested, I just kept going. I think people really set their expectations way too high to be posting such angry reviews.