Late to the Party: I Know This Much Is True

I finally decided to watch the HBO Miniseries I Know This Much Is True after Mark Ruffalo won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his dual leading role as identical twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. I knew nothing about the series except for the accolades received by Ruffalo, but was convinced enough by that to give it a go.

I Know This Much Is True, based on the novel of the same name by Wally Lamb, tells the story of Dominick and his twin brother Thomas, who is an advanced paranoid schizophrenic, in the aftermath of an extreme act by Thomas and his subsequent hospitalization in a maximum security forensic psychiatric hospital. The six episodes follow Dominick’s quest to get his brother out of the hospital alongside flashbacks to their childhood, teenage years, early adulthood, and, eventually, the life of their grandfather as well, tracing generational traumas and the events that lead them to their present state.

This series was, in a word, relentless. As the episodes go on trauma after trauma unfolds for the brothers and it does not let up. I’m not one to shy away from a tragedy, and I love a good cathartic cry as much if not more (read: probably more) than the next gal, but I need a break. While I understand the importance of striking tonal consistency in a a piece of narrative art, if the tonal intensity isn’t varied it just crosses over into unpleasantness. I found myself not necessarily on the edge of my seat about what would happen next (things were a bit predictable), but on the edge of my seat waiting for the next horrible piece of information to drop. I was pleasantly surprised that by the end of the series, after dangling a potentially horrifying prospect in front of the audience for an episode or two, it did not come to fruition, but this work really hit on a thousand and one horrible things that can happen to a family, and I think it was just too much.

For once I fully agree with critics and award voters who singled out Ruffalo’s performance in what is otherwise just an enormously depressing show. He really gives a master class in this one, playing two brothers who are vastly different yet inextricably linked. I also would like to commend Philip Ettinger, who played teenage/college Dominick and Thomas as well as none other than Rosie O’Donnell, who played Thomas’ social worker.

Unless you have an outsized investment in Mark Ruffalo’s career and want to study his technique, I would not necessarily recommend dedicating six and a half hours of your life watching I Know This Is Much Is True, and would especially not recommend it to someone who has a sibling or loved one dealing with severely debilitating mental illness. Sometimes art can make us feel seen, but I think this specific example is just too tragic and hard to watch. There’s really not a glimmer of hope, and that’s saying something. I need to watch a freakin’ comedy cause the one thing I definitely do not need right now is another depressing miniseries.