The Politician Is Just the Latest in a Series of Shows About This Disturbing Syndrome

In Ryan Murphy's The Politician, Jessica Lange portrays Dusty Jackson, the nana of Zoey Deutch's character, Infinity, who is the hyper-ambitious Payton Hobart's running mate during the school election. Infinity suffers from a mysterious illness and has an even more mysterious past, according to Entertainment Weekly. It's pretty clear that Dusty is taking advantage of her granddaughter's ailment, using her to get into Olive Garden of all places.

Where to watch it: Netflix

Munchausen syndrome by proxy doesn't get much scarier than HBO's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's twisted novel into a dark miniseries. In Sharp Objects, Amy Adams plays Camille Preaker, a troubled reporter who investigates the murders in her small town and eventually makes terrifying discoveries about her mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson) and little sister.

Where to watch it: HBO

The Act isn't the first time Hollywood tried to make sense of the Dee Dee Blanchard's truly dark murder case. Other than a Lifetime TV movie, the tragic and terrifying true crime case became widely known through the 2017 HBO documentary, Mommy Dead and Dearest.

Where to watch it: HBO

Amandla Stenberg plays Maddy, a young woman with an immune disease in Everything, Everything, the teen romantic drama adapted from Nicola Yoon's YA novel. Spoiler alert: it turns out Maddy never had the disease and that her mother only told her that she had it in order to keep her safe after Maddy's father and brother died in a crash.

Where to watch it: YouTube, Amazon, iTunes

Pennywise might be the front-and-centre antagonist of It, but Eddie is also a victim of his mother's MSBP. In the film adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Eddie's mother tells him that he has multiple illnesses, forcing him to take pills that turn out to be placebos.

Where to watch it: YouTube, Amazon, iTunes

In the comedy horror Ma, there's also a Munchausen syndrome by proxy plot where Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer) drugs her teenage daughter Genie to keep her placid as a side hustle to her main murdering gig. Genie eventually figures out that she's being drugged and takes on her mother.

Watch it here: YouTube, Amazon, iTunes

Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread follows the life of difficult fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock, who is played by Daniel Day-Lewis in his final role before retirement. Woodcock begins a relationship with a waitress named Alma, who becomes his muse. While their love is rosy at first, Alma poisons Reynolds with mushrooms as a means of retaliating his abusive behaviour.

Watch it here: YouTube, Amazon, iTunes

A classic '90s Halloween horror film, The Sixth Sense portrays an early example of Munchausen syndrome by proxy in pop culture. Mrs. Collins is implied to have been afflicted with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, poisoning her children, most notably the ghost girl Kyra, in order to get attention.

Where to watch it: Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, iTunes

Hulu's The Act retells the shocking true story of Dee Dee Blanchard, a mother who forced her daughter Gypsy Rose to fake a bunch of illnesses in order to garner sympathy as well as financial resources. Feeling trapped, Gypsy Rose eventually asked her then-boyfriend to murder her mother to escape the abusive relationship. Joey King, who portrays Gypsy, and Patricia Arquette, who plays Dee Dee, earned Emmy nominations for their roles in the anthology series.

Where to watch it: Hulu

In this Scandinavian mystery series, a body is found on a bridge between Sweden and Denmark. The lead police investigator on the case, Saga Norén, also tries to prove that she and her sister were victims of her mother's Munchausen syndrome by proxy while cracking this case.

Where to watch it: Hulu, iTunes

In the British thriller series Clique, Holly, a student investigator, gets the case file of Agnes, a feminist politician who is up for re-election. Agnes, it turns out, has been trying to frame her son Jack for a crime by poisoning him and causing his blackouts as a result.

Where to watch it: Hulu, YouTube, Amazon