Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up’ On Lifetime, Documenting Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Tumultuous Months After Her Release From Prison

After serving eight years of a ten-year sentence for being involved in the murder of her mother Dee Dee, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was granted parole in 2023. Her release from prison in late December of that year, and the tumultuous months that followed are the focus of the docuseries Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup.

GYPSY ROSE: LIFE AFTER LOCK UP: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes from The Prison Confessions Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, just to catch us up on Gypsy’s notorious case, second-degree murder conviction, and her prison sentence.

The Gist: Blanchard spent her childhood thinking she was a sickly kid, but in reality she was a victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy at the hands of her mother Dee Dee; in 2015, she and Nicholas Godejohn, who were in a relationship, carried out a plan to murder Gypsy’s mother. But through the trial and the eight years she was in prison, Gypsy Rose gained a lot of sympathetic fans, and her release from prison was highly anticipated on social media.

It’s what Ryan Anderson, whom Gypsy married in 2022 while still incarcerated, was facing when she went to pick her up at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. We first see him in Kansas City at an Airbnb rented by Gypsy’s father Rod and stepmother Kristy; Rod admits he wasn’t the most attentive father and had no idea Dee Dee was abusing Gypsy so badly, but the two have rebuilt their relationship to the point where Gypsy considers Rod and Kristy to be her true parents.

Anderson is told to pick Gypsy up at around 3:30 AM, and to ensure no one follows him to the prison; that’s how concerned the officials at Chillicothe were about media attention. The release itself takes place with the cameras off, at the prison’s request.

They go back to the hotel where Anderson was staying, and Anderson keeps being amazed that he is actually free to touch her wherever she wants. They end up consummating their marriage that night, then wake up the next day to go to K.C. But on the road, Gypsy and Ryan find themselves being tailed by paparazzi and TMZ reporters, and when they stop at a shoe store to get Gypsy better-fitting shoes than the ones she left prison with, they’re peppered with questions by a reporter.

As much as Gypsy wants to go back to a normal life, she’s coming to realize that, because of her notoriety, post-prison life won’t be normal. One sign is that she gets a call from a Missouri parole officer who orders her and Anderson to go straight to Louisiana — Blanchard’s home state, where she and Anderson will settle and her parents will return to eventually — instead of stopping over in Kansas City. They get this news as they pull into the garage of Gypsy’s parents’ Kansas City house.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we mentioned, Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up is a follow-up to the docuseries The Prison Confessions Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

Our Take: A lot has happened with Gypsy Rose since her release; she separated and divorced from Anderson and returned to her previous fiance, Ken Urker. Rod and Kristy moved back to Louisiana and Gypsy moved back in with them after leaving Anderson. She’s also had a nose job and got her teeth fixed, both in an effort to leave the “old” Gypsy behind. All of this is going to be documented in the series, according to the coming attractions, and we’re not sure how we feel about it.

We’re of two minds when it comes to this docuseries: If Gypsy Rose Blanchard really wanted to have a normal life after she was released from prison, she shouldn’t have agreed to have Lifetime continue to bring its cameras into her private life. Then again, if she doesn’t gain control of her narrative, then her story will end up being told by tabloids and TikTok speculators.

What we’re most interested in seeing is not the decline of Gypsy and Ryan’s marriage; in fact, given their history as a couple — and, to be honest, a vibe we get from Ryan in the first episode — the quick demise of their relationship is probably not a surprise. No, what we’re most interested in seeing is Gypsy Rose finally being able, at 32 years old, to live an adult life, and make adult decisions. While it seems that the quick divorce from Anderson is a product of some immaturity and impulsiveness, we’re curious to see her thought process behind it.

But there are other decisions Gypsy makes that point to the fact that the years imprisoned by her mother then the state of Missouri have affected her thought process: Why, for instance, would she plan on going to a Chiefs game the weekend she’s released, in hopes of meeting Taylor Swift? Again, if she wants to lay low and be normal, she shouldn’t be going to a football game and seeking out a handshake from the most famous pop star on the planet. That kind of muddled thinking will likely bee seen throughout the docuseries, and we hope we get to see some introspection into that from both Gypsy Rose and her family.

Sex and Skin: Besides Gypsy and Ryan talking about consummating their marriage, there’s nothing.

Parting Shot: “I do not feel free right now; I feel like I’m in a different form of prison,” Gypsy tells the producers during the parole kerfuffle.

Sleeper Star: Rod and Kristy Blanchard are the rocks of Gypsy Rose’s life after she leaves prison, and it seems that Kristy has had more of a hand in shaping Gypsy’s post-prison life than it seems in the first episode.

Most Pilot-y Line: Hearing Ryan talk about being able to touch Gypsy just creeped us the eff out.

Our Call: STREAM IT. As squinchy as we feel about the voyeurism in Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, we’re curious to see an inside look at how Gypsy Rose Blanchard has handled her first few months of true freedom in her adult life.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.