‘A Friend of the Family’: See Jake Lacy’s Chilling Robert Berchtold in Eery First Trailer (VIDEO)

When Jan Broberg was a child, she was kidnapped by close family friend Robert Berchtold not once, but twice. Her parents, Mary Ann and Bob Broberg, knew what Robert did the first time, and yet it somehow happened again. The mind-boggling true crime story is dramatized in Peacock‘s A Friend of the Family, debuting October 6 on the streaming service. Starring Jake Lacy (The White Lotus), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Colin Hanks (The Offer), Lio Tipton (Why Women Kill), Mckenna Grace (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Hendrix Yancey (Stranger Things), Peacock debuted the first A Friend of the Family teaser on Thursday, August 18.

A Friend of the Family is based on the harrowing true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped multiple times over a period of years by a charismatic, obsessed family “friend.” The Brobergs — devoted to their faith, family, and community — were utterly unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbor used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart, and turn their daughter against them. This is the story of how their lives were permanently altered — and how they survived.

The video, above, features the eeriest use of The Turtles’ “Happy Together” you’ll ever hear. The slowed down track serves as a chilling backdrop for the clips of Paquin and Hanks as Mary Ann and Bob, Lacy as the insidious manipulator Berchtold, Tipton as his wife, Gail, and Yancey and Grace as the child and pre-teen Jan.

“I bet when you were a little kid and you thought about the perfect place, this is probably what you wanted for yourself,” Lacy says, opening the trailer. The Brobergs then meet the Berchtolds, and if you’ve seen the Abducted in Plain Sight Netflix documentary about this same story, seeing Robert shake young Jan’s hand will send a shiver up your spine.

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See Anna Paquin & More in Peacock's 'A Friend of the Family' First Look

The Peacock limited series aims to address the question on everyone’s mind when they learn what happened to Jan: how did her parents let this happen? How could Robert have kidnapped Jan twice?

“It’s easy to judge the Broberg family’s story from the outside,” director Nick Antosca said in a statement. “Sometimes when people first hear it, they get defensive: How could these parents have let this happen? I’m not like them.

“That’s understandable. It’s a surreal story. When I first heard it, I empathized with the family’s vulnerability, and I felt like I understood their story from the outside. But it stayed with me, and I wanted to understand from the inside — to know what their lives felt like, to live in each family member’s experience, to see how they were caught in such a bizarre web, and help audiences understand too.

“I hope people will come away from the series with a deeper understanding of the family and say: In that time, in that place, they were like me. They made terrible mistakes, but they loved their kids. And a master manipulator took advantage of them.

“The series exists outside the typical categories of genre. It’s a thriller built around obsessive relationships, a family drama, and a nightmarish coming-of-age story.”

Peacock

The real Jan, now 60 years old, has worked in the entertainment industry throughout her adult life and serves as a producer on the Peacock series along with her mother, Mary Ann. Jan said in a statement that the show’s creative team “captured the heart of how good people can be manipulated and their children victimized.”

A Friend of the Family will consist of nine, 60-minute episodes, the first three premiering October 6. Episodes will release weekly after that. Antosca serves as showrunner, executive producer, and writer with Alex Hedlund and Eliza Hittman also executive producing. Hittman also directs multiple episodes, including the series premiere.

A Friend of the Family, Limited Series Premiere, Thursday, October 6, Peacock