Lamar Reviews - "Maternal Instinct" (Airdate 8/14/2026)

 

I had a few friends recommend this documentary to me, and not one of them told me what to expect. I’m glad they didn’t, it allowed me to see everything develop a little at a time. Each revelation was bigger, more shocking, and more unbelievable than the last.

The problem I face is doing a review that does not spoil it for anybody else.

The director Jessica Dimmock did a great job of giving the audience a sort of one-sided story focusing on Taylor Parker and the intricate web she weaved. She slowly and methodically tells the story just like it happened. Which is exactly how all the people that were deceived by Parker came to realize what was happening.

The documentary opens with police footage as a Texas Trooper pulls Parker over for driving erratically. As she sits on the side of the road, she tells the Trooper that she has just given birth to a baby girl. She begs him to drive her to the hospital, but the Trooper waits for the ambulance so that the baby can get medical care.

When doctors examine Parker, they figure out that she has not given birth to a baby. WHAAAT?

Now we are fully aware that Taylor Parker is a lying liar who lies. The documentary takes us back in time to when she meets the man of her dreams, Wade Griffin. Wade is a country boy that is a roofing company supervisor, welder, wild hog trapper, and livestock manager. He comes off as an all-around good ole boy.

All Wade knows is Taylor comes from a very wealthy family and she is buying him trucks, tactors, and a huge farm. Before he knows it, she is pregnant.

It just gets crazier from there.

The documentary is 1 hour 34 minutes, Rated TV-MA.

I am pretty sure if this was a movie, you would say “That is the most farfetched idea for a movie I’ve ever seen. Nobody would watch it because it is too crazy to be believed.

The director knows exactly how much information to give us and when to hold back. If she gave us too much too soon, I’m not sure we could process it.

Taylor Parker is a complicated person who suffered from very low self-esteem early on in life. Then she re-invented herself, and in doing so became a master manipulator, and equal parts psychopath and sociopath.

As I mentioned earlier, there is an entirely other side to this story, and it deserves to be told. But the way the director presents it has a much bigger impact on the audience.

I have watched many true crime documentaries on Netflix and other places. A lot of them shocked and surprised me, but this one is really hard to stop thinking about. The intricate plans, the lies, the manipulation, stay with you. 

I warn you, this is not a story with a fairytale ending.

My Score: 5 Budweisers