This is the problem with shows that have 1 release day. I can't google the show for ANY reason because I know I'll see spoilers. I can't even open this thread for fear of seeing a spoiler. And when can I start discussing it? Weeks after I've watched it? This show had so much potential to be a talked about show. |
I just discovered it this weekend so I assumed it was fairly new. I think giving it a good week or so is fair to start discussing in this thread. People can avoid it if they haven’t finished it. |
But that's my point. We have to avoid discussing it until we finish it. I'm not going to discuss episode 1 when I've already finished it. It's way more fun if we're all on the same episode and we can come up with theories together. |
| It is so painfully bad. We had to force ourselves to finish the first episode. And I loved Sarah Snook in Succession. None of the characters rang true, awful dialogue, cheesy old school background music, and they somehow made a child's disappearance unbelievably boring. |
| First half was intriguing, second half went off the rails. It made more sense when I saw that the series was based on a book set in Ireland because some of it hinges on sibling relationships that are really not plausible for a. American family. |
The backstory was hugely important though bc it showed a pattern of behavior for the character. |
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The entire flashback sequence to the Irvine parents bringing Milo home from the hospital and dealing with night wake ups was soooo relatable. I think this is episode 2 or 3? I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but this isn't spoiler-y for the kidnapping plot.
There is an exchange where Marissa is totally sleep deprived and at the end of her rope and Peter is trying to be supportive but also taking zero personal responsibility for figuring out the problem with sleep. He's like "why don't you sleep when Milo sleeps during the day?" and she tells him that's the only time she can get anything done all day. And then she kind of goes off on him and says look, we aren't the first people to deal with this problem, there must be guidance on sleep training or how to make this easier, I'm sure there are books and experts, can you please just help figure this out. And Peter just looks at her and says, "Yes, I want to help. Just tell me what to do." And the next shot is Marissa reading the books and doing research online and a montage of her figuring out sleep training and then cutting to Milo sleeping through the night and Marissa and Peter waking up after a decent night's sleep. And Peter is like "good work, look at that -- you can do anything." And Marissa doesn't look like she wants to kill him, but also... well if you are a mom who has experienced this EXACT sequence of events, you know how she feels. I think this is what this show is about and they are nailing those moments. All the phone calls between Dakota Fanning's character and her husband asking him to help out with his own son so she can attend a work meeting or meet a client. And the way he kind of rolls his eyes at her career goals and points out that it won't even result in a higher salary so what's the point. Meanwhile he is a school teacher and clearly makes very little AND has a schedule that should be more conducive to being the primary parent but he's somehow not? I know families exactly like this. Exactly. And you know if the roles were reversed and the mom was the teacher and the dad had the kind of demanding but more prestigious job, that mom would be handling everything at home. The kidnapping plot is unrealistic and a lot of the twists are soapy but the show is doing a good job of highlighting these little tensions at the heart of reasonably functional, happy marriages but where women still get this raw deal because we still just let men off the hook when it comes to parenting and the men are not even malicious about it, it's just a death by a thousand cuts as women pick up all the little loose ends and men don't really think about them at all. |
| So is it an American remake of the British series or a different show? |
Backstory is important, yes. I didn’t like the way they dragged it on and felt like the portrayal was too soapy and overly done. For such a top notch group of actors I felt it could have been written better. |
Can you elaborate? |
Maybe, but they appear to be making SO much money, like millions a year. If the parents were being woken up multiple times a night, they would 100% hire help. Like a live-in nanny. |
IRL, yes. But as someone who doesn't have that kind of money and couldn't even hire a part-time nanny or sitters to come help during that time, I found it relatable. The show itself is unrealistic but those details are very accurate to how these dynamics play out between married couples. They make the people on shows like this rich so that they can shoot in certain sorts of houses and because it helps make plots work (so much easier to make certain things happen when money isn't an issue). It annoys me and I wish they showed middle class people more often. But I'm willing to overlook it if the actual personal dynamics are relatable. |
How did the cops not obtain a single video camera on their property? Isn't that a good place to start? Or see what car Carrie left the school in? They didn't discuss cameras until the Marathon which they somehow found an image mixed in with millions of people! Wow! Didn't anyone see Peter carrying a huge bag into the house when he was supposed to be canvassing??? |
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I found the final reveal and unraveling of what happened to be extremely annoying and stupid. Though I should have guessed from the start, based on casting choices.
The first few episodes are good and I wish it was much more just focused on Sarah Snook's and Dakota Johnson's characters. I liked their chemistry and found their characters interesting. It really falls apart by the end. |
| I loved it! I actually think it was well plotted out and tied up nicely in the end. Sure, maybe there were less than believable parts but that's not what I watch TV for. |