Sarah Snook’s new TV thriller All Her Fault sees a child disappear and mothers get the blame
Open this photo in gallery:
Sarah Snook, left, and Dakota Fanning in a scene from All Her Fault.Sarah Enticknap/Showcase/Supplied
We have All Her Fault to thank for bringing Sarah Snook back to television for the first time since Succession ended on HBO two years ago and her compellingly hypocritical rich liberal character, Shiv Roy, was sheathed along with the show.
The Australian redhead resurrects her impeccable American accent and some of Shiv’s skeptical squints and husband-murdering stares for a new starring role: Marissa Irvine, an ultra-wealthy mother who lives in an extravagant lakeside house with an infinity pool in a Chicago suburb.
But All Her Fault isn’t another satirical show set among the 0.01 per cent.
Instead, it’s a thriller set among the mere 1 per cent, which centres on a kidnapping but swiftly moves from an overwrought attempt to tap parental panic into more pulpy escapism. (The first two episodes air on Showtime on Nov. 6 at 10 p.m., then stream on STACKTV the next day.)
Based on a novel by Andrea Mara, this eight-part limited series created and written by Megan Gallagher begins with Marissa going to pick up her five-year-old son Milo from a playdate organized over text messages – only to discover that she’s been sent to a seemingly random address.
What Marissa first imagines as an autocorrection error turns out to be a carefully planned child abduction.
The mother who Milo was supposed to be with is Jenny (Dakota Fanning), a publishing executive whose nanny, Carrie (Sophia Lillis), turns into a prime suspect.
Open this photo in gallery:
Snook, left, and Michael Peña in a scene from All Her Fault.Sarah Enticknap/Showcase/Supplied
The end of the first episode makes clear that this is more than just a random ransom attempt as the action flashes forward to day 27 of the investigation.
Detective Alcaras (a soulful Michael Peña) is looking at photos of all the main characters up on a white board and says: “You know, I honestly didn’t see this coming.”
Subtle, All Her Fault is not – starting with the series title that foregrounds its vein of social commentary about how women, and mothers in particular, are subject to harsh judgment even when they are the victims of crimes.
Marissa is attacked at a press conference for not double-checking the number she was texting with – and for being a working mother at all.
Jenny, who has a less financially rewarding career, is likewise condemned online for a Facebook photo that showed her “partying” (i.e. being at a work function with wine) while a nanny she hadn’t subjected to a criminal check was looking after her own son.
By contrast, Marissa’s and Jenny’s respective husbands, Peter (Jake Lacy), another wealth manager, and Richie (Thomas Cocquerel), a high school teacher, escape such public disparagement.
Both dads in the series are instead disparaged by the show’s writing, direction and acting – shown in flashback and present moment as always prioritizing their own work or play over parenting and domestic duties, and being emotionally inconsiderate to their wives at every opportunity.
Even in a crisis moment, it will still fall on the women to clean the kitchen counter before going to bed.
Open this photo in gallery:
Jake Lacy, left, and Snook in a scene from All Her Fault.Sarah Enticknap/Showcase/Supplied
The point is hammered to the extent that as Jenny is driving Marissa down a highway, the two protagonists pass a giant billboard selling luxury watches with the slogan: “Can you really have it all?”
While it would make sense for Marissa to resent Jenny over her nanny-hiring no-no’s, the two women become fast friends and form a bond during Milo’s disappearance.
Fanning gives the strongest performance in All Her Fault as Jenny – in part, because we get to simply observe how the kidnapping affects her work and marriage without having to analyze her every look and move for clues.
The other main cast members – The Bear’s Abby Elliott and Daniel Monks as Peter’s siblings and Jay Ellis as Marissa’s work husband – have to keep their portrayals more superficial in order to remain subjects of suspicion.
As a result, the other most compelling character becomes Peña’s detective. The fourth episode focuses on Alcaras’s point of view – and we get touching glimpses of his life with his wife and their developmentally disabled teenage son.
That’s the episode where All Her Fault stops rushing from one red herring to the next and starts to actually feel like a television series – and stops being a succession of images of a teary Snook racked with guilt and drone shots of luxury SUVs pulling out of driveways while underscored by anxious strings.
New episodes of All Her Fault are on Showtime at 10 p.m. Thursday, then available to stream on STACKTV the next day.
