TV review: All Her Fault overcomes an early hiccup to become the best thing on telly this year
Adapted from the best-selling novel by Andrea Mara, "All Her Fault" opens on a terrifying situation that eventually unearths the deep secrets of a community
There is an annoying bit at the start of .
Marissa Irvine arrives to pick up her five-year-old son Milo from a playdate at a posh house in the Chicago suburbs. A woman answers and tells her she has the wrong address. So where is Milo?
This is where it gets annoying.
The woman invites Marissa in and spells out the possibilities, so it slowly dawns on Marissa someone has taken Milo.
It’s clunky exposition that assumes we are half-looking at our phones while watching the show, so everything has to be laid out by a nice woman with a calming voice.
(Marissa actually utters these words in case we missed the point.)
It’s the only misstep.
I’m all-in on All Her Fault after five minutes. Milo’s nanny, Ana, isn’t answering her phone. The mom supposed to be hosting the playdate, Jenny (Dakota Fanning) seems nice, but don’t they always?
Marissa’s husband Peter seems a bit flaky, probably because he’s played by the superb Jake Lacy (US Office and The White Lotus.)
The questions the police ask will resonate with any parent. Were you at Jenny’s house before? No. Did you correspond with Jenny by text before now? No. Did the number giving you the address to pick up Milo correspond with Jenny’s phone number? No.
We’ve all been there. Now Milo is missing and the cops are asking his parents for a recent picture.
There are other angles you’ll enjoy — passive-aggressive parents judging each other and a useless father who rings his wife every five minutes.
This is TV in the 2020s, so once the story is established we jump back two months to see the opening day at school and Nanny Ana’s first day at work.
I normally hate this, but it’s a short jump back and the crumbs dropped add to the suspense. The pace picks up.
Milo’s teacher reveals he was picked up from school by Jenny’s nanny, Carrie. We’re given a hint that Carrie might be a bad ’un, so it couldn’t be her, because this is a whodunnit.
But the knives are out for Jenny as the one who brought this nanny into their world.
If you liked Big Little Lies, you’ll love this. It’s one brilliant actor after another (Fanning and Snook are ridiculously good), and the annoying exposition at the start is a minor glitch.
All Her Fault is the best show I’ve seen this year. Give it a watch.
