You want everyone else to tell you everything, while you say nothing.



Creator : Derek Simonds
Directed by : 
Antonio Campos (5 episodes, 2017-2018)
Tucker Gates (3 episodes, 2017-2018)
Brad Anderson/Cherien Dabis/Jody Lee Lipes (2 episodes each, 2017-2018)
John David Coles (2 episodes, 2018)
Adam Bernstein/Andrew McCarthy (2 episodes each, 2020)
Colin Bucksey/Radium Cheung/Rachel Goldberg/Derek Simonds (1 episode each, 2020)


Spoilers ahead... 


Season 1 :

You know, when I first interviewed you at the station, the way you were blaming yourself. I realized... it felt familiar. Because I do that too.


Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel) living a happy life with husband Mason Tannetti (Christopher Abbott) and son Laine Tannetti (Grayson Eddey) but there's something off about her and not long before she stabs an unknown guy Frankie Belmont (Eric Todd) seven times at the beach. While cops are willing to take safe approach that she is lieing and knows Frankie somehow which may be the motive to kill him. Detective Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) knows its not that straightforward as he begins searching for clues and hoping Cora will trust him and open up without any lies.

Starts slowly with the narrative almost taking full first episode to reach the Cora's beach incident, maybe because that's how the blurry memories of Cora would work better later on as I did like the story. She would often have the flashes of July 4, 2002 night and then the next 2 months when she won't remember anything which involves a mask guy. The past is here mixed together with the present time with main focus mainly on Cora, who has a father having affair mainly because her mother is all the time busy with her sister Phoebe (Nadia Alexander) who was born sick and every birthday is a victory for them. The chocolate scene of Cora was fun, as her relation with Phoebe gets stronger growing up which is shown in patches across season. We clearly can see she was made to believe by her mother that over praying solves every problems and she was deprived of the love with the strictness all the time, can almost call it mental abuse.

Coming to Frankie killing, I initially felt it would be related to Phoebe more like he must have done something bad. I did get the guess half right, and kudos to the writing and screenplay, the way they confuse you and take the story all around from J.D's (Jacob Pitts) love for Cora (or maybe using her), Mason's frustration not knowing what or with whom was his wife involved long ago, all the dollar bill wallpaper flashes, why the 'hugging and kissing' song triggers Cora and Harry himself trying to get his marriage working again with Fay Ambrose (Kathryn Erbe).

Harry uses little clues and unorthodox ways to find truth that mainly revolves on what happened that 4th july night which Cora can't remember due to the PTSD condition as told by the doctor. Its interesting though that the entire story Cora tells about that night to Harry turns out to be true at the end, but not exactly as told as she slowly gets her memories back with the test Harry makes doctor do on her.

If you are paying very close attention then its most likely you would identify very early at the scene where Frankie's father tells that Frankie was never present there on that 4th July night, you would have felt maybe he is the one always involved and this could be a cover up for his son. I sadly missed that point which maybe was for the engaging story that tried to mislead other ways because its never really known when Cora is speaking truth.

Many great scenes, like the one where Harry tries to trigger Cora with that song was very intense, or Harry asking Cora to show him how she takes the heroin drug, also both tests doctor has - one alone and other with Harry present trying to guide Cora very close to whatever happened that night, and when Cora says 'go to hell' to the state police cop Miss Farmer (Joanna Adler) - I so loved that. Phoebe's death scene is a tough one to watch, mainly because you know she will die soon and it happens right when she was having the most fun happy night of her life which incidentally was her birthday.

Harry gets very close personally, like a friend to Cora that helps her trust him. I specially enjoyed their conversation in the final episode in the car or the final scene before she leaves the prison.

Apart from the slow pace that at times bothered me, what really irritated me was that kinky dominant mistress angle played by the waitress with whom Harry was involved. Felt like a completely forced track when they could had just kept the focus more on case or rather show past of him and wife Fay. Then that state cop Miss Farmer from the very first scene gives vibes of 'oh no, she will go her own way and spoil work of Harry now' and exactly what happens, except for that last talk she has with Harry, only time when she made sense to me. But then most cops don't get personal and prefer quick completion of job, so can't really blame her in that sense.

Its an enjoyable season in terms of story, very good performances from Bill Pullman and Jessica Biel, and the mystery suspense throughout with a new twist coming at end of almost every episode, bit slow but worked for me.



Season 2 :

We all have a shadow, all the good and bad inside that we try to hide. We shine a light on that shadow. You encounter parts of yourself you never knew were there. Not for the faint of heart, but it's rewarding.. powerful. It teaches you how to trust yourself. 


Adam (Adam David Thompson) and Bess (Ellen Adair) are driving to Niagara Falls along with their son Julian (Elisha Henig). Some unknown circumstances lead to Julian killing them through tea poison when they were staying the night at a motel. It does seem to be a straightforward murder case that the 13 yr old Julian might be a psychopath or something but we keep learning lot more about him and the community he lived at called Mosewood Grove. 

First thing, that opening shot visual is so gorgeous, if that's the road leading to Niagara falls in real then anyone would love to go there. Like the 1st season, starts off slow but it does pick up pace quite soon and also its showing many sub-plots that are all interlinked making the interest stay in every episode. We learn who the real mother is by end of 1st episode, Julian keeps having a nightmare which we don't know is real or just dream and there's a lot of mystery surrounding what exactly happens at Mosewood Grove Community. The cop Heather Novack (Natalie Paul) and detective Harry Ambrose together investigate, both having their own past they are dealing with. Heather had a close friend, Marin Calhoun (Hannah Gross), with whom she was in love with as she disappeared and Ambrose as a kid dealt with a fire incident involving his mother. 

The whole season very successfully keeps you guessing about what has happened in past and where exactly we are heading. I totally enjoyed conversations of Ambrose with Julian, where he tries to comfort him (very much like he was with Cora in last season) as he himself has gone through bad times in childhood but staying focussed on the case. Heather's character does opposite, so often she would act out of emotions and take wrong decisions. 

The whole ritual thing I felt was slightly underplayed, we do get few scenes totally played out but I would had liked it more specially the sessions that Vera Walker (Carrie Coon), the leader of Mosewood Grove, did after she had changed the community for good. I didn't understand why Lionel Jeffries (Brennan Brown) left though, he clearly looked strong and dominant over others so was hard to gulp that down. Those were only minor issues I had in what was otherwise a very enjoyable season with lovely twists. 

I felt bad for Marin, she keeps going through a lot and then that thing they reveal about her relation with Julian and who the father was, or that accidental death just when it seemed she may have some decent life ahead. I did have doubts on Heather's father right from the scene when Ambrose is told to leave the case and has a heated arguement with him at home. 

Performances wise, without a doubt Bill Pullman is fabulous yet again. So is Carrie Coon whose character goes through many changes mostly to confuse us. Elisha Henig and Hannah Gross chip in with good supporting acts.

Very engaging season, more than the 1st one for me (slight nitpicking, 7th episode was tad too slow, but I take it since we had to get major flashback of a particular character). And I liked that they ended on the beautiful shot of Niagara Falls, that we didn't get in 1st episode due to the murder.



Season 3 :

Move on? Why does everyone say that? I am sorry, it's just, um.. its like the only thing that matters is getting over things as fast as you can. I mean, death isn't going away. If anything, its getting closer. 


A car accident happens on the private property of Sonya Barzel (Jessica Hecht). Detective Harry Ambrose reaches the scene as he learns the driving guy Nick Haas (Chris Messina) died while the passenger who called 911, Jamie Burns (Matt Bomer) survived the crash. What looks like a routine car accident turns into Jamie letting Nick die and then we learn lot more about how Jamie's mind is running wild and mad due to reasons unknown to Harry who is about to dig in deep as always. We are again not told the past life of the main protaganist, a pattern this series has followed to keep it getting revealed slowly by slowly through episodes. 

The first shot is of Jamie Burns, a high school history teacher who seems to be lost in his thoughts while in washroom. The main story picks up when Nick comes around Jamie's house one night for uninvited dinner together. The awkwardness tells Jamie has some past with him, initial thoughts are its a gay relationship but we learn they were good buddies who shared same ideology about life and loved playing games where they could face death with open eyes and come out alive. Its a good concept but where I had major issues was Jamie's character who would often do is think of a bad thought or commit crimes and then he would say I wanna get better and when anyone offers help in form of confession he would always deny it going on to do more wrong things. I somewhat remembered Bates Motel where Norman would be doing similar things, with ofcourse two differences, he would black out always and he was more of a psychopath whereas Jamie looks more of in between a psychopath and sociopath. Now I always cared about Norman because it felt he was wanting not to become evil but he will always landup  in situations where he would make wrong choices. But here Jamie does opposite, he wants to get into situations where Nick who is always in his head would make him do things he would regret or atleast feel so. That made me not really feel sympathy for Jamie character like say Harry or Sonya does who both wanna help him out. 

Unlike other seasons, this isn't about getting Jamie free from his crimes but to make him confess and stop him from causing more trouble to people as his condition keeps deteriorating. We are only told through a conversation between Nick and Jamie, that the reason why Jamie called Nick after almost 15 or so years, is that he felt his life had nothing meaningful going which his wife Leela Burns (Parisa Fitz-Henley) never experiences him going through.

Harry's plot this time deals with his dad, a parcel box carrying belongings of his that he is scared to open and see. Also, his few interactions with Eli and Melanie, or the growing closeness with Sonya, but again they kept it mainly on Jamie-Harry bonding. I personally didn't feel any dip in the performance of Bill Pullman, but it was more fun watching him find truth of the person to get them free or reduce their sentence, rather watch him get Jamie's confession to put him behind bars. And I specially disliked the episode where he is keeping a check on Jamie by joining two parties with him, felt kind of silly thing to do from a detective even by his own standards.

Some scenes I enjoyed a lot that had darkish tone to it, like the scary one when he's holding his child and Nick's ghost (just in his head) appears, there's an instant fear he might kill the child, and they even show that bone crunching by Nick thankfully not too directly. Then later the doctor questioning Jamie scene where he even mentions this 'that every guy must have thought what if the baby slips off hands', or his thoughts on 'why we live like we do when we know death is around corner'. Matt Bomer delivers a pretty good performance leaving asides the writing problems I had with his character.

Sonya is another character that does insane things, many times tries to study Jamie and always on brink of killing herself. I actually at one point felt maybe she would be new Nick for Jamie, but Jamie rather preferred Harry to be that.  Enjoyed that chilling grave dug sequence, though the outcome was known to us, the series needs Harry so he won't die in there. Keen to see what they do with Vic Soto's (Eddie Martinez) character, for a change was a good smart partner Harry got even though he again had problems in working together.

All the crazy things Nick and Jamie try make for a good and tense watch, be it the jumping into the invisible lake, fast driving on highway by Jamie with a old student, standing on the roof of a building close to jumping down while singing their 'prickly 5 in the morning' or Jamie almost killing off unknown older guy in hospital. And the obsession for a particular song for the season continues as Nick and Jamie love playing the song 'Come To Me Now' (by Kevin Morby).

There's a lovely silent scene between Jamie and Leela in the last episode, just before he goes in to meet Harry, more like him knowing his coming fate and so does she. I am not totally sure if Harry killing Jamie was the only solution.. surely Jamie felt uncurable but maybe locked in some physic ward or prison would be better choice. Or maybe that shows the relationship Harry had feeling Jamie would feel tortured in there and only death will give him the peace, interestingly in his final moments Jamie was scared of death which he kept testing otherwise with Nick and the theories he had built in his mind.

Not a season I would call unwatchable, but I definately prefer the earlier two seasons over it easily. Its still a season that gives a lot to think with all the philosophies, certainly had the potential to be as good as the last two.

The entire series for me has been good, not a perfect detective show with flaws in every season but time spent well is the way I would put it. Keen to see what new case Harry gets in the 4th season.

My Rating : 7/10