Written by Rachel Rodriguez
The pilot episode of Tell Me Your Secrets starts with a bang – or rather the banging of a prison visitation room window. We are thrust into the story of a mother in search of her daughter, hoping to get some information from a convict connected to a serial killer. This convict is then introduced to us as Karen Miller (Lily Rabe, Miss Stevens), whose name is quickly changed to Emma Hall as she enters the witness protection program. Emma appears to have lost all memory of the crimes she had committed alongside her lover Kit Parker (Xavier Samuel, Love & Friendship). On the other hand, we have Mary Barlow (Amy Brenneman, Private Practice), the mother we are introduced to in the opening sequence who appears to be alone in her belief that her daughter, Theresa (Stella Baker, The Three Men You Meet at Night), is still missing.
Overall, the baseline premise of the show is solid – a crime mystery/thriller which touches on topics such as a mother’s love and a woman’s ability to be more than her troubled past. However, within the first episode alone the viewer is pulled in so many directions that it becomes difficult to understand exactly what is happening. Beyond this, the viewer is left wondering what knowledge is worth remembering and what isn’t. How does Mary’s estranged marriage play into her quest for her daughter? Should we root for Emma or fear her? It’s hard to tell, and it’s harder to tell whether any of that actually matters.
The show’s one saving grace so far is the acting. Lily Rabe puts on a phenomenal performance as Emma, as well as Hamish Linklater (Legion) who plays awkward ex-convict John. However, the story is lost on shallow character development. Amy Brenneman’s Mary goes from a mother who is filled with persistence and optimism to someone who is willing to bring anyone down to get her way. Her character quickly devolves into one that is unrelatable and, quite frankly, unlikeable. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the story is set in Louisiana, known for the prominence of its Black community, the Black characters in the show’s first episode are scarce, and the characters themselves are dimensionless. Jess (Emyri Crutchfield, Fargo) is one such character – her role in the show had the potential for longevity but falls flat once you realize she is only there to drive the plot forward.
By the second episode, my mind isn’t really changed. It begins with a plot twist that seems like it’ll just lead to a brand new story while the original is still left unresolved. Emma’s character development does pick up as we get a better handle of her emotional state, but the same cannot be said for Mary. John becomes a more prominent character, which holds some promise but maybe not enough to carry the viewer’s interest for the rest of the season, let alone the entire series (if the show plans to go past a single season). New characters are brought forward, such as Angela (Susan Walters, The Vampire Diaries), whom John befriends at an AA meeting, and Lisa (Ashley Madekwe, Revenge), the wife of Emma’s witness protection officer Peter, but we’re not sure yet whether or not these will just be more extraneous details to keep track of.
Lily Rabe’s impeccable performance may not be enough to keep the viewer’s attention for much longer than a few episodes. Tell Me Your Secrets has the potential to develop into a great thriller but needs to decide which plotlines are essential and which are simply muddling the essential ones. If this show is able to tie loose ends within the third or fourth episode, I would say it is worth watching the first two. However, that is a big “if.”
