S01.E08: The Answer

[peachmangosteen]

Quote

TBA

Streams on Netflix August 25th.

[twoods]

That was not the direction I was expecting this show to go, but it kept me entertained and was a quick binge. Too bad we didn’t get to see Pia and Roshan hook up. Throw us a bone writers!

Im also wondering why the older son was so cryptic and what “secret” he was keeping. Did they explain to us what that secret was or just to make him semi shady?

[peachmangosteen]

On 8/26/2021 at 5:37 PM, twoods said:

Im also wondering why the older son was so cryptic and what “secret” he was keeping. Did they explain to us what that secret was or just to make him semi shady?

Wasn't it that he was talking to that girl online?

This did not ever go where I expected, so that was fun. Some good performances, too.

I'd be down for them to make it an anthology. Or honestly just turn it into a family drama and keep the same characters lol.

[twoods]

I agree. They could flesh out the characters more and have another mystery in season two involving the same family. I liked them, and Pia did get closer to them. A direct contrast to her attitude during her mom’s birthday dinner in the first episode.

[peachmangosteen]

I was confused though, so Nick really was on a dating app and talking to that Mandy woman? When he gave Dawn his phone to sync or whatever, she saw the message from the dating app come up, right? And then didn't she actually log in to his real profile by using the password he gave her for the school computer?

[twoods]

Yeah I think he started talking to her then when she got flirty he stopped everything, probably freaked out that he was “almost” cheating on his wife. They went through that scene pretty quickly, but it would have been nice for us to see a flashback why he decided to join a dating app. 

[peachmangosteen]

Yea, they really glossed over that and then seemed to act like Nick was completely innocent when actually no he joined a dating site while he was married lol.

[Spartan Girl]

5 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Yea, they really glossed over that and then seemed to act like Nick was completely innocent when actually no he joined a dating site while he was married lol.

Doesn’t mean he deserved to get framed and killed to cover up someone else’s crimes. 

Edited August 28, 2021 by Spartan Girl

[peachmangosteen]

Well of course not lol. But they really just sorta glossed over that part in the end.

I was surprised he really was on a dating site though so they did surprise me in a few different ways.

He wasn't really framed per se though. 

[Chaos Theory]

I really enjoyed this.  Especially how quickly everyone jumped onto the bandwagon of Nick being  a sexual predator even when it meant pretty much inventing evidence.     Having this kinda snowball because a lonely woman stole Nick’s identity to use on dating sites was pretty clever especially since it was eventually what got him killed.   I actually love that even the kidnapping turned into a red herring.   

Yeah this wasn’t perfect.   There were some slow episodes.   But I thought this was definitely a worthy entry into the Netflix Originals.  

Edited August 29, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[zibnchy]

10 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Yeah this wasn’t perfect.   There were some slow episodes.   But I thought this was definitely a worthy entry into the Netflix Originals.

It was a good binge watch. It felt a little rushed. There were some inconsistencies and small but annoying plot holes. Overall I enjoyed it. I personally think they could have left out the episode with the tv journalist and maybe shown us more of the family relationships.

I really think what saved this one was the casting. The cast did a great job of selling the story to us. I actually liked the Pia character and I almost never like the Pia character.

I just want to say that while the show was fun with all its red herrings, it was completely unfair for the actual killer to be a character we had never seen or heard of before Episode 8.

[SHD]

15 hours ago, twoods said:

Yeah I think he started talking to her then when she got flirty he stopped everything, probably freaked out that he was “almost” cheating on his wife. They went through that scene pretty quickly, but it would have been nice for us to see a flashback why he decided to join a dating app. 

I assumed maybe he did that after he found out about his wife’s affair? We saw him tell Dawn about it later, but they didn’t make clear how long he had known (I don’t think). Just a guess.

[twoods]

35 minutes ago, SHD said:

I assumed maybe he did that after he found out about his wife’s affair? We saw him tell Dawn about it later, but they didn’t make clear how long he had known (I don’t think). Just a guess.

They showed in the flashback two years ago when Nick started that Dawn saw his chat with a female show up on his phone so she was curious and went on his page of the dating app. It was also noted a few episodes ago he joined in 2018 so what in the world happened in 2018 for him to join a dating website and post pictures of himself? We missed that scene.

I think we did meet Dawn in passing in a few episodes when they showed flashbacks of Nick at work and then she came up to Sophie at the memorial in tears, and then again helping Pi break into Matt’s computer. 

I do wish like someone mentioned that we got to see Nick’s name exonerated after people dragged him and his family through the mud for weeks, especially by the media and the cyber bullies. They were awful. 
 

[Black Knight]

When they showed us Nick's profile (the one he actually had, not the ones that Dawn created later), it specifically said that he was only looking for friendship and fun. So yeah, he was chatting with Mandy, she eventually sent a flirty message (we could see it), and he ghosted her after.

People do go on some of these sites only wanting to make friends. It's not uncommon on, say, Bumble. Obviously not a site named Smitten, but that original account was on a different site.

I watched the whole series in two parts - most yesterday and the last few episodes this morning. I was getting a bit impatient the second half of the series because I'd landed on Matt as the perpetrator and so it felt like just playing time out. (The only thing that was bothering me in that regard is that he seemed not to have slept with any of the women, but still, I figured it was him and that maybe he was just satisfied jerking off online.) Having Dawn and her husband be the culprits was a very nice twist. She was right about being invisible.

I really liked that the finale ended with Sophie and Pia holding hands and walking in together. It was really kind of beautiful watching their spikey relationship develop through all the things that were tossed their way.

One thing I don't recall the show answering is who threatened Emma and drove her off the road. Did I miss it? (I'll be honest, I zoned out during much of this final episode, the stuff that was just basically all action.)

[UsernameFatigue]

7 hours ago, Black Knight said:

 

One thing I don't recall the show answering is who threatened Emma and drove her off the road. Did I miss it? (I'll be honest, I zoned out during much of this final episode, the stuff that was just basically all action.)

When the police arrived at the trailer where Dawn and her husband took Kai, one of the officers said that the vehicle parked outside was the one that ran Emma off the road. 

I really enjoyed this series.  The writers did a good job with all the twists and turns. I also liked that each episode focused on one of the characters in the story. And of course they did a good job of making Matt look suspicious from the start, so it was a nice surprise to see that it was not the person I suspected all along. 

[red12]

There is something that stood out about Sophie's character and I wonder if other's noticed how her story of who she is and her actions are so different? The "I do everything for my kids" thing really rubbed me the wrong way because the person in that story does not have an ongoing affair at a school where she and the other person teach AND both of her children attend school. She loved that job (for some unexplained reason) much more than she was concerned for her kids. She should have resigned immediately when she decided the kids were going to go back there. Then, instead of taking the principal's offer to let her resign, she pretended it never happened and guilted the younger son into going into that meeting to help her grovel to the bully's dad. On top of that, she turned around and told him they were moving and he was leaving school anyway after he got attached to going back. I just could not with her character on so many levels. She was a great illustration how a parent can convince themselves they are "doing it for the kids" when really, it's all about them.

Also, see Pia and Nick's mom and "He died of a heart attack." I have a little more leniency with her due to her generation and the stigma surrounding suicide though.

As someone else stated, the casting really saved some of the iffy/ rushed writing of the plot. 

[Spartan Girl]

 

On 8/28/2021 at 5:16 PM, peachmangosteen said:

He wasn't really framed per se though. 

Letting someone take the fall for your crimes counts as framing.

I wish Sophie had gotten to slap the crap out of Dawn for what she did. Yeah, yeah, maybe she didn’t mean for things to spiral out of control but she was accessory after the fact when it came to Ed killing Nick. She ruined so many lives, and for what? A midlife crisis? She deserved to wind up alone.

No sympathy for Ed either. He killed Nick and was willing to murder a child to cover up his crimes.

[peachmangosteen]

Dawn let Nick take the fall for her crimes but she didn’t frame him. Framing is a proactive act imo. This just fell into her lap lol. 

[peachmangosteen]

17 hours ago, Black Knight said:

When they showed us Nick's profile (the one he actually had, not the ones that Dawn created later), it specifically said that he was only looking for friendship and fun. So yeah, he was chatting with Mandy, she eventually sent a flirty message (we could see it), and he ghosted her  after.

Interesting. Wonder if he told his wife about that? I’m gonna assume no. Also, the ‘and fun’ is up for interpretation lol.

[gesundheit]

 

 

On 8/28/2021 at 8:04 PM, zibnchy said:

I really think what saved this one was the casting. The cast did a great job of selling the story to us. I actually liked the Pia character and I almost never like the Pia character.

This is a good way to put it, and so true.

17 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I watched the whole series in two parts - most yesterday and the last few episodes this morning. I was getting a bit impatient the second half of the series because I'd landed on Matt as the perpetrator and so it felt like just playing time out. (The only thing that was bothering me in that regard is that he seemed not to have slept with any of the women, but still, I figured it was him and that maybe he was just satisfied jerking off online.) Having Dawn and her husband be the culprits was a very nice twist. She was right about being invisible.

I liked the twist with a couple of exceptions (and like you, definitely thought Matt was the perpetrator from early on). I think they could've easily done the misdirect without actually showing us scenes between Nick and Emma. I know the big reveal suggested they were just her imagination, but given that the rest of the show was realism it definitely felt like a massive cheat. I also missed the explanation of why Dawn photoshopped Nick with these other women so often? Who was that for? Did she send them to the women, and did they really think, "Oh how romantic, he photoshopped us into a photo on the beach together" or something?

Also I think they should've just had the one woman's brother's accomplice (I'm forgetting all the names now!) be the killer in an altercation at the escape or something. I don't believe for one second that Nick would've bypassed going to the authorities or his family or to get medical help or any of that, opting to go straight to Dawn's house. Would've preferred a "the catfisher and the killer are not the same" reveal in the end.

I think there was more there to mine with how people's smaller transgressions led to accusations of much larger things (Matt's revenge porn, Nick's online dalliance that he stopped, etc.), and with the fact that teenagers and reporters were fare more diligent investigators than the police, but the show definitely seemed more interested in twists and misdirects. Which is fine for a fun summer thriller, but there was a lot there that they could have gone deeper on.

[Chaos Theory]

I really liked the idea of a lonely woman catfishing a bunch of other lonely women.    I read somewhere that Dawn was supposed to be in a few more scenes  and maybe her husband too but like  a lot of shows these days Covid ruined a lot of the shooting plans.   But I still think the final reveal was a fun one that made sense.        The one thing I did find a little confusing was the “mistress” (forget her name now) and the scenes where she must have imagined seeing Nick.  I thought that was a little overdone and maybe confused the issue a little too much.    Other then that I thought it was all fairly well done.   Not perfect but still a clever and quite tragic mystery.  Especially since this all started with a brother kidnapping Nick to get revenge for his sisters suicide.  

Edited August 31, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[harperchicago]

8 hours ago, gesundheit said:

Also I think they should've just had the one woman's brother's accomplice (I'm forgetting all the names now!) be the killer in an altercation at the escape or something. I don't believe for one second that Nick would've bypassed going to the authorities or his family or to get medical help or any of that, opting to go straight to Dawn's house. Would've preferred a "the catfisher and the killer are not the same" reveal in the end.

I generally enjoyed it as a fairly mindless binge, but I thought this was the biggest eye roll of the plot.  I could live with the handwaving involved with the cat-fishing office admin being conveniently married to a murderous sociopath, but Nick wasn't portrayed as an unfeeling idiot.  He was injured, and knew that his family and others would be beyond worried, and the first place he heads is to confront the person he suspected was behind the cat-fishing?  Zero sense. 

I also agree with the posters who identified the acting as a big selling point of the series.  

[peachmangosteen]

I didn't think Ed was a murderous sociopath. When he hit Nick, Nick was manhandling and yelling at Dawn. Ed could have feared for her life. And then everything snowballed. I did think they went a little far with how he treated Kai though.

Also, Nick going to Dawn's and manhandling her kinda made sense to me because earlier they had Pia tell someone (maybe the detective) that they hadn't seen Nick when he was angry, implying he has a bad temper, so I could see him being angry about it enough to go to Dawn first.

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I didn't think Ed was a murderous sociopath. When he hit Nick, Nick was manhandling and yelling at Dawn. Ed could have feared for her life. And then everything snowballed. I did think they went a little far with how he treated Kai though.

Also, Nick going to Dawn's and manhandling her kinda made sense to me because earlier they had Pia tell someone (maybe the detective) that they hadn't seen Nick when he was angry, implying he has a bad temper, so I could see him being angry about it enough to go to Dawn first.

Considering everything Nick had been through I don’t blame him. While in hindsight going to Dawn’s alone first was a dumb move, after the kidnapping video blew up on social media and everyone thinking he was a monster, I can understand why his first instinct would be to clear his own name and Dawn was the only one who could do that. 

 

[Anela]

On 8/29/2021 at 6:20 PM, Black Knight said:

When they showed us Nick's profile (the one he actually had, not the ones that Dawn created later), it specifically said that he was only looking for friendship and fun. So yeah, he was chatting with Mandy, she eventually sent a flirty message (we could see it), and he ghosted her after.

People do go on some of these sites only wanting to make friends. It's not uncommon on, say, Bumble. Obviously not a site named Smitten, but that original account was on a different site.

I watched the whole series in two parts - most yesterday and the last few episodes this morning. I was getting a bit impatient the second half of the series because I'd landed on Matt as the perpetrator and so it felt like just playing time out. (The only thing that was bothering me in that regard is that he seemed not to have slept with any of the women, but still, I figured it was him and that maybe he was just satisfied jerking off online.) Having Dawn and her husband be the culprits was a very nice twist. She was right about being invisible.

I really liked that the finale ended with Sophie and Pia holding hands and walking in together. It was really kind of beautiful watching their spikey relationship develop through all the things that were tossed their way.

One thing I don't recall the show answering is who threatened Emma and drove her off the road. Did I miss it? (I'll be honest, I zoned out during much of this final episode, the stuff that was just basically all action.)

I was once on a site I ended up referring to as OKStupid. I took one of the tests, with a group of online friends, and realized that it had set me up with a profile. I clicked the "looking for friends" part, because I live in a somewhat isolated area. I was young, and not surrounded by many people my age. I got a few messages, and one was from a guy who was married. I stopped using the site, until a few years later, when I thought I might try again, and after getting more messages from men in relationships, I amended it to something like, "I'm not interested in friendship, unless your wife knows" meaning, potential friendships with both of them. Not even a minute later, I had a woman hit on me, thinking I'd be up for a threesome. So I just gave up. 

I fast-forwarded through the last few episodes, because it was bugging me. I knew there would be a lot of red herrings, and just wanted to see what happened, and why. 

[Art Of Noiz]

On 8/27/2021 at 9:06 AM, peachmangosteen said:

Wasn't it that he was talking to that girl online?

This did not every go where I expected, so that was fun. Some good performances, too.

I'd be down for them to make it an anthology. Or honestly just turn it into a family drama and keep the same characters lol.

Yes. The beautiful brilliant  girl with social anxiety?

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, Art Of Noiz said:

Yes. The beautiful brilliant  girl with social anxiety?

Yea. Give me a season 2 about Ethan and that girl's bond lol.

[phoenics]

On 8/28/2021 at 10:05 AM, twoods said:

Yeah I think he started talking to her then when she got flirty he stopped everything, probably freaked out that he was “almost” cheating on his wife. They went through that scene pretty quickly, but it would have been nice for us to see a flashback why he decided to join a dating app. 

I thought the show ending resolved this as he never went on any dating site - that it was Dawn who set up all of the accounts?  She was the one chatting with everyone - she tried to chat with Mandy but Mandy shut her down.

That's the rub - Nick was completely innocent.  Dawn did ALL of the accounts?

Right?

Ya'll making me doubt what I thought I saw, lol.

This show really fooled me.  I totally thought Matt was the bad guy and the murderer and whew that twist was so far out of left field I just never even guessed anywhere near that.  Wow.

I too thought Nick was silly to go to Dawn first - he should have gone to his family first, then the hospital and the police.  Dawn could wait - it's not like she was all that mobile.  They'd catch her.  But of course then we'd have no show.

Why don't characters in tv shows make sense when stuff like this happens - go to family, the police or hospital first so you're protected from harm and can tell what happened to you, lol.

Edited September 2, 2021 by phoenics

[twoods]

It showed Dawn curious when she was syncing Nick’s phone and the conversation with Mandy popping up “hello? Hello?” Then she got onto his webpage and wrote her back, and her weird fantasy began. She made the other profiles on the dating websites and catfished the other women.

Edited September 2, 2021 by twoods

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, phoenics said:

I thought the show ending resolved this as he never went on any dating site - that it was Dawn who set up all of the accounts?  She was the one chatting with everyone - she tried to chat with Mandy but Mandy shut her down.

That's the rub - Nick was completely innocent.  Dawn did ALL of the accounts?

No, Nick was really on one of the dating sites. When Dawn was synching his phone, she saw a message come up. Then, when she went home, she used the password he gave her to sign into that site and was able to log in because he had an account there. 

[Lovecat]

On 8/30/2021 at 12:18 PM, gesundheit said:

Also I think they should've just had the one woman's brother's accomplice (I'm forgetting all the names now!) be the killer in an altercation at the escape or something. I don't believe for one second that Nick would've bypassed going to the authorities or his family or to get medical help or any of that, opting to go straight to Dawn's house. Would've preferred a "the catfisher and the killer are not the same" reveal in the end.

 

On 8/30/2021 at 9:24 PM, harperchicago said:

I generally enjoyed it as a fairly mindless binge, but I thought this was the biggest eye roll of the plot.  I could live with the handwaving involved with the cat-fishing office admin being conveniently married to a murderous sociopath, but Nick wasn't portrayed as an unfeeling idiot.  He was injured, and knew that his family and others would be beyond worried, and the first place he heads is to confront the person he suspected was behind the cat-fishing?  Zero sense. 

I was a little disappointed with the ultimate reveal, too.  I would've been OK with Dawn and Ed being the killers, but the writers seemed to get stuck on HOW to make that happen.  It would have made more sense if they had established that Nick figured out that he was near Dawn's house when he escaped the kidnappers (I remember him trying to figure out where he was by looking at posted signs about...waterfront development, or something?) and went there for help, THEN somehow figured out that she was responsible for everything, leading to the altercation that got him killed, but he basically showed up on her doorstep accusing her, and that's just stupid.

17 hours ago, phoenics said:

I too thought Nick was silly to go to Dawn first - he should have gone to his family first, then the hospital and the police.  Dawn could wait - it's not like she was all that mobile.  They'd catch her.  But of course then we'd have no show.

Why don't characters in tv shows make sense when stuff like this happens - go to family, the police or hospital first so you're protected from harm and can tell what happened to you, lol.

For the DRAH-mah, I guess...same reason the cops had Sophie and Pia in tow during the face-off with Ed.  Sure, let's just bring the kid's mom and aunt along when we confront the guy who's kidnapped the kid and has a gun to his head!  What could possibly go wrong?  ::eyeroll::

Overall I enjoyed this--I thought all of the red herrings were very well done--the ending could've made just a little more sense.

Also, Adrian Grenier is very VERY pretty.  /shallow

[ursula]

On 8/30/2021 at 8:59 AM, red12 said:

Then, instead of taking the principal's offer to let her resign, she pretended it never happened and guilted the younger son into going into that meeting to help her grovel to the bully's dad. On top of that, she turned around and told him they were moving and he was leaving school anyway after he got attached to going back.

Wow, you got so many things wrong.

Kai didn't grovel to help HER. The bully's dad was filing charges against Kai for assault. Sophie begged for a mediation to stop her son from facing criminal charges. 

The offer to resign came after they had grovelled. 

And she turned around and said they were moving because she realized it wasn't fair for her kids to keep going to a school where they're likely to be provoked at every turn.

The affair was clearly a mistake. People make mistakes. Forgive Sophie for not being a saint. Her husband was on a dating site, 2 years before the affair even happened. Did that mean he didn't love his children?

On 8/30/2021 at 7:24 PM, harperchicago said:

but Nick wasn't portrayed as an unfeeling idiot.  He was injured, and knew that his family and others would be beyond worried, and the first place he heads is to confront the person he suspected was behind the cat-fishing?  Zero sense. 

The only explanation I have for that is that Simon's sister's suicide triggered him. So he acted irrationally and wanted to confront the person responsible for it first.

 

But yeah, it was a bit of a stretch. 

[DiabLOL]

If Dawn continued the conversation with Maddy after Nick had decided to ghost her, wouldn’t he continue to get message notifications on his phone from the app he decided to delete and thus open and read all the new “Dawn pretending to be him” bogus messages?

and how could Dawn possibly continue with her catfishing as Nick since she doesn’t know the password to his account? Sure she has the password to his phone but that’s different than the password to his Smittten account. (If the account was friendship only on an app called smitten then the users want to use an app to cheat but stay in denial about it).

 

[ursula]

5 hours ago, DiabLOL said:

how could Dawn possibly continue with her catfishing as Nick since she doesn’t know the password to his account?

Because he uses one password for all his logins apparently, and he gave that one password to the new IT guy he just met. (I can believe one of those things, not both at the same time but we have to roll with it for the story to be feasible.) 

 

5 hours ago, DiabLOL said:

(If the account was friendship only on an app called smitten then the users want to use an app to cheat but stay in denial about it).

Then it's likely that he didn't change the dating app password because he was telling himself he had nothing to hide?

Edited September 3, 2021 by ursula

[Chaos Theory]

5 hours ago, DiabLOL said:

 

and how could Dawn possibly continue with her catfishing as Nick since she doesn’t know the password to his account? Sure she has the password to his phone but that’s different than the password to his Smittten account. (If the account was friendship only on an app called smitten then the users want to use an app to cheat but stay in denial about it).

 

Dawn does know.   She set up his office account because Nick didn’t know how to sinc his phone to his work computer and Dawn did it for him.  So she knew his password.  I know plenty of people who have maybe one or two passwords that they use for everything.   It’s not smart but it’s understandable.

As for why Nick went to confront Dawn before he went to his family:     You can complain all you want about logic but people don’t always act logically under stressful situations.   Nick has been beaten and accused of things he didn’t do.   When he is released he thinks he knows who set him up.   That is probably the only thing on his mind during the highly stressful situation.   Finding out  why Dawn dud him dirty like that.  

Edited September 3, 2021 by Chaos Theory

[Jillybean]

Wow. This show was well-done and kept me interested from one episodes to the next. But the catfishing? Is this really still a thing in 2021? Do adult women still "fall in love" with an anonymous being via online chat? The specifics reminded me of Talhotblond (a true story from 2005) because in both cases the catfishing perp was a bored older woman and both resulted in a murder. I had a hard time wrapping my head around Dawn posing as Nick and developing "relationships" with a bunch of women, since she herself didn't seem to have any emotional investment in any of those women. I didn't understand why it made her happy to be doing it. She said she wanted to know what it was like to be someone who people noticed and liked. Well, Nick noticed her. He told her he saw how kind she was. Anyway...I was disappointing with the catfishing plot as it doesn't seem like this would be a thing in today's world.

It did surprise me that he actually was on one of those sites, and with a fake last name. For that matter, are there any dating sites where people actually use a real (or even fake) first and last name instead of a username?  It was also necessary to handwave that everyone's social media accounts were totally public. The British ringtones every time a phone call was placed were distracting. 

Edited September 3, 2021 by Jillybean

[Black Knight]

@Jillybean, the show's creator said in an interview that he did a lot of research and found that this was actually a thing. I can well imagine that during the pandemic, even though that obviously isn't part of this show's world, it's even more of a thing. But even in a non-pandemic world, it's been shown that younger people are increasingly online and not interacting in person as much. So the opportunity is certainly there for an older, lonely woman to do some catfishing. I don't know that Dawn is a narcissist, but I would say she had similar traits to a narcissist in that she basked in the attention of other people without actually caring about them herself.

I also had trouble with Nick going straight to Dawn's house. I can kludge various things together: Nick was angry, Nick had solemnly promised the brother in exchange for his life that he would put this right, Nick really had no reason to think that Dawn would be dangerous to him. (And in truth she wasn't; it was her husband.) Also, I suppose he didn't have power to his phone (if he even still had it anyway - I don't remember, but surely the phone was dumped or something by the brother so the police couldn't trace Nick's location?), so in any case he'd have to go somewhere where he could call his wife. Since he had no reason to fear Dawn physically, he may well have figured he could both confront her and call Sophie from Dawn's house. And I guess Dawn conveniently lived nearby. He was out alone at night with no working phone, which must have felt somewhat scary after what he'd already been through, and he probably hadn't had food or water all day which doesn't help one's ability to think. I still have a hard time with it, I admit, but I also can kinda see it.

[Spartan Girl]

Also maybe it’s understandable that after being forced to do that video and basically having his whole life blown up for a crime he didn’t commit, he didn’t want to face his family if they believed he was a monster without proof that it wasn’t true.

[phoenics]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:59 AM, red12 said:

Then, instead of taking the principal's offer to let her resign, she pretended it never happened and guilted the younger son into going into that meeting to help her grovel to the bully's dad. On top of that, she turned around and told him they were moving and he was leaving school anyway after he got attached to going back.

Interesting how people see things - I thought it was abhorrent the school was taking the stance that it did - and how the school just wanted the kids to ignore casual racism and misogyny.  Also, it wasn't just the affair - it was all the stuff about Nick that had nothing to do with any of them they were trying to use to force her out.

Also - she wanted Kai to go to that meeting because the dad of that racist bully kid was threatening to press charges - which would completely destroy Kai's life.  It wasn't at all about saving her job - and as you said - she made a decision later on to put her family first and resign for their sakes.

I think Sophie's demeanor - which is very reserved (she holds things in) tends to lead some to think she's emotionless and maybe that leads to people projecting the worst onto her and not giving her the benefit of the doubt.

[dubbel zout]

On 8/28/2021 at 5:16 PM, peachmangosteen said:

I was surprised he really was on a dating site though so they did surprise me in a few different ways.

Same, and I'm impressed they didn't make Nick squeaky clean.

I hate that Dawn is a childfree, lonely woman. And Ed's violence sort of came out of nowhere, even if it was for the protection of his wife. I'd rather Matt had been the one who did all this. At least there would have been a better reason that someone feeling unloved and bored.

At least they gave Kai some smarts, and he didn't wait around to be rescued.

I don't get what the show is trying to say about police. Are they incompetent? Overworked? Uncaring? Sloppy? All of the above?

This didn't hang together for me.

[peachmangosteen]

12 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I don't get what the show is trying to say about police. Are they incompetent? Overworked? Uncaring? Sloppy? All of the above?

I'd say all of the above. So, a realistic portrayal lol.

[dubbel zout]

I wish the police had been a little more on the ball, and I also wish Pia hadn't been right so often. Everything was a bit too plot-pointy for me to really enjoy the show.

[DanaMB]

On 9/3/2021 at 1:16 PM, Jillybean said:

Wow. This show was well-done and kept me interested from one episodes to the next. But the catfishing? Is this really still a thing in 2021? Do

Yes. See 90 Day Fiancé. The Williams 😂
And Meri from Sister Wives was catfished by a woman a few years ago. 
 

It’s actually quite sad and I never understand how people fall for it. But I’m a suspicious, cynical bitch. 

[ribboninthesky1]

On 9/3/2021 at 1:16 PM, Jillybean said:

Wow. This show was well-done and kept me interested from one episodes to the next. But the catfishing? Is this really still a thing in 2021?

Yeah, the catfishing is what really made this fall apart for me.  Not the catfishing itself necessarily, but the who and why.  It's one thing for a bored, lonely woman to pose as another woman online for attention.  But to pose as a man seeking female companionship? Eh. I can relate to ennui and loneliness, but there is absolutely a level of narcissism at play when you're catfishing people, especially as an adult.  I think film and media has misled the public about how narcissism manifests. It's not just the bombastic, delusions of grandeur, cult of personality stuff.   I think the quiet, "vulnerable" narcissist is more insidious in many ways, and the reach of the Internet makes them especially dangerous.

 

22 hours ago, phoenics said:

I think Sophie's demeanor - which is very reserved (she holds things in) tends to lead some to think she's emotionless and maybe that leads to people projecting the worst onto her and not giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Agreed, although the writing did her no favors.  I had a lot of sympathy for her because Nick and his family were a powder keg of dysfunction that she's seemingly tolerated for years.  I actively disliked Pia the entire series, and the mother wasn't much better.   In my head, Sophie and her boys moved out of town ASAP, moved closer to her mother, and let the healing begin. 

[pezgirl7]

On 8/30/2021 at 11:18 AM, gesundheit said:

I think they could've easily done the misdirect without actually showing us scenes between Nick and Emma. I know the big reveal suggested they were just her imagination, but given that the rest of the show was realism it definitely felt like a massive cheat.

The very first scene we saw of Nick and Emma together, Emma wakes up in her bed, smiles, and talks to Nick who is off screen. Then all of a sudden he appears, and there’s a very romantic sex scene. The whole thing seemed like she was having a fantasy, so for most of the show I just thought she was just a crazy woman who was imaging she was in a relationship with Nick. I figured she sent herself the birthday gifts, but I suppose Dawn could have sent them if she really was in deep. I used to watch Catfish on MTV, and it’s amazing how many people consider themselves to be in a serious relationship with someone they’ve never even spoken to on the phone. Sometimes there will be Catfishes who say they were just having fun, or were bored, but many times they’ll later admit that they kept the relationship going because they were lonely. They don’t have romantic feelings, but they liked that they were needed and wanted. 
 

Overall I really enjoyed the show, and the twists in the plot, because I thought I had it all figured out early on! I wasn’t a big fan of Pia though, and I don’t know why  Roshan would want to get involved with her. I’m glad we didn’t see them hook up. He, and his son, deserve someone more stable and mature. 

[sskrill]

I'm in the minority in that I'm annoyed I wasted an entire sick day watching this.

I will say the characters were well acted and well cast, but the nonstop ridiculous twists and turns were annoying and exhausting.

It could have been a 4 part series without all the extra garbage and I think I would have liked it better.

Also, I think we saw Dawn right from the first episode - when Pia went to Matt wasn't she the one who confirmed that Nick missed his 8am meeting?  "Honey, they don't pay me to get here before 9am" or something like that?

[peachmangosteen]

10 hours ago, sskrill said:

Also, I think we saw Dawn right from the first episode - when Pia went to Matt wasn't she the one who confirmed that Nick missed his 8am meeting?  "Honey, they don't pay me to get here before 9am" or something like that?

Yep, you're right.

[Lady Calypso]

So, I binge watched the show this week. It was a good limited series, lots of twists and turns, but there were several pacing issues I found, along with some predictable things they chose to do.

The whole thing was fairly straight forward and the big reveal wasn't that surprising to me. The thought I had in my head the entire time was "ok, so they're telling us this...now how are the showrunners thinking that they'll trick us?" For example,  "Oh, creepy coach is probably the one involved with the girl, but he probably DIDN'T murder Nick, even when we're stretching THIS reveal out! But who could the murderer be...oh, maybe one of the receptionists that work with Nick! Yeah!" Of course, having her husband actually be the killer was...surprising enough, I guess. 

I will admit, at one point, I did think maybe Roshan himself did the murders because maybe one of the women that was being catfished with Nick was his ex wife. But that was me stretching my imagination. I just thought "ok, what is the predictable route? Ok, and what would the showrunners THINK isn't predictable? There we go!"

Plus, I know that Nick was more of the mystery to be solved, but I felt like there was SO little about him. I understand he was missing and then turned up dead, but by the end of this episode, I felt like we barely got even a few good snippets of Nick himself, just what people were talking about with him. And all those reveals with Nick on the dating sites? Mostly just Dawn herself, and not even really Nick. They even skimmed over Nick actually being on a dating app two years prior. I felt like, had they ACTUALLY done something with Nick, they wouldn't have completely wiped that away after that single shot. Why did he go on the dating app back in 2018? What kind of marital problems were he and Sophie having at that time? That wasn't even around the time Sophie started her affair with whats-his-face (a character who COMPLETELY disappeared, as well) so what went on there?

Not to mention, despite every episode having a reveal and piece added to the puzzle, did we REALLY need a whole episode of Dickhead Reporter fighting with his boyfriend while playing Hide and Seek with the guy who kidnapped Nick? Did we REALLY need a whole ass episode of the Mistress reliving the exact episode before when she was stalking Sophie? Was Ethan's whole secret with his new girlfriend something that we needed to know? I mean, I know all of these moments did add to the overall mystery in some way, but it also TOOK away from Nick, despite him being dead. I felt like they really could have focused more on Nick but they kept diverting away from him, and I'm not sure if that was meant to be a clever plot device or a weird choice from the creators. 

It wasn't even a bad series. It was quite intriguing and I thought the actors all did well with their material. But definitely not a top favourite and sorely missed opportunities that prevented the series from being better than it could have been. Because the overall reveals were actually fairly good, but it felt like the show, even despite all this, was holding back. 

Also, a little quibble that's not important at all, but I wish the title of the show was more interwoven within the show itself. They could have done a LOT with Clickbait, but they didn't, not really.

[dubbel zout]

This was a show that would have been better off with six episodes instead of eight. American shows often go on too long.

[TrininisaScorp]

I knocked this out on Friday night and Sat afternoon.  I really enjoyed it.  I thought they did a cool job with the narrative device of each episode having focus and following an individual.  I can't pick a favorite because I enjoyed their slice of life and how the case spun their lives around.  The Reporter and The Brother, however, were both REALLY compelling to me. 

They kept me guessing the entire time, and I think that was in large part to casting Adrian Grenier as Nick.  I couldn't shake not trusting him after his blow at the dinner in the first scene we see him in.  He's handsome (I think he's glowed up from the Entourage days), and sometimes you don't quite know his sincerity.  Nick had anger issues, worked with young girls, is perceived as very attractive, and maybe he made some bad choices with joining a dating site for friendship and the password issue, but he didn't deserve what he got. 

I was so sure it was Matt.  I was right he was shady af, but not that he was the murderer.  Freaking Dawn and Ed!  I don't think they meant to be murderers, but it all got away from them and they had already done so much wrong, that it was going to keep going.  I was so scared they were going to hurt/kill Kai. 

I really loved the scenes between the family reeling from bombshell to bombshell.  That arguments would start and that people knew some things that others didn't know. 

I will say that Emma Beesley's unreliable narrative pulled me off the trail.  She was a bit unhinged and obsessive, but I didn't think she was making up their sexual encounters in her head. Ethan getting that information made me feel like an ass for judging Nick so hard. You got me, show!

That is, IMO, how you do diversity properly in a procedural thriller like this.  The characters aren't blindly cast, and their identities have importance into the story, but it isn't tokenism.  It felt more honest than we were used to seeing, whether it was race, gender, LGBTQ+, religion, mental health, etc, etc.  I really appreciated that.  

I loved the commentary thru action about the dirty side of social media and the people that sometimes makes us.  The doxxing, the terrible things people say online when doing that search, the constant living via phone, the way our social media obsessions drove the narrative to the murder of a man that really didn't deserve it. It genuinely makes a statement, and whether I fully agree or not, we enjoyed the fast pace, the story, and that we kept playing the game of "who dunnit". 

P.S. If Detective Hot as Hades can now be cast in everything, I would really appreciate it. Devastatingly handsome and a pretty strong actor?  Bruh.  Bring it on.

Edited September 13, 2021 by TrininisaScorp