S01.E06: That Feels Better

[Snazzy Daisy]

Synopsis:

Quote

A twist in the police investigation plunges the Winbury family further into crisis.

As long-buried secrets emerge, so does the truth about what happened.

Air Date: Sep 05, 2024

 

[Snazzy Daisy]

The reveal that Broderick Graham is Greer’s long lost brother, drowning in gambling debts is so anticlimactic.

Quote

“I’m not taking care of everything for everyone anymore! I’m done! I’m done with living the lie. So, there we go. Phew! That feels better.”

At this point, does anyone care about Greer Garrison Winbury? I don’t. 🙄

Re the killer’s identity, you can see that from miles away.

 

OVERALL — I spend 6 hours watching this because of Meghann Fahy. She’s always compelling. Plot wise, it’s on the thin side with unfocused story, choppy timelines and not so gripping whodunnit mystery.

After 3 episodes, I grow tired of rich people bitching. The Winburys are one-note and unlikeable. Nicole Kidman’s wig is very distracting. Supporting characters like Detective Henry, Gosia and Isabel are also not likeable. The Amelia/Shooter connection is underdeveloped.

Other than Meghann Fahy, the only thing that I like is the Criminals dance sequence. 😘

 

Edited September 6 by Snazzy Daisy

[tired and hungry]

I binged this last night and today morning. It started out somewhat strong but then idk just fizzled out in the end.

Idk if its supposed to be a comedy or what but the last episode was very underwhelming. Especially the part where Greer is being "interrogated" at the police station. That and the scene when she talks about her past life to her family, those scenes were just so tough to watch... Just felt so cringey and those 2 assistants from her PR team or whatever were so OTT and had no reason to be there.

I've never read the book but are the cops supposed to be so incompetent? They barely did anything by themselves! Amelia and Greer literally had to hand them the evidence and then they started investigating those angles? Don't they check bank accounts and phone calls at the very start? I get that they are rich but why was all the money and other details found so late? They barely even searched the house for any clues..

About the acting, I can say that Dakota was my favorite. I thought she wouldn't have too big of a role (assumed since her name showed up at the end of the cast list in the credits) but she does a good job with she's given. Eve was fine too. Rest are meh. Those 3 sons could not act. The actor playing Benji seemed like he had no idea what to do and just stumbled onto the show. The youngest brother too felt a bit clueless. Guess overall the writing wasn't upto par..

[tired and hungry]

Also forgot to add about Shooter(ridiculous name imo), Did they even give him a script coz the poor guy barely had any lines. Felt like he was improvising most of his dialogue. A shame coz the actor himself is quite talented in Bollywood.

One other silly thing to point out about Chloe, like she takes a break during the rehearsal dinner catering to hang out with Will then casually falls asleep next to him and then never goes back to doing her job? 

Another thing I remembered, adding in spoilers just in case: 

Spoiler

Was it really necessary to kill Meritt? Benji says the trust fund would reset if there was another child younger than Will but in the final episode Will mentions his birthday is in August and since they're already in July he only has one month to go before he turns 18.. So what difference does it make if Meritt even kept the baby? They would all get the money when Will turned 18 the next month anyway. The baby wasnt going to be born anytime soon.. Unless I'm missing something and maybe Will was only 16 not 17?

 

[txhorns79]

15 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

So what difference does it make if Meritt even kept the baby?

The new baby would reset the trust.  The kids would have to wait another 18 years to get their share of the money, and they would also have to split the trust four ways instead of three. 

I did enjoy the publicist pulling out his camera to film Greer's meltdown.  

My favorite part of the show was everyone dancing during the credits. 

Edited September 7 by txhorns79

[Chaos Theory]

This wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.  It had its moments. Then again this is my type of show lately.  I have been really into single season crime mysteries.    I actually kinda liked all the characters EXCEPT the one we all should have identified with most, Amelia.  I get the fish out of water aspect.   But she seems like an eat the rich type who somehow ends up married to a rich guy.   That just kinda annoys me.   If you hate rich people don’t agree to marry them because they are likely to have rich relatives.  
 

The rest of the characters I actually did like, weird names and all.  The mystery worked for me.     Merritt has an affair with Tag and gets knocked up which inadvertently puts the trust fund all his kids have in jeopardy.  Instead of getting their money in a matter of months they will have to wait another 18 years and split it 4 ways instead of 3.   The rest of the reasons were red herrings and coincidences which is usual for this kind of story.   
 

I am a big fan of Nichole Kidman and Greer was a fun character that she portrayed well.  This definitely won’t go down as best mystery ever.   But it’s not a waste of time

Edited September 7 by Chaos Theory

[Armchair Critic]

I didn't understand why Greer would write a book about Amelia. I had already thought of the sick mother's pills a few episodes back but I didn't guess it was Abby who did it.

[iMonrey]

I thought this was just OK. Not particularly award-worthy or memorable but an easy watch in just six episodes. It did keep me guessing, so there's that. Greer's sudden turnaround at the end was a bit much. 

On 9/5/2024 at 11:26 PM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Plot wise, it’s on the thin side with unfocused story, choppy timelines and not so gripping whodunnit mystery.

Yeah that about sums it up. It's content for the sake of content. But I'm grateful they didn't try to drag it out into 8 or 10 episodes or leave us on a cliffhanger so they could so another season.

Quote

Nicole Kidman’s wig is very distracting.

Preach. There is something weirdly unnatural looking about her as it is, the wig just accentuated it. 

Edited September 7 by iMonrey

[txhorns79]

6 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

 I actually kinda liked all the characters EXCEPT the one we all should have identified with most, Amelia.

It felt like they couldn't really decide what to do with her.  Even when she was kind of standing up for herself, and her dead friend, she felt very passive.

    

[Irlandesa]

8 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

But she seems like an eat the rich type who somehow ends up married to a rich guy.

She didn't marry anyone, right?

Overall, I thought this was boring.  I liked the first episode but the only people I only really liked were the cops even if their investigation was basically people trying to frame each other until the alibis fell apart in the end.

I'm glad they didn't try to make this 8 episodes but even 6 felt too long.  And that ending?  So weird. 

[iMonrey]

On 9/7/2024 at 9:22 AM, Chaos Theory said:

I actually kinda liked all the characters EXCEPT the one we all should have identified with most, Amelia.

The subplot with her attraction to Shooter was unnecessary and confusing. There wasn't enough investment in her relationship with Benji for us to know what its basis was or how genuine it was. I think the way the show jumped around to so many different characters was a disservice to the ones that should have been more in focus. 

[Marley]

The show wasn’t bad but Nicole Kidman needs to relax with the plastic surgery. Closeups of her face are so distracting.

Shooter and Amelia was idiotic. Big deal they met on a train before & they helped someone who cares.

I don’t really know anything about trusts but isn’t that a weird way to set up a trust?

[Shermie]

Yes, that’s a stupid trust fund. It’s terribly unfair to the oldest child, who may never get the money if Daddy keeps knocking up his mistresses. 

I enjoyed this for what it was, and I always enjoy Nicole Kidman. For all the criticism about her plastic surgery, which I’m used to, I thought the actress playing the French woman was way more, um, surgeried. She literally looked like she was a plastic doll, complete with Cupid-bow lips. Very distracting to watch her.

I kind of liked Benji, at least he was the best of the 3 sons. The oldest was just an unlikable prick, and the youngest was such a shaky bag of neurosis. 

Didn’t understand all the women swooning over Tag, I guess I don’t think Liev Schreiber is all that. He’s okay looking, but I know 20 guys in my town at his age who are better looking.

Does Dakota Fanning always have a hunch, or was that for her character? Being pregnant and/or being a uncaring slouch?

I do enjoy the whole “everybody had motive and opportunity, can you guess who did it” trope. I don’t see the point in creating individual episode threads for a 6-ep one-off show.

I’ve read many of Elin Hildebrand’s books, but not this one. I do agree there were too many side plots. 

However, I do tire of shows that have an endless cast of unlikable rich assholes. Even rich people can be nice and not behave like self-centred entitled douches all the time.

[Anela]

I don’t know if I’ve read any of her books. I watched this, because I wasn’t feeling well, and it was amusing. I did wonder if Abby did it. She’s the one who broke NDA a little bit, and had Amelia asking questions, focusing on the main family, and what they might be capable of.  She didn’t like Merritt, and was all about the money, and social climbing.  

Edited September 8 by Anela

[Madding crowd]

I liked this in the beginning but it just too muddled by the end. I didn’t understand the purpose of the character Isabelle. The actress who plays her was quite beautiful when she was young but now at age 69, she looks like a blow up doll. No way do I believe the one son was interested in her.

Amelia was an odd character. She let Greer talk to her like she was an employee and she didn’t love Benji so why did she want to marry him? Tag was too over the top with the constant singing. I didn’t understand Shooter either and his romance with Amelia didn’t seem to fit time wise with the rest of the weekend.

[susannot]

That was the most awful stupid ending to a show I have ever seen.  I'm not even complaining that it totally diverged from the book but that it made no sense on its own terms.  Can anyone explain WHY Abby killed Merritt?  Also, if the whole motive was that Merritt's baby would have re-set the trust, why wouldn't Abby's baby have done the same?

[MerBearHou]

5 minutes ago, susannot said:

Can anyone explain WHY Abby killed Merritt?  Also, if the whole motive was that Merritt's baby would have re-set the trust, why wouldn't Abby's baby have done the same?

The only thing I can come up with is that Merritt’s baby was Tag’s child; Abby’s baby is Tag’s grandchild.  So the trust must be for the children of Tag.

Edited September 9 by MerBearHou

[susannot]

Most wills and trusts are written to have inherit "the issue of"  meaning children and grandchildren.  That would have applied to Tag's children and issue by both women.

[susannot]

I guess an old adage applies: the most famous guest actor is the murderer.

[TwoBitUsherette]

I enjoyed this, but will probably have forgotten about it by this time next week.

The scenery was gorgeous and I enjoyed Dakota Fanning and the little bit we got of Meghann Fahy. Most everyone else sort of felt like they were on autopilot.

I didn't see a thread for book comparisons, so I'll drop this here for anyone wondering about Amelia and Shooter.

Spoiler

In the book their relationship is much more serious, to the point that they're planning to run off together the morning of the wedding. That's how Amelia discovered Merritt's body. She was sneaking out of the house at dawn to meet Shooter when she finds Merritt on the beach.

I also don't remember anything about them meeting on a train being in the book. I think it implies they eventually end up together, but I don't remember for sure.

 

[txhorns79]

Quote

she didn’t love Benji so why did she want to marry him?

My impression was that she loved Benji "enough," and she desperately wanted to be married before her mother died.  I think Abby might have made a snarky comment about the wedding plans being pushed up. 

[Madding crowd]

3 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

My impression was that she loved Benji "enough," and she desperately wanted to be married before her mother died.  I think Abby might have made a snarky comment about the wedding plans being pushed up. 

Maybe that’s true but they didn’t show enough of her relationship with her parents for me to think they cared about her getting married. She did seem like an independent woman who liked her career and wasn’t overly impressed with money.  It didn’t help that the actor who played Benji played every scene looking like he was about to start laughing. In fact all three of the sons overacted. 

[Johnny Dollar]

If Nicole Kidman will not be playing an American character, please allow her to use her native Australian accent (I know she was born in Hawaii). Her other accents are all over the place.

There will never be less evidence for a murder charge than a detective noticing that their prime suspect washed a glass. Whose glass was it? Was the glass tested for the same drugs that were found in the victim’s system? What evidence is there that the drugs were placed in the victim’s drink?  Has the subject never washed a glass before? Were there any witnesses who saw the victim and suspect together before the incident? Was the victim in such a state that she may have considered suicide?

Why did the youngest son act like a twelve year old?  What does Chloe see in this kid?

Amelia says she is attracted to Shooter because he didn’t act like a douchey rich guy but then is mad at him because he didn’t tell her he was rich. Then why is she marrying a rich guy in the first place? And why is she so damn miserable the whole time?

[MicheleinPhilly]

I loved it but "rich people behaving badly" stories, whether in books or on screen are my kryptonite.

Will it win any awards? Absolutely not. But I thought it was a fun, deliciously trashy, high end, soap opera that made for a perfect late summer binge. 

I'll sit at my table for one though because I HATED the intro dance. I couldn't scramble for the remote quickly enough to skip that nonsense. 

Detective Henry was my MVP. 

[catherinejane]

Who was the added person in the dance at the end? Writer? Director?

how did Abby know Merritt was pregnant with tags kid? Did tag tell Tom that Evening? 
 

and how would the trust every pay out? There could always be an uknoen tag kid on the way!!

 

overall fun. I guessed brother of Greer but no idea on who did it. 
 

 

[MicheleinPhilly]

21 hours ago, catherinejane said:

how did Abby know Merritt was pregnant with tags kid? Did tag tell Tom that Evening? 

Merritt told her. That's why they had that argument on the beach. 

Just now, MicheleinPhilly said:

Merritt told her. That's why they had that argument on the beach. 

Ignore me. I'm thinking of Amelia, not Abby. 🙄

[zscore]

On 9/10/2024 at 4:53 PM, catherinejane said:

how did Abby know Merritt was pregnant with tags kid? Did tag tell Tom that Evening? 

Abby saw her decline a drink.

[mishap]

I fully expect that movie and show adaptations of books will have differences from the book.  
But there were so many changes that are hard to understand why they are necessary.

 I was not expecting to love this.  I didn’t love the book either.  But I thought this was bad.  

[catherinejane]

11 hours ago, zscore said:

Abby saw her decline a drink.

i mean its a far reach from

 

Lady declined a drink.

to

She must be pregnamt BY MY FATHER IN LAW, she must be keeping the baby AND THUS THE TRUST WILL NOT PAY OUT. I SHALL KILL HER!!!!!!!!

I mean maybe wait a day or so to check the facts out.

[tennisgurl]

This was nothing too amazing, but I had a good time watching it. I usually enjoy these one season mysteries and this one at least made sense in motive and how it was done. I kept thinking it would turn out to be the maid, but in about the second to last episode I guessed it was Abbey, and finding out about the weird trust fund rule confirmed it. She's married to an idiot she doesn't like for the money, she's that close to finally getting it, and now this baby will ruin it. 

I know that Amelia is the normal person audience surrogate, but I didn't find her all that likable. It seems like she didn't really love Benji so much as she wanted to be married to someone, and she hardly even hid it. I also don't know why she was being weird about her and Shooter having briefly met each other, I was expecting her to have been up to something shady but she was just being mysterious. 

Nicole Kidman really has that ice queen thing down to an art, even with the questionable wigs.

[Artsda]

It started strong, but lost in the end I think with just trying to fly through everyone as a suspect. 

Everyone suddenly knew about the affair and baby on night one we find out in flashbacks is messy. 

Shooter paid off the gambling money of the pimp brother was silly. That plot wasn't needed. 

I did enjoy it. 

[hoodooznoodooz]

On 9/6/2024 at 8:59 AM, tired and hungry said:

Those 3 sons could not act. The actor playing Benji seemed like he had no idea what to do and just stumbled onto the show.

I hated the looks of the actor playing Benji. Weirdest hair color. Which matched his skin. 

Why was there a reference to inbreeding?

I thought Dakota played the Abby character as a cliche, with the smug, sarcastic comments.

The actress playing Isabel looks stunning elsewhere on the internet, where she has a modern layered haircut. Combing your hair to reveal the least amount of skin on your face makes you look old, as if you’re trying to hide wrinkles or scars from procedures. 
 

This series suddenly turned into a comedy in the last dramatic scene.

The actress playing Amelia was awful. Oh, she’s Bono’s daughter. 

Amelia cautioned Tag about her mom’s wig. Does Tag caution others about Greer’s?

Gosia’s pink uniform?

When Amelia sobbed, “I don’t know who I am,” I rated the series “thumbs down.”

The only moment I enjoyed was Tag and Merritt agreeing that the Merritt Parkway was a nice parkway.

Like Far from the Apple Tree, I only continued watching for the houses.
 

 

 

[Ilovepie]

On 9/8/2024 at 1:24 PM, Shermie said:

However, I do tire of shows that have an endless cast of unlikable rich assholes. Even rich people can be nice and not behave like self-centred entitled douches all the time.

Thank you. Totally agree. I thought all of these people were horrible. It was a slog to get through this. I too am over nasty people being horrible. Even Amelia who I thought was ok eventually becomes an asshole by cheating on Benji. It's just so common on these shows for everyone to be horrible that it would actually have been more surprising if she had turned and left Shooter when she said "I don't want this". 

By the time I reached this episode I honestly didn't care who did it. 

And what the hell has Nicole Kidman done to her face? Between the plastic surgery and the weird Barbie wig I barely recognized her!

The best part of this show was the opening credits.

[RedInk]

On 9/6/2024 at 8:19 AM, tired and hungry said:

  Hide contents

Was it really necessary to kill Meritt? Benji says the trust fund would reset if there was another child younger than Will but in the final episode Will mentions his birthday is in August and since they're already in July he only has one month to go before he turns 18.. So what difference does it make if Meritt even kept the baby? They would all get the money when Will turned 18 the next month anyway. The baby wasnt going to be born anytime soon.

Exactly. It’s ridiculous. Merritt had to keep the pregnancy secret for a month, and she was so recently-pregnant, she wouldn’t be showing. Who was going to report that to the trust? Youngest kid turns 18, money’s distributed, then announce. The trust isn’t taking the money back! 
This was a 6-part tv movie with a better budget. I’ve never read anything by this author, and I definitely won’t now. 

 

[MaggieG]

Tom told the police he was messing around with the gun and he was going to scare Merrit into getting rid of the baby but then changed his mind. Then when we see what actually happened, Abby says to Merrit that men can't do anything and if you want something done you do it yourself. Implying that she wanted Tom to kill Merrit but he chickened out so she had to do it. But how did Abby and Tom even know about the pregnancy in the first place? 

This show had a few good moments (I cracked up at Tag's meltdown at the book launch and the random "I was an escort" confession) but ultimately it was a waste of time. Someone was murdered and everyone was just like "ok?" I guess none of them care because with Merrit gone they all get their money. I wonder if Tom will use his money to get Abby a good lawyer or run off to France with Isabel

[heatherchandler]

On 9/14/2024 at 6:56 AM, hoodooznoodooz said:

hated the looks of the actor playing Benji. Weirdest hair color. Which matched his skin. 

I noticed that too!  I actually thought it would figure into the story.

On 9/14/2024 at 6:56 AM, hoodooznoodooz said:

The actress playing Amelia was awful. Oh, she’s Bono’s daughter. 

Yep.  I had to look her up because she is sooo bad I couldn’t believe she had a starting role.

[Paloma]

On 9/10/2024 at 4:53 PM, catherinejane said:

Who was the added person in the dance at the end? Writer? Director?

Not sure if she was in the dance scene of the opening credits, but in the dance at the end I noticed the actress who played Amelia's mother with what I assume is her natural hair rather than the gray wig she wore in the show.

[nara]

I enjoyed this show but I agree that the mystery was mediocre.

Of the family, I liked Greer and Will. For all her uptightness, she’s the only one with a lick of sense. And I agreed with her in episode one that Amelia should not be wandering around in her bra. But that hair color was an atrocity.

I really thought a final reveal would be that Abby was pregnant with Tag’s child. 

 

 

 

[Meedis]

On 9/12/2024 at 9:20 AM, catherinejane said:

i mean its a far reach from

 

Lady declined a drink.

to

She must be pregnamt BY MY FATHER IN LAW, she must be keeping the baby AND THUS THE TRUST WILL NOT PAY OUT. I SHALL KILL HER!!!!!!!!

I mean maybe wait a day or so to check the facts out.

LOL so true.   But maybe she picked up a clue from Greer who knew right off who TAGged Merritt.   Guess that whole line she said about them not being able to arrest her should've been a clue that she did it.

Even though it was exhausting dealing with how they were hopscotching through the remaining characters to make it seem like they were the guilty one, I enjoyed the crazy ride.   I clued in on Abby as the killer once they bought "Tom" in for questioning.   

The ending was a bit bizarre but hey they threw the "dance number" as an encore so I'm happy again...LOL.   

Because I didn't get enough of the theme song:

 

[Mvnl]

Was kinda waiting for there to be something more to the cop's wife dying or Shooter's mother (with him saying she died when he was 13 I thought it maybe had been Mae?). As it is I'm not idea why Shooter even lived with the family?

Tom suspecting Isabelle when he was with her that night was weird too.

[Sweet-tea]

On 9/6/2024 at 7:59 AM, tired and hungry said:

I've never read the book but are the cops supposed to be so incompetent? They barely did anything by themselves! Amelia and Greer literally had to hand them the evidence and then they started investigating those angles? Don't they check bank accounts and phone calls at the very start? I get that they are rich but why was all the money and other details found so late? They barely even searched the house for any clues..

I read the book several years ago and don't remember how the cops were portrayed. However, the ending was different in the book. IIRC, Merritt's death was an accident. Also Greer wasn't a former escort. They changed a lot of stuff for the series. 

Nicole Kidman's wig was obvious and unnecessary. Why not just use her real hair? None of the siblings looked like they were related, nor did they look like the parents. I didn't care for any of them as characters. I was lukewarm on Eve Hewson, but she grew on me as the series progressed. The Shooter character wasn't property fleshed out, and too much time was given to Isabel, who was hard to watch. 

I've read most of Elin Hilderbrand's books. This one wasn't one of her best, as I felt there was no payoff to all the whodunit plot twists. However, it was better than this series. The best thing I can say about this show is I really liked the opening dance scene. Instead of skipping the intro as I usually do, I watched it each time. Also liked the ending one. The setting was also nice. That's it. 

 

Edited October 7 by Sweet-tea

[Sweet-tea]

On 9/8/2024 at 2:39 PM, Marley said:

The show wasn’t bad but Nicole Kidman needs to relax with the plastic surgery. Closeups of her face are so distracting.

Her face is so tight from Botox, facelift or whatever that she struggles to make an expression. In her big reveal scene, all she could really do was widen her eyes. 

On 9/8/2024 at 3:24 PM, Shermie said:

For all the criticism about her plastic surgery, which I’m used to, I thought the actress playing the French woman was way more, um, surgeried. She literally looked like she was a plastic doll, complete with Cupid-bow lips. Very

Agree! She hurt my eyes. That's what I meant when I said she was hard to watch. 

[topanga]

On 9/12/2024 at 4:32 PM, tennisgurl said:

This was nothing too amazing, but I had a good time watching it. I usually enjoy these one season mysteries and this one at least made sense in motive and how it was done. I kept thinking it would turn out to be the maid, but in about the second to last episode I guessed it was Abbey, and finding out about the weird trust fund rule confirmed it. She's married to an idiot she doesn't like for the money, she's that close to finally getting it, and now this baby will ruin it. 

I know that Amelia is the normal person audience surrogate, but I didn't find her all that likable. It seems like she didn't really love Benji so much as she wanted to be married to someone, and she hardly even hid it. I also don't know why she was being weird about her and Shooter having briefly met each other, I was expecting her to have been up to something shady but she was just being mysterious. 

Nicole Kidman really has that ice queen thing down to an art, even with the questionable wigs.

I agree. The mystery reveal was underwhelming, but the serious was a somewhat enjoyable watch overall. Dakota's portrayal of Abby started off as a bit of a caricature, but she'd settled into her character by the end. Ironically, Abby turned out to be my favorite character. I guess we can assume that she eventually confessed. Because any evidence against her was weak and circumstantial. 

I enjoyed Nicole Kidman's performance. I'm used to her face, which she's had for years. I wish people could let it go. What's done is done. 

My biggest gripe is that I just didn't like Amelia. She was passive 95% of the time, then suddenly she'd become outspoken and even rude. I just couldn't get a handle on who she was as a character. And I don't think her relationships with either Benji or Shooter were well-developed.