S01.E05: Siren Song

[Snazzy Daisy]

Quote

As the gala kicks off, the conflict between Michaela and Simone comes to a head.

Peter has a realization.

Devon considers her options.

Air Date: May 22, 2025

[Snazzy Daisy]

[Snazzy Daisy]

Michaela’s downfall is losing herself in Peter. 

Quote

“When you are a Mrs. Somebody, your life gets huge. But you get very tiny.”

Simone’s Instagram-ready life continues. She chooses a (decade of) loveless marriage with Peter rather than getting stuck in Buffalo, taking care of Bruce.

Who is the real villain — Peter or Simone?

Jose’s Celebration Mix is the best part of this episode. It’s hilarious. Too bad the reign of terror is not over. Simone is staying. 😆

 

OVERALL:

It’s a bingeable series. Plot-wise, it’s rather forgettable. Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock bring emotional depth to their flawed characters, displaying deep-rooted psychological trauma. But I find it hard to root for their characters as they’re quite unlikeable.

[NeenerNeener]

Yep, I disliked them in Episode 1 and still disliked them in the final episode. I did feel somewhat bad for Simone for about 20 minutes when she talked about her awful childhood, but then she screwed KiKi over and that was the end of that. 

[thuganomics85]

Those poor employees.  At least Jose seems to realize they might need to play things down a bit, but I imagine Simone is going to make their lives even more hellish: wherever she pierces together that their celebratory behavior was because of her firing or not.

Not too surprised that this all ended with Peter being the true villain, but I was kind of surprised how obvious and easy it was.  He really was just bored with Michaela and wanted a new (and younger) wife, and once he got a hold of that picture (and I guess she didn't have the awareness to make any kind of copies?), she really had no choice but to accept her fate.  Not exactly a happy ending there.  I mean, granted she had her own issues as a human being, but Peter really is iced cold.  As for Simone, some of her actions can be chalked up to her trauma and history, but she equally burned a lot of bridges for what will probably be a decade at best of a marriage that will probably suck.

At least Devon is taking a step towards getting her own place, even if she plans on denying potential happiness with Jordan in order to continue to take care of Bruce.

Ethan ended up being kind of irrelevant at the end, which is fitting.

All in all, it kind of went the way I expected.  Won't be a show I'll remember about for every long, but the season was short enough to be binge-worthy, and it was great seeing Meghann Fay and Milly Alcock shine again.  Looking forward to seeing what they do next!

Edited May 25 by thuganomics85

[Laurie4H]

I liked it but can’t say I loved it.  Devon was a cliche character.  The witty, crazy, alcoholic, promiscuous, and mess of a sister or friend is someone that usually only exists in tv or movies.    

So many of these movies and series want to make rich people shallow and or bad people   Yet Hollywood is rich.  

I knew in the end Michaela wouldn’t be evil.  Just a victim of the big bad man.  That’s how it usually play out.   And Peter didn’t even seam bad at all.  
 

 

 

[CarpeFelis]

I didn’t see Peter as particularly evil—just really tired of Michaela, the desperately insecure control freak who pressured him into staying away from his kids and constantly kept tabs on him. And probably sick of all the hoopla and cultish BS associated with the raptor sanctuary. (Hell, if I were a guy, I’d be incredibly turned off by the irritating “hey hey” crap alone!)

The apparent insta-love with Simone was weird. He seemed to be more comfortable hanging around smoking with Devon.

Edited May 24 by CarpeFelis

[luna1122again]

Peter shut out his kids. He cheated on his wife. Those were his choices. Michaela played a part but it all ultimately was his decision to do those things. He's pretty much a dick. Which we didn't quite realize until the end, because Kevin Bacon is still so handsome and likable and chill-seeming. But Peter was pretty monstrous, ultimately. 

They all were. Very flawed, very human, capable of kindness and generosity of spirit, but also really selfish and often ugly. 

The cast was excellent. I really love Meghann Fahy, she's just so good. I wasn’t that familiar with Milly Alcock but she was really great too. 

I spent more time than I should have fascinated by the fact that Kevin Bacon is older than Bill Camp

 

Edited May 24 by luna1122again

[KittyKat425]

On 5/24/2025 at 11:59 AM, Laurie4H said:

I liked it but can’t say I loved it.  Devon was a cliche character.  The witty, crazy, alcoholic, promiscuous, and mess of a sister or friend is someone that usually only exists in tv or movies.    

So many of these movies and series want to make rich people shallow and or bad people   Yet Hollywood is rich.  

I knew in the end Michaela wouldn’t be evil.  Just a victim of the big bad man.  That’s how it usually play out.   And Peter didn’t even seam bad at all.  
 

 

 

Michaela was not a victim, She treated people badly and was very self absorbed as well. The show portrayed everyone's good and bad qualities. 

[Pi237]

The ‘destroying the photo evidence’ makes no sense. That photographer would absolutely have a digital copy save somewhere.  But there’s always an element of disbelief with these shows.

[EtheltoTillie]

I binged this, so I'm just commenting at the end.  I thought it was fun and also thought-provoking.   While everyone was unlikable, they had likable characteristics too.  Interesting damaged people.  I'd love to see how the staff handles Simone now that she would be the actual boss.  She probably would not be as demanding. I can't see her doing petty things like demanding a remake of her breakfast smoothie or different color flowers at the last minute.  I couldn't even see Julianne Moore's character doing that.  She was maybe sublimating her anger about other things.

 

Edited May 28 by EtheltoTillie
I spelled unlikable wrong

[MicheleinPhilly]

In the final shot with Simone standing at the edge of the slope down to the beach, did anyone else get the impression that they were suggesting that she DID push Ethan? Obviously he was supremely shit faced and I actually laughed when he accused her of it in the hospital. But the framing of that shot did make me question it. 

[Anela]

Peter hit on Michaela, and divorced the mother of his children. He expected more children out of Michaela. When she has become a fully-fledged, gala-holding wife of a billionaire, and is now past the stage of being able to have children, he kisses her assistant and best friend, and later dumps Michaela, for her.

He is the villain. He is bad. He let his children hate on her, after he was the one to dump their mother. He acted like she'd ruined his relationships with them. 

I figured he was the real villain, and that the ex-wife was alive. And Simone chooses to be a trophy wife, even though she isn't in love. 

3 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I binged this, so I'm just commenting at the end.  I thought it was fun and also thought-provoking.   While everyone was unlikeable, they had likeable characteristics too.  Interesting damaged people.  I'd love to see how the staff handles Simone now that she would be the actual boss.  She probably would not be as demanding. I can't see her doing petty things like demanding a remake her her breakfast smoothie or different color flowers at the last minute.  I couldn't even see Julianne Moore's character doing that.  She was maybe sublimating her anger about other things.

 

That will probably be Simone, in twenty years. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I decided I should have spelled unlikable without the extra "e."

[Anela]

46 minutes ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I decided I should have spelled unlikable without the extra "e."

The times I’ve only noticed a typo, once someone has quoted me. 

[EtheltoTillie]

6 minutes ago, Anela said:

The times I’ve only noticed a typo, once someone has quoted me. 

That's exactly what happened.

[Black Knight]

I wish I had understood going in what sort of show this is, because I think much of my disappointment came from being in the mood for a certain type of show (dark, creepy murder mystery) and picking this show to watch next because I thought it was that when instead it was quite different. I try to avoid spoilers and go in not knowing much at all about a show other than what genre it is and who some of the actors are, and normally that works out fine, but here, oops.

Hollywood Reporter has a really good interview with Meghann Fahy and Milly Alcock about the finale.

[Cementhead]

I enjoyed the hell out of this and watched it all in one evening.  I almost did not watch it because I had a completely different idea of what it was going to be about based on the name of the series.  I understand the reason why they called it Sirens after now having watched it, but it was a bad call.

Being one of the 20 people who hasn't seen The White Lotus,  I was unfamiliar with Meghann Fahy but the minute she showed up on my screen, I was hooked.  What an actress with one hell of a stage presence!  Milly Alcock, whom I have also never seen before, was also great.

[JenE4]

I also couldn’t figure out what genre this was supposed to be while watching it. One or two of the episodes made it seem like Michaela was an actual siren (her song in the tub luring Devon and mind-controlling everyone) that somehow rubbed off on Devon the way she literally had men following after her. But it turns out that was just a metaphor, I guess, for absolutely no reason I can decipher other than the theme of men entranced by sex and women by money.

Was this based on a book? It very much had “beach read” vibes that maybe would have been a fun read (though lacking in any literary merit) and was kind of bingeable while watching, but in retrospect none of it makes any sense. It’s like maybe when I first started watching it I would tell people they have to watch it—but now that it’s over I’m kind of embarrassed that I enjoyed it at first. Eh, at least it was only 5 hours, so not a big investment of time. I’m not sure whether this would have been better as a movie or fleshed out more into a proper 8-10 episode series. It was somehow repetitive in some areas and too succinct in others. Did Simone actually push her boyfriend? We’re not supposed to care, I guess? I mean, if Simone had designs of being a rich bitch running a home, then why didn’t she just marry her boyfriend whom she supposedly loved and would be happy to give her that life as opposed to Peter who, as far as we can tell, she had one 1:1 conversion with? None of it made sense. If it was supposed to be prompted by her neglectful upbringing to be seeking out a life of opulence, then I feel like they didn’t do a good enough job about connecting the storylines into her character arch. Replacing Michaela in Peter’s life was never something Simone was after, so it was like, oop, I’m suddenly his new wife…and all of the party guests are like, okay, cool, Michaela, who? Plus, the whole show I kind of thought Devon was the main character, but she had no character growth at all other than maybe she’ll try to be less of a disaster?  The ending was just really odd and didn’t work for me at all.

[peachmangosteen]

On 5/24/2025 at 11:59 AM, Laurie4H said:

So many of these movies and series want to make rich people shallow and or bad people   Yet Hollywood is rich.  

Maybe they're self aware lol.

I liked this. I'm still not sure what exactly it was trying to be but it was fun to watch. I'm hoping for a season 2.

[Black Knight]

On 5/29/2025 at 1:13 PM, JenE4 said:

I mean, if Simone had designs of being a rich bitch running a home, then why didn’t she just marry her boyfriend whom she supposedly loved and would be happy to give her that life as opposed to Peter who, as far as we can tell, she had one 1:1 conversion with?

Desperation. Simone wasn't originally out to be a trophy wife, she originally was going to run the foundation for Michaela, and she was perfectly content with that and the life she would have from it. But then Michaela fired her, which meant she would have had to start over from scratch, broke and jobless without having finished law school, and homeless as well as she very much did not want to be anywhere near her dad. Ethan wasn't an option anymore because he had turned on her. So when Peter dangled the life of a rich trophy wife in front of her, she took it.

One hopes that since she isn't in love with him, she'll have the presence of mind to obtain a more favorable prenuptial. Of course, at her age she's much likelier to be able to provide him with another kid, so that provision from Michaela's own prenuptial will probably work out for her where it didn't for Michaela.

[kitkat343]

On 5/27/2025 at 7:04 AM, Pi237 said:

The ‘destroying the photo evidence’ makes no sense. That photographer would absolutely have a digital copy save somewhere.  But there’s always an element of disbelief with these shows.

It's a photo of a kiss.  I've read of private detectives bribing hotel maids to get the sheets for dna evidence to prove an affair.   The fact that Simone and Peter immediately jumped into a relationship would strengthen the case of an affair, but given the fact that there are no text messages or emails I'm not sure Michaela could prove the affair actually started before the end of the marriage and invalidate the prenup even with the picture.  

 

On 5/29/2025 at 4:13 PM, JenE4 said:

I mean, if Simone had designs of being a rich bitch running a home, then why didn’t she just marry her boyfriend whom she supposedly loved and would be happy to give her that life as opposed to Peter who, as far as we can tell, she had one 1:1 conversion with?

Michaela was a surrogate mother for Simone.  With her approval, Simone would have been content to focus on her career and not marry a man who wanted to take care of her.  After Michaela betrayed Simone, I think part of her desire to marry Peter was the security Black Knight wrote about above, but also she was furious about being betrayed by another mother figure again and knew the perfect revenge would be to marry Peter and have the children Michaela so desperately wanted.  

[SlovakPrincess]

Tonally, this thing was just all over the place.  

The series spent so much time building up the supposed mystery of whether Michaela was sucking people into a cult or had killed anyone .... and the reveal to Where is Jocelyn was very anticlimactic.    

It ended up being more of a soapy series about backstabbing, emotional infidelity, and damaged people choosing between their principles or an easy path to wealth ... but the characters weren't fleshed out enough for that to be satisfying, either.  By the end, Devon had more depth as a character and matured, at least.  I could actually understand Simone's desperation to escape her family and the unsympathetic choices she made at the end ... but I never felt like we actually got to know her, and there was never any real tension or question as to whether she would make a different choice.  She was never going to forgive her dad, try to go back to law school, or try to live an ordinary life like Devon.  

The Peter / Michaela dynamic would have been more interesting if the series spent more time on it, instead of leaving it to expositional dialogue in the last two episodes.

I still don't know what that W.A.P. sing-along scene in the car, with Devon and Kiki's three sidekicks, was supposed to be about lol.  

[ByTor]

On 5/29/2025 at 2:39 PM, Cementhead said:

Being one of the 20 people who hasn't seen The White Lotus,  I was unfamiliar with Meghann Fahy

I don't know what The White Lotus is, but she was in The Perfect Couple, which IMO was really good.

I initially enjoyed this & was recommending it to people, but THIS was the ending we got? I thought it was awful.

Edited June 6 by ByTor

[Cementhead]

15 hours ago, ByTor said:

I don't know what The White Lotus is, but she was in The Perfect Couple, which IMO was really good.

I avoid watching anything that stars Nicole Kidman like the plague but watched The Perfect Couple immediately after watching this solely because I learned Meghann  was in that, too.  

16 hours ago, ByTor said:

I initially enjoyed this & was recommending it to people, but THIS was the ending we got? I thought it was awful.

I enjoyed them both for being totally bingeable Saturday night fare but Sirens was the better of the two for me.  I try not to overthink these types of series and just go along for the ride.  The ending is the perfect set-up for season two which likely won't be as good as the first season because they never are, but it finished with enough of a hook to keep me invested.

[dubbel zout]

On 5/24/2025 at 3:39 AM, thuganomics85 said:

He really was just bored with Michaela and wanted a new (and younger) wife, and once he got a hold of that picture (and I guess she didn't have the awareness to make any kind of copies?), she really had no choice but to accept her fate. 

We never got a good idea of what the terms of the prenup were. A photograph of a kiss doesn't mean there was an affair, and I'm positive Peter made sure Michaela wouldn't get much money regardless. She admitted she was so in love with him that she didn't have her own lawyer look over the prenup; she just signed it to get it over with.

On 5/30/2025 at 6:05 PM, peachmangosteen said:

I liked this. I'm still not sure what exactly it was trying to be but it was fun to watch.

Same. Genre-wise it's been called a comedy, but it's really more of a black comedy.

[chaifan]

I slow binged this over several days.  I almost didn't watch it because it was getting some really bad press, but then figured why not.  I really like Julianne Moore, and I'm watching Kevin Bacon as a demon hunter in The Bondsman.

I agree with others that the end was disappointing.  I wish they made this 6 episodes and gave it more time to wrap things up.  I got a little whiplash with all the changing direction Simone was going in.  

I look at Simone as a very very traumatized, damaged person.  I have no idea what diagnosis she'd fall under, but she seems to center her life around being loved by someone.  Which makes sense given her childhood.  (I don't know if I've heard a more disturbing backstory for a character outside of serial killers.)  She lived for Michaela's love, when that is yanked away from her, she grabs on to Peter's (supposed) love.  It makes sense for her dad's comment about them being a family again to have terrorized her.  So I don't classify her as good or bad, as I think she's not quite sane.

On 5/28/2025 at 2:51 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

I'd love to see how the staff handles Simone now that she would be the actual boss.  She probably would not be as demanding. I can't see her doing petty things like demanding a remake of her breakfast smoothie or different color flowers at the last minute. 

Oh, I have to totally disagree here.  I think she'll be even worse than Michaela as a boss.  I think Jose realized that, too.

I actually like how the show had us sympathizing with Michaela at the end.  She wasn't evil, but just so lacking in empathy, and everything was all about image.  Sure, she was overboard with the chocolates, but she wasn't wrong - Peter lied about being in Japan.  And damn, she does love those birds.  

Peter, though, I think is a bad guy.  We don't know enough to know what his motivations were for cheating on his first wife, was he trading her in for a younger model, etc.  It's also not clear who's really to blame for him not being in touch with his kids all this time.  (I think he was fine with it, because he had the power to do whatever he wanted.)  But I got the feeling that he's not really in love with Simone, but using her to hurt Michaela for what he sees as Michaela's role in keeping him from his kids.   And also, the age difference is just ick.

I think my favorite part was the staff.  The chef, Missy, and Jose.  Jose's celebration playlist was fabulous.  

I really thought they were going somewhere with the Sirens theme, but in the end none of the women lured any men to death or a bad ending.  Ethan was as close as we got to that.  With the weird blurry effect they were giving Peter & Simone on the beach, I wondered if Peter was the Siren, if he was the one who lured in Michaela and now Simone.

I'm glad they put this out as a "limited series", which to me means it's a one-and-done.  It doesn't need a sequel.  

 

Edited June 8 by chaifan

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, chaifan said:

Peter, though, I think is a bad guy. 

I don't think he's a bad guy so much as a weak one, and emotionally, a lazy guy. I feel like the women in his life do most of the work in the relationship. He provides the money, but they arrange everything and keep the house, social life, and relationship going. He's along for the ride but not all that engaged. No wonder he switches partners every decade or so. A new one provides some distraction for a while.

Edited June 8 by dubbel zout

[MicheleinPhilly]

22 hours ago, chaifan said:

I'm glad they put this out as a "limited series", which to me means it's a one-and-done.  It doesn't need a sequel.  

💯 If they do decide to drag it out for another season, I'll skip it. It was perfectly fine for a rainy Saturday watch, but I don't need to follow these people. They aren't compelling enough. 

[Elizzikra]

Quote

We never got a good idea of what the terms of the prenup were. A photograph of a kiss doesn't mean there was an affair, and I'm positive Peter made sure Michaela wouldn't get much money regardless. She admitted she was so in love with him that she didn't have her own lawyer look over the prenup; she just signed it to get it over with.

I think it was pretty clear that Michaela would get "basically nothing" unless there was infidelity. It also seems that Peter has so much money that he could toss her a couple million and not even miss it. Someone has to be paying for the first wife to live on the private island near Washington State. I figure Michaela will get her own version of botched plastic surgery and a reclusive life out of Peter too, though since she didn't bear children, who knows?

Quote

I wondered if Peter was the Siren

I think Peter was absolutely the siren. Remember when he was dumping Michaela and she wanted the aviary - and her reminded her that Simone now knew how to care for the birds? I think that was to show that Peter had somehow orchestrated the whole hiring-an-assistant thing and Michaela basically spent the past year training her replacement. It was a repeat of what happened with Juliana and Michaela, with Peter luring Michaela in so fully that she, a smart and talented lawyer, signed a ridiculous prenup.

Also, Simone and Devon were literal "sirens" to each other. Remember their emergency text code, which Simone did not answer, was "sirens." And in a way, they lured each other to their deaths. Whatever hard-working, basically honest girl Simone had been, she is now with Peter, having essentially sold out Michaela for financial stability (however long that might last). Perennial screw-up Devon dies, leaving in her place a sober and responsible (not that she should have had to be to such a damaged father) daughter to an ill parent. And Devon no longer has any illusions about her baby sister; she sees clearly what Simone has become.

I might stretch a little further and say that Simone and Devon's mother was sort of the original siren. She died and left their father literally on the line between life and death; living but not really living. 

Edited 35 minutes ago by Elizzikra