Safe - General Discussion

[showme]

In your opinion, who is to blame for all the death and tragedy that is happened in the current timeline?

For me, it is the daughter. What a stupid, selfish and spoiled brat! Her behavior is appalling and inexcusable. Hiding from her own father, who did nothing wrong, and getting her boyfriend, neighbor killed and her gay "uncle" almost killed, all for what? She is acting out because her mother died of cancer and had a secret?

The show writers are good at creating suspense, but the premise of the story is BS.

[Pindrop]

To be honest I though this was a superb piece of screen-writing and ensemble acting.  

Spoiler

A moment that sold me was in the second episode, when the "best-friend/uncle-having-an-illicit-affair-with-daughter" trope was instantly subverted, rather than dragging out the red-herring, in a manner that immediately defined the strength of the relationship between Tom and Pete. 

8 minutes ago, showme said:

In your opinion, who is to blame for all the death and tragedy that is happened in the current timeline?

For me, it is the daughter. What a stupid, selfish and spoiled brat! Her behavior is appalling and inexcusable. Hiding from her own father, who did nothing wrong, and getting her boyfriend, neighbor killed and her gay "uncle" almost killed, all for what? She is acting out because her mother died of cancer and had a secret?

The show writers are good at creating suspense, but the premise of the story is BS.

Spoiler

I thought the daughter's reasoning was adequately explained as the show progressed, and part of it was well foreshadowed in the barbecue discussion between Tom and Pete re. the app installed on her phone, which was essentially the final straw. 

Edited May 11, 2018 by Pindrop

[showme]

3 minutes ago, Pindrop said:

I thought the daughter's reasoning was adequately explained as the show progressed, and well foreshadowed in the barbecue discussion between Tom and Pete re. the app installed on her phone.

I disagree. Normal reaction would be confronting her father, not keep evading him, especially after she is reported missing and the police is looking for her, and after her boy friend was murdered. That is just not what a normal person would do.

[Guest]

Yeah, there was a lot of unlikely stuff.  Like why was the dad tracking Pete’s phone location but not his own daughter’s?  

The cop killing the kid in the middle of a party was silly to me.  

I knew Neal framed Zoe immediately because who else has nude pics of a woman.  

And all these middle age adults still live in the same little neighborhood they grew up in?   Yet the houses were all very modern, too.  

Why was the Vespa still at the train station if Jenny had moved to hiding at Helen’s?  

It was fun to binge but not the best writing.  I watched Coben’s The Five recently and felt about the same.  

[showme]

Yep, this show seems to be crafted from the same template as "The Five".

But this one is even more convoluted in terms of plot. It just doesn't make much sense, and the character's actions are just not plausible.

[Guest]

On 5/11/2018 at 9:30 AM, showme said:

In your opinion, who is to blame for all the death and tragedy that is happened in the current timeline?

For me, it is the daughter.

Yes, her actions didn't really hold up much under a microscope.  But I asked myself that at the end and my first thought was, "All this because of spyware.  Moral:  Don't spy on your kids' phone usage." 

Though Jenny was pretty annoyed with her dad even before that.  I can't imagine holding it against my dad through the funeral even that he was out of reach for a short time while my mom passed from cancer.  I don't think he *would* have been not checking his phone or out drinking and making out with a neighbor lady in that circumstance, but if he had, I'd have gotten over it.  I mean, he's a surgeon, he would be out of reach while in an OR.  

Hannah Arterton who played Emma also played a cop in The Five.  The same book author wrote both.  It was odd too how Emma acted like Chris' was some personal loss for her, when around his body or the photos.  I get it that he was supposed to remind her of the death of her baby-daddy but I found it kind of thin, as a red herring justification.

I love a whodunit in this short form but the problem with most of them, including this and The Five, is you can't really figure it out no matter how closely you watch because the people don't act like normal people would.  Like 99% of families wouldn't hide a body of a kid found floating in their pool at a party, regardless of their drug habits.  99.9% of cops with a secret wouldn't drown a kid who knows it in the middle of a house party.  I'm ok with suspending disbelief to some extent with fiction but when they ask us to put on our analyst hat to solve a mystery, then it feels a bit like dirty pool to expect us to watch the unlikely solution play out and not feel a little tricked.  

[CarpeFelis]

One thing that didn’t make much sense to me - Tom and Pete are doctors and yet they have all sorts of free time to go around playing detective? There could at least have been some mention of taking a few days off, but at a few points Tom says he’s expected in surgery.

Edited May 14, 2018 by CarpeFelis
Wrong name

[OoogleEyes]

Ok, I just started this,  but.......

WHY MUST MICHAEL C. HALL HAVE AN ENGLISH ACCENT??

[Zeebreezy]

I concur with everything everyone has said about this show in the thread.  As an avid Harlen Coben novel reader (he is one of, if not my favorite writer) so the premise for this show started out pretty good, however, when you get to why the daughter is doing what she is doing, it makes NO SENSE AT ALL.  Please tell me that there aren't kids or people that are this entitled.  So your mom dies and you find out this secret she's holding and decide to confront everyone involved.  Like in what universe?!! When I realized Jenny was still alive I began to get annoyed.  Like girl go home and STFU.  None of this would have happened if you just left all this shit alone. 

[iggysaurus]

22 hours ago, OoogleEyes said:

Ok, I just started this,  but.......

WHY MUST MICHAEL C. HALL HAVE AN ENGLISH ACCENT??

Because it's an English show set in England ....? I mean, I get that it's kinda weird when you're familiar with him as an American, but actors do this all the time. Why did Hugh Laurie have to be American in House? Because it was an American show and the creators wrote him as American. 

I agree with most of the comments here - this was a fun show to binge, for the most part, but some of the characters' motivations really stretched believability.  Jenny says at the end that she was never trying to get Sophie or any of the others punished for the fire ... so what was she trying to do, exactly? What did she expect to accomplish by tracking down Bobby at that club and confronting him? She begged Chris not to confront Sophie, but then went off on her own to do the same thing to Bobby ... a person who had no relevance in her life. Why would she be more concerned about his role in it than Sophie's, the person who was dating her dad and a close friend of her late mom? 

And Sophie ending up being the one who killed Chris in the swimming pool was a whole other level of disbelief.  She had been shown to be basically reasonable, and was saying to Tom that she was going to come clean about the fire (before we, the audience, knew she killed Chris).  But then we are shown that she was so desperate NOT to come clean that she would drown a kid in a pool during a party.  It doesn't make sense. Seemed more like it was done just for the sake of having a last-minute shocking reveal. 

[Guest]

Exactly.  

I’m tired of the trope of the obnoxious teen girl.  It’s rooted in some misbelief that female hormones turn us into irrational, raging bitches for years at a time. 

[Pindrop]

9 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Exactly.  

I’m tired of the trope of the obnoxious teen girl.  It’s rooted in some misbelief that female hormones turn us into irrational, raging bitches for years at a time. 

I think the operative word in the above is “teen” rather than “female”; and that teens of both genders can be subject to hormonal changes that can turn them irrational is a trope for good reason.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Pindrop

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Pindrop said:

I think the operative word in the above is “teen” rather than “female”; and that teens of both genders can be subject to hormonal changes that can turn them irrational is a trope for good reason.

It's always teen girls that I see portrayed that way on TV, never teen boys.   

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrattyTeenageDaughter

Do your hormones turn you irrational for long stretches?  That hasn't been my experience, as a woman, sister of three women, or mother of one.  And I resent the implication by TV writers.  They've started laying off the insulting joke of 'the assertive adult woman must be on her period' but with teen girl personalities, it's still open season.  

[Pindrop]

5 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

It's always teen girls that I see portrayed that way on TV, never teen boys.   

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrattyTeenageDaughter

Do your hormones turn you irrational for long stretches?  That hasn't been my experience, as a woman, sister of three women, or mother of one.  And I resent the implication by TV writers.  They've started laying off the insulting joke of 'the assertive adult woman must be on her period' but with teen girl personalities, it's still open season.  

I am unsure that tvtropes.org can be considered an authority on anything other than filling pages with nonsense in order to sell advertising space.

TV shows are often reductive and dumb in the handling of all their archetypal characters; I don't think anyone comes out of it unscathed. 

[Guest]

They don't have to be reductive and dumb, especially not the same reductive and dumb (and insulting to one gender) over and over.  That's my only point.  I do know what you mean about they can't all be fully formed, completely realistic people, though.  But I think they can do better.  

I liked the show, and binged it in two nights, but I wouldn't call it superb writing.  I think much better-written shows in this genre include Marcella, Happy Valley, The Killing, Broadchurch, The Fall, Top of the Lake and The Bridge.  I think the cast did a good job here, though.  

Edited May 17, 2018 by Guest

[Pindrop]

1 hour ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

They don't have to be reductive and dumb, especially not the same reductive and dumb (and insulting to one gender) over and over.  That's my only point.  I do know what you mean about they can't all be fully formed, completely realistic people, though.  But I think they can do better.  

I liked the show, and binged it in two nights, but I wouldn't call it superb writing.  I think much better-written shows in this genre include Marcella, Happy Valley, The Killing, Broadchurch, The Fall, Top of the Lake and The Bridge.  I think the cast did a good job here, though.  

I certainly agree that Happy Valley is one of the best shows in this genre I have ever seen. That WAS superb! 

[Guest]

I totally agree.  That one was top of the heap for me.  

I would watch another Coben show, and may check out his books.  I think for TV things might be dumbed down a bit, necessarily.  

[pfk505]

15 minutes into episode 1 and Hall's atrocious English accent is beyond distracting. I hope I can get used to it but I'm having my doubts.

Why can English actors do North American accents so effortlessly but the reverse seems near impossible? Can anyone name some good examples?

They should have just made Hall's character an American expat, like Eve from Killing Eve.

Edited May 19, 2018 by pfk505

[Guest]

 I thought that at first but it mattered to the theme that they all grew up there. 

[Empress1]

12 hours ago, pfk505 said:

15 minutes into episode 1 and Hall's atrocious English accent is beyond distracting. I hope I can get used to it but I'm having my doubts.

Why can English actors do North American accents so effortlessly but the reverse seems near impossible? Can anyone name some good examples?

They should have just made Hall's character an American expat, like Eve from Killing Eve.

Came here to say exactly this. I’ve always liked Michael C. Hall but his accent here is terrible. If this is the best he could do (which is surprising to me), they should have made him an expat.

[Gyproselee]

On 5/19/2018 at 1:33 PM, Empress1 said:

Came here to say exactly this. I’ve always liked Michael C. Hall but his accent here is terrible. If this is the best he could do (which is surprising to me), they should have made him an expat.

He was actually the producer of the show.

[Chaos Theory]

Better then I expected once you got use to Michael C. Hall.  I like a good mystery and this one worked well for me.  It might have been a little long and had a couple unnecessary storylines but other then that I rather enjoyed it.  I liked how past and present came together in the big mystery.  I really liked how it all ended.  The final reveal was really well done.    

Better then I expected.  

For the record I don't compare shows to each other even in the same genre.  Its kinda like feeling like you can only like one and not both.  If you like this you can't like that because you are fully attached to the other one.  I liked Happy Valley, The Killing and the Fall but I hated Broadchurch.    Either way this was a fun mystery with a good ending.  

Edited May 27, 2018 by Chaos Theory

[krankydoodle]

I agree with the criticisms everyone here has brought up, but still enjoyed this well enough. Marc Warren was my favorite thing about it. I really liked his character and and his friendship with Tom (though watching the two of them running around like the Hardy Boys got a little tiresome), and seeing him react to his newfound daughter.

My favorite recent show of this type is Unforgotten. It was refreshing to watch compassionate detectives who don't have tortured personal lives do their jobs competently. ETA: I forgot Shetland, which is in the same vein and has a beautiful setting to boot.

Edited May 28, 2018 by krankydoodle

[Enigma X]

Just finished this and thought the amount of misdirection this show employed was not done well and simply overdone. Some of you sighted my issues, but here I go:

1. The probability of someone killing someone at a party in an open area of more than 30 people with no one seeing it is beyond believable.

2.  Kids not being in the pool area at a party of more than 30 people even on a cool day makes number one even more unbelievable.

3.  So Sophie kills Chris but is willing to help Tom keep Jenny alive by betraying Bobby. Why was she so sure that Jenny and Chris both had not agreed to turn her in?

4.  I usually never comment on poor accents, but Hall's was really bad.

5.  I did not understand why the man (forgot his name) being in Jasmine Hall was a huge mystery, or what his father was seeing Bobby about.

6.  The whole Marshall family bugged me.

7.  Both of Chris's parents sucked.

8. Not an issue but an observation, the Fiennes kid looks a hell of a lot like his uncles.

[Mercolleen]

Binged today. On the last episode now and annoyed. Ludicrous.

[Chaos Theory]

I guess I will sit alone in my corner liking the show.  Even the the middle was sloooooow and almost enough to make me give up on it I am glad I didn’t i really liked the ending.  I might actually watch it again to see if it works on a second viewing.

[LeGrandElephant]

Just finished it. Well, I didn’t suspect Sophie till the second to last episode, so I guess they got me. 

 

Mich of the plot was driven by characters doing stupid and nonsensical things, but I enjoyed the show (and I paid attention this time, after having started out watching The Five less attentively and then getting hooked). I think British accents cover a lot, for me. 

On 5/11/2018 at 12:30 PM, showme said:

 

In your opinion, who is to blame for all the death and tragedy that is happened in the current timeline?

 

I read this line accidentally before finishing the show, and spent awhile wondering if there was going to be a sci fi twist. I see now that by “current timeline” you mean the present as opposed to the flashbacks. 

[LeGrandElephant]

Since there’s no board for The Five but I see a lot of mentions of it upthread, can I mention the one thing that really bothered me there? Spoiler-tagged: 

Spoiler

Why didn’t Britnay, and to a lesser extent that other girl that escaped, want to tell the cops about their captivity? Britnay should have immediately gone to the cops as soon as she escaped, to rescue the other girls. How could she leave them there? She seemed to have a lot of guilt for having helped capture some of them, but she was literally tortured into doing that. No one tortured her into not rescuing them afterwards, and I don’t remember her mentioning that in her guilt spiral. And if it’s just that she was afraid of getting in trouble, she could have sent anonymous information about them to the cops, or something like that. Though I don’t think a court would punish someone who actred under extreme duress like that and then did the right thing as soon as possible. She was ready to kill herself without giving anyone any information to rescue the other girls, even though she was otherwise written as wanting to help people. I didn’t get that at all.

There were some other plot implausibilities, but that was the only one that really bothered me.

Edited May 29, 2018 by LeGrandElephant

[Pindrop]

On 11/05/2018 at 5:37 PM, Pindrop said:

To be honest I though this was a superb piece of screen-writing and ensemble acting.  

  Reveal hidden contents

A moment that sold me was in the second episode, when the "best-friend/uncle-having-an-illicit-affair-with-daughter" trope was instantly subverted, rather than dragging out the red-herring, in a manner that immediately defined the strength of the relationship between Tom and Pete. 

  Reveal hidden contents

I thought the daughter's reasoning was adequately explained as the show progressed, and part of it was well foreshadowed in the barbecue discussion between Tom and Pete re. the app installed on her phone, which was essentially the final straw. 

I wrote this immediately after watching Lost In Space, which is a perfect example of lazy, inconsistent committee screen-writing, relying heavily on plot induced stupidity; character motivations which alter to suit the plot and are largely nonsensical; and, the general sense that it is created by an algorithm rather than a human.

This show was a relief afterwards; however, on review there were some glaring flaws in the plotting that could and should have been resolved quite simply during the editing/ proof reading of the screenplay.

[kelslamu]

What I thought I was supposed to be thinking about the daughter was she was never close to her father at all.  That non-relationship got even worse when she realized spy-ware had been put on her phone.  So, instead of confronting her father, which would have seemed normal, she goes on a little expedition to find out more about her mother's revelation to her.  All that aside, it wasn't well done, imo.  All of it was just a little too much.  I had never read this book by Harlan Coben, but I have read others and really liked them.  I was a bit disappointed, but it was still better than a lot of what I've seen. lol  

I kept thinking Gus Fringe from Breaking Bad when they would show Craig's father just standing by himself.

 

eta:  I realize now this wasn't a book.  I thought I had just missed one.

Edited May 30, 2018 by kelslamu

[Sandycat]

19 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I guess I will sit alone in my corner liking the show.  Even the the middle was sloooooow and almost enough to make me give up on it I am glad I didn’t i really liked the ending.  I might actually watch it again to see if it works on a second viewing.

You aren’t alone. I just finished it yesterday and really liked it. I was totally surprised by the ending. 

[AZChristian]

I liked the show, but there were a couple of glaring inconsistencies that distracted me.  Supposedly, this kid drowned in a COLD swimming pool, was laid out on the deck for several hours, was stuffed into a freezer for a day or so . . . but they can do an autopsy and tell you that he died between 10:30 and 11:00 pm several days before, so they know that the father who confessed was lying . . . because he was seen on camera 90 miles away around 12:15?

I don't think so.

[LakeGal]

I enjoyed this one.  I figured out who was Chris' killer early on.  But I had to keep watching to figure out why she wanted to kill him.  I figured everything went back to the school fire.  But they had a lot of red herrings that kept confusing me.  

[PWHCHCH]

Did we ever see Pete's secret bf on screen?

[AnnieHeights]

I liked it overall.  It was a bit jarring at first hearing "Dexter" speak in an English accent.  I thought they did a good job in keeping the viewers guessing and I was able to keep up with all the characters.  

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 3:39 PM, Enigma X said:

2.  Kids not being in the pool area at a party of more than 30 people even on a cool day makes number one even more unbelievable.

I thought the same thing.....even in the cold, at least a few kids would be outside smoking cigarettes.

On ‎5‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 6:37 AM, kelslamu said:

I kept thinking Gus Fringe from Breaking Bad when they would show Craig's father just standing by himself.

He did look like Gus!!         

[viajero]

On 5/16/2018 at 10:03 PM, Winston9-DT3 said:

Exactly.  

I’m tired of the trope of the obnoxious teen girl.  It’s rooted in some misbelief that female hormones turn us into irrational, raging bitches for years at a time. 

I'm also tired of that trope, but in this particular case I did not find the daughter to be all that much of a brat.  Jenny started out justifiably resentful of her father (even more so once she found out that he was spying on her).  Her attitude after that was mostly that of someone trying to rationally solve a mystery about their mother, while still grieving over her loss.  Of course it could be that I was predisposed towards giving Jenny the benefit of the doubt because of the actress.  I really got a kick out of the character of Maddie, the homeless waif that Amy James-Kelly played during her stint on Coronation Street (until falling victim to another trope I'm sick of - the bury-your-gays trope).  But then again, I got the impression that I was in the minority when it comes to Maddie as well.

This does not mean that I find all of Jenny's actions to be completely believable.  I can understand why she might not have gone to her father initially, but find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have done so once she found out her boyfriend had been killed.  But this pales in comparison to the ridiculous reaction of the family that tried to hide Chris's body.

Otherwise, for all that the plot was overly convoluted, I wasn't all that surprised by the resolution.  I already strongly suspected whom killed whom before the last couple of episodes.  I guess I did enjoy the series enough to binge through it over a couple of days, though it was quite a comedown after having finished the far superior Money Heist last week.

Edited June 5, 2018 by viajero

[Pindrop]

13 hours ago, viajero said:

I'm also tired of that trope, but in this particular case I did not find the daughter to be all that much of a brat.  Jenny started out justifiably resentful of her father (even more so once she found out that he was spying on her).  Her attitude after that was mostly that of someone trying to rationally solve a mystery about their mother, while still grieving over her loss.  Of course it could be that I was predisposed towards giving Jenny the benefit of the doubt because of the actress.  I really got a kick out of the character of Maddie, the homeless waif that Amy James-Kelly played during her stint on Coronation Street (until falling victim to another trope I'm sick of - the bury-your-gays trope).  But then again, I got the impression that I was in the minority when it comes to Maddie as well.

This does not mean that I find all of Jenny's actions to be completely believable.  I can understand why she might not have gone to her father initially, but find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have done so once she found out her boyfriend had been killed.  But this pales in comparison to the ridiculous reaction of the family that tried to hide Chris's body.

Otherwise, for all that the plot was overly convoluted, I wasn't all that surprised by the resolution.  I already strongly suspected whom killed whom before the last couple of episodes.  But I guess I did enjoy the series enough to binge through it over a couple of days.

This is a trope I am tired of, and I guess I should spoiler tag it: -

 

Spoiler

The killer is ALWAYS the person romantically linked to the main character. ALWAYS. It has reached the point where within 2 minutes of the first episode of 90% of shows in this genre you can point at the romantic interest and say "murderer". It was tedious ten years ago and it is especially tedious now.

Spoiler

Happy Valley

is one of the few shows that subverted this trope and I applaud them for it. 

[Jeffurry]

On 5/19/2018 at 1:12 AM, pfk505 said:

They should have just made Hall's character an American expat, like Eve from Killing Eve.

Eve's supposed to be American? I figured she had to be Canadian.

[fitzfrog]

I thought this was okay, but was very confused by Craig (the guy who survived the fire) and his dad, and I'm wondering if I missed something somewhere about them.  Craig's dad seemed to know exactly what happened that night.  Yet he went on living in that neighborhood without ever saying anything to anyone (including the police)?  And why did he (the dad) go to see Bobby at the club?  I feel like I missed a crucial scene at some point.....

[moon]

I found the ending embarrassingly bad. So bad that I joined these forums after years of lurking just to say it. 

[catherinejane]

Just finished watching it too. Did not guess

Spoiler

it was Sophie until ep 8 and they made a deal with the pendant and then was convinced she was leading Tom to Bobbies house to kill everyone (and tie up lose ends) but then that didn't happen so i thought I must be wrong.

But yes, why was Eric the dad seeing Bobbie? (as Craig didn't ever speak so could not have said who did it - maybe mum/rachel told him on a visit to ease her guilt - though dad did think son was a hero so why ruin that?)

Don't think we ever knew who the secret bf of Uncle was. which was a bit pointless as we already knew he was gay so why not just say he had been seeing person x/old army mate. 

Overall enjoyable, watched last 6 over 2 nights.

Edited June 26, 2018 by catherinejane
to hide a spoiler

[kylies-lips]

I binged this show in over 2 days and from the beginning it had me hooked. I love a show where everyone in the cast is shady and suspicious.

I kind of wish the show didn't resort to the entire mystery being because of a crime committed years ago by Jenny's dead mom and her friends. I don't know...it just didn't sit right with me. Yes, it wrapped up most of the questions but it felt almost silly to me how it all ended up.

I co-sign whoever said upthread about a party with 30+ kids and not one of them saw Sophie loudly arguing with Chris and drowning him in the pool. I know they had loud music and the kids were all wasted but in a party like that people are always coming and going it just doesn't logically make sense. Also, Sophie had to leave Sia's house drenched from the pool...no one saw that either huh?

[Marley]

Being really hungover yesterday I binged this show and I didn’t mind it honestly. Something to watch. 

The part that I thought was so lame was the whole blonde cop and Pete being her dad storyline. How old was she supposed to be and how old was he supposed to be. I would’ve thought she was in her 30s and him early 40s but I guess not unless he got someone prego when he was like 10. Just didn’t work for me. Also it was so lame that they instantly had this deep connection and he was all that’s my girl! Like come on really.

Also all these ppl are still living in their childhood homes?

The french teacher is banging a 16 year old and the husband gets over it pretty quickly? Ugh no.

Edited July 6, 2018 by Marley

[Hanahope]

On 5/17/2018 at 12:03 AM, Guest said:

Exactly.  

I’m tired of the trope of the obnoxious teen girl.  It’s rooted in some misbelief that female hormones turn us into irrational, raging bitches for years at a time. 

Well, the show seemed to suggest that Chris was a raging asshole for confronting Sophie about the fire, so maybe not restricted to girls.  Agreed that Sophie's killing Chris in the pool was absolutely ridiculous.  

And yeah, Jenny was a fool.  She should learn to keep her mouth shut about secrets she finds out about her mother.  She ruined a lot of lives with her choice to confront everyone.  OTOH, it did end up getting rid of Bobby, who apparently continued his criminal ways.  I think Bobby developed a real love of fire and set his other bar on fire.  

 

On 6/24/2018 at 5:37 PM, catherinejane said:

But yes, why was Eric the dad seeing Bobbie? (as Craig didn't ever speak so could not have said who did it - maybe mum/rachel told him on a visit to ease her guilt - though dad did think son was a hero so why ruin that?)

Eric obviously figured out  some information as relayed to Tom.  My guess is that he over-heard Rachel talking to Craig during one of her visits to Jasmine Hall.  He also probably knew Craig's friends at that time, so he knew who was involved.  With Rachel and Helen dead, and Sophie as a cop (who presumably wouldn't have done anything to Jenny), the only one left to ask about it was Bobby.  So I'm guessing he went to Bobby's to ask him if Jenny spoke with him because she was missing and he thought it might be connected to the fire.  He may also had known that Bobby wasn't a nice guy

[truthaboutluv]

On 5/11/2018 at 12:30 PM, showme said:

For me, it is the daughter. What a stupid, selfish and spoiled brat! Her behavior is appalling and inexcusable. Hiding from her own father, who did nothing wrong, and getting her boyfriend, neighbor killed and her gay "uncle" almost killed, all for what? She is acting out because her mother died of cancer and had a secret?

Just got done watching and yup, I'm with you. I could maybe understand her one night of huffing and puffing after finding out her dad had a tracker on her phone. But for fuck's sake, when she realized that Chris had been murdered and she knew that he was privy to this big secret that she also knew and it could have been the thing that got him killed, take your ass home to your father, an adult, who had nothing to do with this big secret and could protect you.

I just didn't understand her still hiding out from her dad at that point, coming to Chris' memorial all incognito. The whole thing was so ridiculously and unnecessarily melodramatic. Your boyfriend was just murdered and so she had to know her dad would be even more frantic and worried at that point and still she just hides her ass out at the neighbor's house. I swear, when she started boo-hooing about wanting to go home when Bobby had the gun pointed at her, I thought, "too late" and that it would serve her right if he'd killed her. 

The annoying daughter aside, I did enjoy the season. Having read a number of Harlan Coben books at this point, the twists and big reveals were all right up his alley. I had Henry as the one who murdered Chris, even if I thought it would be a little obvious. But once I realized it couldn't have been Bobby and it was clear that Chris was dead set on confronting Sophie, I assumed he said something to Henry about it and they got into an altercation. Sophie was a ball of steel though. Woman carried on "investigating" Chris' murder like it was nothing and she would have gotten away with it thanks to JoJo and his dumbass family. 

I swear those three were the best part of the series. Just dumb decision after dumb decision. And his dumbass would have completely gone down for the murder if the time stamp on the hotel didn't prove he was lying. Then he finds a pendant in the pool, doesn't ask his daughter about it, but just assumes it's hers and puts it back in her box, thereby almost destroying evidence. Those three really was like watching dumb, dumber and dumbest. So I'm going to assume if there is a Season 2 of this series, it'll be a new story with new characters?

[Auntie Anxiety]

Craig went back into the school when he saw that there were still kids inside. So his face got burnt. I didn’t realize that getting burnt leaves you mute and intellectually disabled.

I watched it over the course of a few days. Figured there was going to be some sort of a twist surrounding the necklace because in the picture of drowned Chris, the necklace somehow became more noticeable in each subsequent episode.

At some point, maybe when Pete was in the hospital, there was mention of him being 47yo, thus it’s possible for him to have a twenty-something child.

Does everyone in England go from cradle to grave living in one neighborhood? Talk about failure to launch.

I wanted to like this show. I liked the way they fleshed out the story at the beginning of each episode, showing the backstory. Sadly, it became too stupid but I’m the idiot who keeps watching even crap shows from beginning to end. Guess I need to reread the memo about life being too short to waste it on hours of bad TV.

[atlantaloves]

Well I really enjoyed this little series, it had me truly going, but then I binge watched it and fast forwarded through some of it. the only thing that really irked me was Michael C. Hall's horrible accent. I agree with all of you on that! God, the man is so talented, but whoa, he blew that course in acting school for sure. I could do a better one in the third grade. Anyway, I recommend it in spite of a few flaws. 

[Straycat80]

I actually enjoyed this series. I watched it over several days and looked forward to each episode. I thought it was a good who done it. 

[DrSparkles]

I watched this last night/this am. Verrrrry convoluted.

i think maybe Sophie was hoping Bobby would get killed during their confrontation. And, I guess he did.

I guess MCH’s time on Dexter prepared him for all that skulking around! ?

[brewgirl]

I just finished binging this (thanks, pneumonia!) It was fine as a way to distract myself from being bored silly, and I thought the acting was pretty good all around. But the plot..jeez. Like others, I found some parts of it to be just too unbelievable. 

1. Sophie, Rachel, and the other lady all live next door to each other - literally 3 in a row - years after the school fire. And Eric - father of Craig, another of the arsonists - also lives on the same street. WTF? Did they all grow up in this homes and then take over from their parents? OK.
2. The logical solution to a single arson is to immediately install a gate and guard shack, hire a guard, etc... for an entire community? OK.
3. Sophie didn't know that she lost her pendant when she killed Chris? And then she didn't know that it was entered as evidence? Or maybe she just didn't care/think it would matter...even though she's a detective and should maybe be a lil' concerned. OK.
4. Drunk/stoned teenagers at a house party and a beautiful pool and patio is theirs for the taking, but they stay inside. OK.

I gotta admit that there were some twists and turns that I didn't see coming. And I'm probably in the minority, but I enjoy shows that show the same scene from different points of view.

Would I recommend the series to anyone? Yes, but with some caveats of suspending belief for 8 hours. 

Edited December 2, 2018 by brewgirl
because grammar matters