Tis Me Michelle

Netflix heavily promoted this show on its front page for the first couple of weeks. I didn’t quite know what the show was about, aside from being a thriller. But I am a Tessa Thompson fan—I think she’s so slept on—and I needed something to watch.

I watched the first episode and was not convinced. I didn’t think I’d keep going. It felt a bit too on the nose. I didn’t want to invest the time if it was going to be as predictable as the first episode led us to believe. I started seeing reviews and talked with my cousin, who is a TV/movie enthusiast, that there was actually an unexpected ending. And so, I gave it another shot and finished out the series.

This was yet another book adaptation, which, if we’re being honest, I don’t mind every now and then. But boy, would I love some original scripts. Just a side tangent. Novels and TV/movie writing are very different. Sometimes the crossover works beautifully. I am anti-J.K.Rowling now, but since I did read the first 2 Harry Potter books and probably watched all the movies, I can say the first 2 books-to-movie adaptations were fantastic. Since I didn’t read the Heated Rivalry book series, I can’t comment, but I loved the show. I found that material so needed in the world, though. So it can work. This is just a plea, more so to the corporations: I want original content!

Back to this adaptation. I did not read the book. I don’t know how closely it followed the original material. It was one of those thrillers that gives you clues to make you think you are piecing it all together, but it is really throwing you off the scent. So the clues gathered are still applicable, but it’s surface-level. Unless you’re a real sleuth, you probably caught on. I totally didn’t.

The show follows Anna (Thompson), who comes back to town after leaving for a year following the loss of her child. She comes back to try to step back into her old job as a TV anchor. It just so happens she comes back when someone she knew from the small town is murdered. And who’s on the case? Her estranged husband, Jack (Jon Bernthal). He’s the lead detective with newbie Priya as his partner. Things are tense between the couple, but they are both consumed by the case for their own reasons.

Anna and Jack’s chemistry and relationship were engaging. I was actually rooting for them. Anna was processing her immediate trauma, but we learn of her past traumas, so there is a lot she repressed and pushed down. The past comes into play in the present. It’s all interconnected. On top of getting back at Jack, she was on a mission to get her anchor position back over her replacement, Lexy. I won’t lie, I did find a lot of Anna’s behaviors intense and ruthless. I suppose she was just playing the game.

As much as I found Anna’s character layered and intense, I found Jack pretty basic, making every predictable move. Priya could have been such a better-developed character, and maybe she was in the book. I just felt like she was a pivotal part of the story, but a bit of an afterthought.

I don’t want to give things away. Overall, it felt like everything was going exactly how I thought, until the very end. If the extra twist wasn’t there, I would have left totally unsatisfied. I completely overlooked a piece of the story that was there, and I just didn’t even consider it because there was so much going on, on purpose. And for that reason, I felt the series was worth watching.

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️