Secrets and Lies has hooked me, now it needs to reel me in

Before I watched, I read. After I read I wasn't sure I was going to watch this new drama on ABC. Dead child, neighbor looks like the prime suspect. Some of the reviews were not so flattering. I wonder what people who review television series really expect from the show they are watching? Sometimes I think they set their standards way too high. As a mother of four, who babysits other children during the day, I am looking for an escape from my day. A story that may sound a little familiar, but surprises me. I like to guess a little, and want it just confusing enough that I have to pay attention. I like good characters, actors who can act, believable players. Secrets and Lies showed me all of that in the premiere.

So now it's time to reel me in. I will have to watch more for that, and I intend to. Juliette Lewis is a detective with a stone cold face. She doesn't show much feeling, and her eyes are a little crazy. I do believe most of the things I have seen with Ms. Lewis in them, she has had crazy eyes. Ryan Phillippe is the man taking all of the questions. He found the little boy's body dead in the woods, and now he is being questioned about the crime. I remember Phillippe from back in my soap opera days. He did a little stint on One Life to Live. He has done a lot of things since then, but none of them I could name off the top of my head, so I am sticking with OLTL. He looks a lot more grown up since his days on the soap, and more fit. That's a good thing for this stay at home mom. 

Then there is Kaydee Strickland. If you can't place her, that's because you didn't watch enough Private Practice when it was on. Strickland was awesome in that show, and I am loving her in this one. Characters are similar. Not a bad thing, it's what I am used to. She plays Phillippe's wife, they have 2 daughters together. Both of the daughters are good in the show so far too. Sometimes the younger actors can get on your nerves if they don't seem solid. These two are good, they remind me of the daughters in Nashville. Seems like the right age difference between them. One is still snuggling up to her Daddy while the other one is wearing belly t-shirts, always on her cell phone, and doing things behind her parent's back.

So this starts the story. If you are going to make a minute to watch, I won't ruin it for you. I will tell you I think it was worth watching. I believed the story, although I do think the police and the neighbors are going a little hard on Phillippe's character Ben. I am wondering if there is some more stuff about him that we don't know, because as soon as the police start questioning him it's like the whole neighborhood turns against him. Now I will tell you (spoiler alert) he has slept with the dead boy's mom, and that is why he is fighting with his current wife. I don't think this fact will blow the show for you. I figured it out in the first few minutes, by the way he was looking at the mom that they had some kind of connection. 

There is a little randomness that I think you should pay attention to when watching. Now I am not sure if it means anything, but Melissa Gilbert is a neighbor (oh yes, Little House on the Prairie's Melissa Gilbert). Gilbert has a son with autism that we see in the first episode. The boy has an iPad at the dead boy's funeral and he pushes a button that makes it say Tyler during the service. Ben turns around and says to Gilbert's character... "is Tyler home?"She says no and tells Ben that her son is just confused. I think this exchange is interesting and wonder if this other son will pay into this crime or whether this exchange was random. Another random thing is Ben's best friend Dave. He lives in the guest house. He is a wild guy who is trying to get his life together. I think his placement is sort of weird, and I wonder if there is a reason for it. He is Ben's alibi for the night of the crime, and as we soon find out both men were too drunk to remember anything. and they didn't spend all night together.

It's an interesting story, mirroring a book I would read, so I am planning on sticking with it. I think these neighbors need to quit looking at this man like he is a zombie and the show better give me some more background on why everyone is so quick to turn. If this is how things really happen when a person is accused of killing a child, I am very surprised. It doesn't seem realistic to me. But you have heard it before "you think you know someone..." Right now they have me believing Ben is not guilty, but  in the end he may be. That is what a great show can accomplish. I hope this is a great show.

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