The Last Thing He Told Me: Complete Miniseries
April 21, 2023 8:12 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Hannah (Jennifer Garner) must forge a relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) in order to find the truth about why her husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has mysteriously disappeared.

Also starring Aisha Tyler, Augusto Aguilera, John Harlan Kim, Todd Stashwick.

Based on the novel by Laura Dave. Executive produced by Reese Witherspooon, Jennifer Garner, Laura Dave, and others. Several episodes directed by Olivia Newman (Where the Crawdads Sing).

Rated a 49 on Metacritic.

Currently available on Apple TV Plus.
posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This is a passable entry in the Middle-Aged Lady Ends Up in a Mystery Because of Family/Friend/Neighbor genre. It's very true to the book, my spouse says.

If I tell you it's in that genre, it's a limited series produced by Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine productions (which specializes in nicely mounted very literal adaptations of female-led potboilers), it stars Jennifer Garner, it's largely directed by the Where the Crawdads Sing director, and it's on Apple TV Plus, you pretty much know exactly what it's going to be. This is a middling entry in that genre. My spouse, who loved the book is having a nice time. I am not mad about it, but I'm not impressed, really.

My only other comment is that the teenager is a real piece of shit.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:16 AM on April 21, 2023 [5 favorites]


Thanks for posting this one! I'd randomly finished a rewatch of Jennifer Garner in Alias last week and was excited to watch this as soon as it came out last week, and I think it's reasonably fine so far.

I will say that I haven't read the book and know nothing about the story beyond what we've seen three episodes in, but as soon as the Marshal showed up, I was like, oh, he's in federal witness protection along with his daughter. At this point I am incredibly frustrated none of the characters has even verbalized the possibility. If it was just Hannah, fine, but also not even her lawyer ex or her journalist friends.

I suppose it's possible it could turn out to be something else, or maybe an off the books version (but with the help of the marshal), but everything's pointing to it being about something that happened in Austin, and it's not believable that nobody has connected the dots to at least formulate it as a theory.
posted by Pryde at 8:53 AM on April 21, 2023


"Fine" is exactly what I'd say, with the caveat that this isn't my genre. But then, Comrade Doll watched Pumpkinhead last week, so she is owed.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:11 PM on April 21, 2023


In the third episode, on the airplane, she sees three people reading the same news story about her husband. They are reading on their iPads and all holding them horizontally. That's so weird, reading an iPad horizontally. Makes me think Apple has deemed that the approved way to use an iPad. Maybe they are going to disable using them vertically. If they do, I'll go along with it and pretend it's better, but here, right now, I want to say it's weird.
posted by riruro at 5:35 PM on May 10, 2023


« Older Mrs. Davis: Beautiful Things T...   |  Movie: The Last Starfighter... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments