The unconventional drama takes place over three summers in the 90s when a beautiful and popular teen goes missing, and a seemingly unrelated girl transforms from a sweet and awkward outlier to the most popular girl in town, eventually becoming the most despised person in America. Each episode is told from alternating POVs.
I watched this as it aired but I didn't want to recommend it until it finished because I felt like the ending could really make or break it. And now that it's over? I am going to recommend it. But there is one little thing that I really wish they'd changed. So first I'm going to talk about the show spoiler-free, and then there'll be a gap so that if you want to watch it without spoilers you can stop there. And then I'll talk about that one thing.
The story is told not only from alternating points of view, but also in a very non-linear fashion. We go back and forth through the three years. So the mystery is not in the broad strokes. We know basically what happened. We're never wondering what happened to Kate or if she'll ever be found. We know why everyone hates Jeanette. The actual mystery is far more about the characters; who's lying and why? Who knew what, when? Who failed to act?
It's very engaging and kept me wanting to know the answers, and for the most part those answers were satisfying. There is the one thing, but I'll get to that later. It's not enough to ruin the show or anything. The characters are great; the acting is great; it's a really well-written and well-made show. There are a couple of side plots that don't really go anywhere, but may be picked up a bit more in season two. They don't really need to be though, they serve quite well to show that there's other stuff going on.
Overall, I recommend it. It was good. I don't know whether season two will be any good but I suspect it won't. The story is over. And that brings me to the one thing, so if you don't want to be spoiled then stop here. If you've seen the show, won't watch it, or don't care, scroll down.
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Quick summary for those who didn't watch it: Kate wasn't abducted. She went to Martin's house and stayed there willingly. She only became a prisoner after several months when she decided she wanted to leave. Yes, I know, if she only thought she could leave then she actually was a prisoner the whole time; the show doesn't ignore that, I'm just summarising. During that time, Jeanette broke into the house and heard her moving around upstairs - but didn't see her. Kate looked out the window and saw someone looking back in and, recognising that person's bike as belonging to Jeanette, assumed that it was her. This turns out to be incorrect and Jeanette truly didn't see her that day; she only knew that someone was in Martin's house when she broke in and had no reason to assume it was Kate.
That's a very neat ending that wraps everything up in a way that's perfectly consistent with everything else we've seen thus far. Then we see everyone moving on with their lives and it's a nice, upbeat ending.
And then there's one more scene. We see Jeanette in Martin's house, clearly having broken in again, during her most popular girl in town phase. And she hears Kate calling for help from the basement.
So it turns out Kate was right the whole time, just not for the reason she thought.
When she saw Jeanette break in and thought Jeanette saw her? She didn't. Jeanette never saw her in the house. She did, later, hear her though, and did nothing. I'm not trying to say that she deserved what happened to her as a result of Kate's accusation or anything like that. I'm saying that it undermines the whole central mystery of the show. The question that we just spent ten weeks wondering about turns out to be irrelevant. The question of whether Kate or Jeanette was lying? Doesn't matter because it's all been focused on the wrong thing. Kate wasn't right, but she might as well have been.
And worse than that, the rest of the show has done a great job of establishing the character of Jeanette. Everything we'd seen fit with everything else and the false ending slotted perfectly into place. The real ending doesn't. Now you're asking us to believe that everything we've seen of Jeanette, even the times she was alone, was a façade. She didn't just tell a lie, she's been hiding her true self from everyone for years.
It's not a bad ending because it's a twist. It's not even a twist. It doesn't make us reconsider things we've seen before and understand them in a new context. It flat out contradicts them. A good twist makes sense of everything that's come before it; it lets you see how all the pieces fit together. This does the opposite. The pieces seemed to fit, but they don't any more.
It doesn't ruin the show. You can just ignore that scene. And my guess is that the original plan didn't include it. I think it's there for one reason alone: sequel hook. They got renewed for a second season and they needed some way to keep it going. It's like Candace showing up in the final episode of You (season 1). Her disappearance had been a necessary mystery in season one to keep the audience wondering, but by the end of the season it no longer mattered whether he'd killed her or not. So the only reason she shows up is to bait the audience for the second season - which turned out to be bad.
And I think the same thing will happen here. We had a complete story that should have had a satisfying ending, but that's not how TV works. If you've got a successful series, you can't just end it. You've got to run it into the ground. And they will. They always do. Even if the second season turns out well, it won't stop there. Every show ends bad.
But if you ignore that one final scene, the show was good. It's a real shame that it can't just be allowed to be finished, but that's not the world we live in. So ignore the final scene and pretend it never happened, and probably ignore season two as well (and however many more seasons after that). The story ended and it was good.
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