Liar

The two main performances, on which the entire series rests, are both astonishing: Joanne Froggatt, so solid in Downton Abbey, is captivatingly fragile, swaying from likable to unstable in a matter of moments. And we’re so used to seeing Ioan Gruffudd as the romantic hero, it’s fascinating to see him offer such a multi-faceted performance, effortlessly shifting between the light and the dark.

Liar is a tangle of trigger alerts, filled with “Fatal Attraction”-ish moments of doubt and debate in a claustrophobically small community of subplots. I skipped ahead to make sure the ending is worth the effort, and for the most part, it is.

It proceeds to full thriller mode, and an engaging kind it is in its over-familiar way, no small thanks to saving infusions of soap opera.

The twists escalate into a feverish peak of outrageous melodrama, making Fatal Attraction look mellow. Even so, it's enjoyable to the end, setting up a second season I'm even more eager to see. [2-15 Oct 2017, p.15]

About four hours into this six-episode series I just wanted to know how it all turned out so that I could be free of these mostly-unpleasant people. That I stayed to the end is a measure of the Williams brothers’ skill as plot-creators, I guess, but it’s also not a huge recommendation.

While the shift in focus from rape to murder is an oddly welcome relief, this time around, it feels a little more paint by numbers.

Neither consistently responsible nor transportingly engrossing, Liar ends up undermining its admirable aims with a series of preposterous twists and characterizations. Flailing crusades like Laura's are seldom so intensely felt--or so groan-inducingly disappointing.