Critic Reviews

Those tired of murder mysteries will find little here to pique their interest, but for fans of the genre (or Phillippe), there’s plenty to like, making for engaging, if not appointment, viewing.

Secrets & Lies pits Ryan Phillippe and Juliette Lewis in an intense if sometimes overboiled battle of wills over the murder of a 4-year-old boy.

Secrets and Lies is a solid, twisty version of the increasingly popular murdered-kid-sets-series-in-motion formula.

With a strong cast (Lewis and Phillippe in particular), the buy-in here is easy. Whether it can reach the creative heights of, say, Broadchurch, which has a similar story, remains to be seen.

Lewis and Philippe have enough chemistry that his underplaying and her overplaying are a match made in whodunnit heaven. Secrets and Lies likely won't be earning any Emmy nominations, but it promises to be a juicy foray into melodramatic escapism, and sometimes, that's just what the TV-viewing evening calls for.

It feels observed, rather than lived in. Enacted, rather than unfolding.

Caught in this Kafkaesque nightmare, Phillippe struggles to retain some sense of reality, and he almost achieves it. But the script and his fellow actors derail him at every turn, and what begins as disquieting quickly morphs into comical.

Will you care about this group of upscale suburban neighbors? Probably not. Will you be pulled into their web of interconnected secrets and lies? Possibly. Will you be treated to various shots of brooding Ryan Phillippe jogging, sweating and showing off his aforementioned abs? Definitely. Is that enough to keep you watching? Maybe.

It’s a crisply paced suburban potboiler with a murdered child at the center, and if you’ve been sucked in by other shows in this genre you may find yourself sucked in by this one. But also feel free to be vaguely annoyed that those clever TV makers are seducing you with formulas rather than freshness.

Phillippe and Lewis as the two principal characters are not potent enough to get the juices flowing in an unfolding crime tale that’s neither terrible nor scintillating.