PILOT REVIEW: Secrets and Lies

SECRETS AND LIES

Starring: Ryan Phillippe, KaDee Strickland, Dan Fogler, Natalie Martinez, Indiana Evans, Belle Shouse, and Juliette Lewis

Based on the Australian TV series of the same name
Developed by Barbie Kligman
Teleplay by Barbie Kligman, Directed by Charles McDougall

THE PREMISE: Secrets and Lies is a new drama centered on the death of a young boy. Neighbor and friend Ben Crawford (Ryan Phillippe) is the one who found him and he quickly becomes a suspect thanks to suspicious detective Andrea Cornell (Juliette Lewis). Rounding out the main cast is Ben's wife, Christy (KaDee Strickland) and daughters Natalie and Abby (Indiana Evans and Belle Shouse) as well as his friend, Dave (Dan Fogler) and the boy's mother, Jess Mullen (Natalie Martinez).

THE GOOD: Despite my complaints about the pilot, which I will detail below, it did leave me wanting to know what happened to the murdered boy and how this whole story could resolve. So if their goal was to make me curious, then they succeeded. Did it make me want to keep watching? No. Of the actors, I like Ryan Phillippe and he wasn't bad in this. I've liked Natalie Martinez in Detroit 1-8-7 and Under the Dome, but she wasn't given anything to do in the pilot here.

THE BAD: Oh, it was so deathly boring. We had the discovery of the body in the first three seconds of the show and then next to nothing happened for the rest of the hour (I didn't watch the second episode that immediately followed). I felt like the few plot points that happened were in the trailer and the rest was a lot of walking around and talking in circles. I seriously can't remember a more boring first hour to a TV show. I have never liked Juliette Lewis in anything and this is no exception. She spent most of the episode giving awkward death stares to Ryan Phillippe's character. There were tons of cliches for a show like this: the rain, the tough detective versus the dumbfounded suspect, the broken marriage. A "twist" at the end of the episode was very predictable. And where exactly does this show have to go? They can't spend an entire series solving the murder.

BOTTOM LINE: I guess I'll just keep tabs on this show to find out what happened to the poor boy in the story. Because there's no way I'm going to watch another hour of this, much less an entire season. It would put me into a deep sleep.