The Question Mark

I dusted off the blog because I can’t stop thinking about TELL ME YOUR SECRETS, the latest web series binge offered on Amazon Prime Video. There have been several of these six episode, ten episode series on HBO (THE UNDOING), SHOWTIME (YOUR HONOR), APPLE TV (THE SERVANT), captivating storytelling to help us through these times, but it is this one, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS that I can’t stop thinking about.

Kit Parker (Xavier Samuel) is introduced to viewers as the serial killer. His girlfriend, Karen Miller (now known as Emma Hall) has just been released into the Witness Protection Program, finding home in Louisiana. You may pause here and chew on some popcorn. Is this going to be another story about a crime couple, maybe a a Bonnie & Clyde, a reworking of Oliver Stone’s, NATURAL BORN KILLERS?

The Question Mark.

The story is slow moving, careful with its character construction. No, it is not just a thriller, a dog eared mystery paperback taken to the screen, an action packed whodunnit.

It is suspenseful.

It is a morality play. How far would you go?

I started thinking through the great plot devices, the symbolism that makes a classic in literature. Is it like Greek mythology and the story of Odysseus? Mary Barlow (Amy Brenneman) is blinded with maternal grief. Who is in disguise? Karen/Emma (Lily Rabe) blazing with shame, or remorse, we are unsure, her tattoo on her arm, like a scarlet letter. John Tyler (Hamish Linklater), a reformed rapist is given a task, a routine, a reason to fill his days, but will he be able to resist the Sirens? Peter Guillory (Enrique Murciano), a mystery, a voyeur of sorts, the Byronic hero. Tom Johnston ( Marque Richardson), the innocent small town cop, the ironic hero.

Theresa Barlow (Stella Baker), the missing daughter, a peripheral character but there, right there all along, looking for love and did she meet a monster? Rose Lord (Chiara Aurelia), the angsty teen, looking for love, believing in false idols or maybe learns a line from Shakespeare, “Or those that be not, would they might seem none”, and is heartbroken. Is this the heart of the story- slow like a winding river, and dark like a Louisiana swamp.

Is it a story of girlhood nuances, a story of mothers, of daughters?

The Question Mark.

It is not a question mark that you should TELL ME YOU SECRETS and stream it now!