Johnny Moronic Television - Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies

New murder mystery series starting tonight, a rare foray into that genre for Australian TV and one I would like to see more of, as I've said many a time on this site. Secrets & Lies looks OK, Martin Henderson is well cast, could be a bit of a sleeper, who knows? Anyway, already being remade in the US starring Ryan Phillippe and just announced Indiana Evans in what looks like the Philippa Coulthard role. Here's hoping for some similar bikini action from her.

Also, the second current TV show (Fat Tony & Co.) with an ampersand in the title. Well, could be worse, could be a hashtag...

Well, now that the series is over, what can I say? Secrets & Lies has a fantastic, gut-wrenching ending, but it takes a helluva lot of mediocrity and melodrama to get there. Ben Gundelach (Martin Henderson) is the marathon man, always running, desperately trying to save himself by accusing everyone else, which make him not only a neighbourhood favourite, but much loved at home... To be honest, Ben was never going to be the killer, mainly because it would have taken one massive twist to make his actions convincing otherwise. There probably needed to be more clues given along the way as it seemed to be lengthy periods between decent clues. The ever-present detective (Anthony Hayes), Javert-like in Ben's life, humouring Ben's wild accusations, wants to desperately arrest Ben, but can't find the evidence to do so. The ending is such a gut-punch, that I highly doubt that the American series would go with it (I'm happy to be wrong). Looking through the series again, that character's behaviour is something to behold, far more troubling than before you know what they did. It's shame the series spends to much time on the red herrings, I'm sure it could've been a bigger hit, well maybe a different network would've help.

And I defintely didn't pick the killer...

Tags: Adrienne Pickering, Diana Glenn, Philippa Coulthard, Mirrah Foulkes

Adrienne Pickering