❗2 episodes of the show have been watched so far so the following is a preview and not a review, hence no real spoilers. But first I start with shows I’m no longer watching.
I have a confession. I’ve been sadly bored with our prestige TV options lately. The Bear, season 3, forget it. A future post will be dedicated to why I’ve quit this show for good after two phenomenally moving seasons and even a “Top 5 of 2023” mention. The new Rashida Jones show, Sunny, about an upbeat futuristic robot who befriends a very depressed American woman in Japan (Jones), I’ve consciously uncoupled from, after three very long, drawn-out 33-minute episodes. That’s ~1.5 hours of my life that I can’t get back, but hey, who’s counting?
My TV-watching vibe UNTIL…
So last night when I told my husband, my TV partner for life, that we’d need to sample Natalie Portman’s mysterious new show, Lady in the Lake[trailer], in a last-ditch attempt for TV streamer salvation, lest we spend the rest of our Summer watching Hitchcock films (Dial M for Murder was last week’s) on Kanopy, he quietly acquiesced. There’s only so much, “Where’s Hitchcock,” to the tune of “Where’s Waldo,” one can do in a film you watch after 9 pm. And my husband can and will spot a needle in a haystack.
English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 40 of his 53 surviving major films (his second film, The Mountain Eagle, is lost).
Are there any shows you’ve ditched as of late? Am I alone in my despair for decent TV or do I binge way too fast? (The latest season of Grantchester is a testament to how fast I can consume guilty pleasure shows but it’s also an indicator of how much of a quality programming drought we’re experiencing.)
Set in the late ‘60s in a racially divisive Baltimore, Lady in the Lake (not to be confused with Lady in the Water, the 2006 M. Night Shyamalan Bryce Dallas Howard fantasy, fairy tale flick), tells the story of two women on the cusp of monumental change - a wealthy, attractive middle-aged Jewish woman, Maddie Schwartz nee Morgenstern (Natalie Portman) living in a Jewish enclave of Baltimore called Pikesville, and a middle-class, bright, and savvy black woman who works at least two jobs, Cleo Sherwood (Moses Ingram) living in downtown Baltimore.
At first glance, these women have little in common. Maddie is white and upwardly mobile, and while Jewish people, living in any time, are unfortunately often targets of bigotry, the show makes it clear that the black people living in Baltimore, during these times are experiencing far worse economic and social conditions, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to external forces, both positive (political change as represented by the black female senator, Myrtle Summer) and negative (criminal activity as depicted by Kingpin Shell Gordon’s illegal enterprises). We see this represented in Cleo’s storyline. But as you start to know them, you also experience their similarities - they are mothers, daughters, and wives, whose roles haven’t served them in the ways they’ve needed.
From the outset, you know that Cleo is dead, she is the eponymous “lady in the lake” - a point that is teased in the show’s trailer as well. What remains is for the viewer to go back in time and piece together what happened using Maddy and Cleo’s lives and perspectives as the lens. The unexpected disappearance of a 12-year-old Jewish girl, Tessie Durst, in the first episode, sets off the chain of events that leads to Maddie’s decision to leave her overbearing husband, “Myopic Milton,” (Brett Gelman) in search of the missing girl. This decision is largely prompted by Maddie’s quest for self-worth and a return to her reporter days, which she abandoned in service to Milton for twenty years when she agreed to be his wife, for better and for worse, like the time he threw her lamb brisket out because she mistakingly placed the meat on a dairy plate.
❗If you have a hard time watching shows that depict crimes against children, this one contains it. It’s generally a hard no for me, but this go around, I was invested. Also, it’s pretty muted, in that we don’t see much and it’s more something we hear about. Perhaps knowing that the main mystery, that of Cleo’s murder, doesn’t involve a child, makes it less sordid, but it’s not easy to watch horrific crimes happening to innocent people. Period.
The Last Word
This show is phenomenal in all aspects. The pacing of it keeps you engaged. You want to see wonderful things happen for Cleo, because she’s such a complex and well-meaning character, trying to do right by her sons and care for them. She’s not angelic though either which makes her much more interesting. Maddie is intriguing and the thread of her past sexual dalliances and its connection to the missing girl makes us want to know everything right here, right now. The interlacing of the two main women’s stories at times can be confusing, as much of it is executed in a dream-like effect and one that calls to mind a fugue state dissociation, going back and forth between symbolic, formative moments and ones that are happening in the here and now, but it all works well. Har’el and Portman had a strong vision for this and recruited an incredibly effective cast. The effect is breathtaking. I’ve found my drama-thriller hit for the Summer. Move over 2023’s Hijack. [Read here]
In The Community - Some Other Good Reads about Lady In the Lake
This fearless, 60s-set thriller is astonishingly written and acted. It’s so sumptuous that its brilliance threatens to overwhelm you.
Meh Points
Maddy as ornament: I don’t particularly appreciate that the men keep fixating on Maddie’s sexiness in such a lewd way. I get that we’re supposed to absorb the rampant sexism of the time (men are bad) and that no one, including Maddy’s husband, sees her as more than an object, but there are so many more ways to show how undervalued women are and were in that time. And what’s more, this show does that in spades, so it’s unnecessary and reductive.
Mid-Atlantic Jewish accents: Admittedly, I don’t know that I would be able to distinguish between a mid-Atlantic Jewish accent and any other Northern East Coast accent, so I can’t speak to authenticity but the accents on this show are hard to listen to. The standout offenders are Portman and another younger female co-star, Mikey Madison (Better Things). I could swear the latter sounds like she’s Aussie half the time.
Let’s Discuss
So many new shows seem to be cranked out, I wonder if this one got lost in the mix…Then again, not everyone has Apple TV+.
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I’m also looking forward to some other shows on Apple TV+ that are launching soon, including an adaptation of the 1981 Terry Gilliam film Time Bandits, which looks to be a fun show for the family and features Lisa Kudrow.
Spotlight on Another Film/TV Reviewer (or 2 3):
Kevin’s got me rethinking if I want to revisit horror films. He makes some compelling arguments in his work. Check it out.
has posted some amazing analyses of Holocaust film depictions of late that I find so eloquent and thoughtful. Her latest shines a light on a film, by Jake Paltrow, that debuted a few years ago about Nazi SS Officer, Adolf Eichmann’s body, of all things.
From her latest post, “What does Justice mean?” she says:
I’ll admit, I never paid much attention to Adolf Eichmann’s fate after he was hanged for crimes against humanity. I was interested in Hannah Arendt’s perspective, and the enduring impact of Eichmann in both historical memory and popular culture. But his corpse? Why would it matter?
It turns out, his body mattered a lot, as Jake Paltrow’s film June Zero shows us. The film, based on true events, captures the quagmire that the death penalty created for the Israelis tasked with Eichmann’s care. The prosecutors, conscious of the fact that Eichmann’s kidnapping to stand trial in the country broke international legal conventions, wanted to ensure that his verdict and sentencing were executed to the letter of the law (no pun intended.)
Thx for the recommends. I'm now curious about June Zero and Lady of the Lake.
I just assumed the TV show was related to the classic whodunit by Raymond Chandler but it seems not.