All Her Fault Review
Director: Kate Dennis and Minkie Spiro
Date Created: 2025-11-07 16:47
2.5
All Her Fault Review: Inspired by Andrea Mara’s novel of the same name, Kate Dennis and Minkie Spiro direct this eight-episode mystery thriller. The show features Sarah Snook as Marissa Irvine, Jake Lacy as Peter Irvine, Dakota Fanning as Jenny Kaminski, and Michael Peña as Detective Alcaras, among others. Now streaming on JioHotstar in India (originally on Peacock), the show starts with an every-parent worst-nightmare scenario — a child gone missing — but develops into a complex story about guilt, parenthood and moral dilemmas.
All Her Fault Review
The story of Marissa Irvine, a mother with a six-year-old son, Milo, who disappears following what appears to be an innocent playdate arranged via text. When Marissa goes to pick him up, she finds the house is not what she expected, and the woman with whom she was texting Jenny didn’t know about any playdate. The chaos soon devolves into panic, and from there the series plunges into a morass of lies, emotional disorder and unanswered questions.
I was drawn in by this setup. The first episode was tense and emotional, Sarah Snook gave a convincing performance as a mother near breaking point with rage, guilt and fear. But as the show went on, I began to feel like this story was losing its edge. The suspense that began with such flair gradually became too reliant on too many coincidences and turns of plot that felt more forced than enriching.
The Peacock series All Her Fault, clearly wanted to be more than a missing-child story. How women, particularly mothers, are unfairly scapegoated when tragedy occurs is what it attempts to show. And that message landed with me. I was grateful for the series’ exploration of a part of society’s tendency to always put mothers on trial, while fathers get way more freedom.
But as much as I loved that layer, the storytelling occasionally seemed leaden. There are points when the mystery fades to the background, and the melodrama surrounding marriage, guilt, and blame gets into a rut. There were too many instances of the series spending time stretching emotional monologues when it should have been ramping up the sense of suspense.
The detectives, headed by Michael Peña’s Detective Alcaras, provide some intrigue, but even the investigation scenes play a little too on-the-nose. You feel the “big reveal” coming long before it does, and that detracts from any potential rush mystery thrillers are supposed to give you.
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One of the things I did not like about All Her Fault on JioHotstar was that the characters, of which there are some good ones, felt really underutilised, even though they have a super cast at their disposal. Sarah Snook is fabulous; she absolutely makes you feel every pound of Marissa’s fear, her frustration, but the supporting characters are never quite fully fleshed out.
Jake Lacy’s Peter begins as a worried husband, but quickly evolves into one of the show’s least sympathetic characters. His controlling nature and emotional manipulation were well-played, but the writing otherwise makes no bones about it: he’s “the bad guy.” Jenny (played by Dakota Fanning), though, feels like she could’ve been the heart of the story — a woman who brings calm and friendship to Marissa’s chaos — but there isn’t enough time for her character to be fleshed out.
I enjoyed the understated chemistry Jenny and Marissa share as fellow mothers who know each pain, but their connection never has the depth it cries out for. By the time the last episode rolled around, I didn’t think the emotional payoff matched the weight with which it had been set up.
One thing I did like about the All Her Fault series is that it doesn’t paint morality in black and white. It asks how much one can get away with in the name of protecting someone they love. The final episodes exposed dark truths about Marissa’s husband, Peter, and how his behaviours were the centre of things going so terribly wrong. I won’t spoil the twists, but I will just say that the ending left me torn.
On the one hand, I saw why Marissa did what she did; on the other, the manner in which we learned that seemed quite neat and tidy. There are crucial openings that turn on chance, just-missing security cameras, evidence literally dropped in the woods and showdowns whose timing is downright perfect. These are what made the story feel so much less organic and more as if it’s reaching to surprise the audience.
Visually, the show is well-made. The washed-out hues, cold light and haunting score go a long way toward sustaining the suspense. Still, I couldn’t shake the sense that something was missing — that a stronger screenplay and more pointed narrative could’ve made all the difference in the world.
The series has a strong emotional core, the tale of a mother fighting to keep her child safe, but how we get there is uneven. The tone veers too quickly from crime thriller to family drama to moral debate.
Peacock All Her Fault Review: Summing Up
In the end, the All Her Fault series was a mixed bag. It began with a lot of promise, propelled by an arresting premise, strong performances and engaged ideas before it tripped over its own ambition. The mystery is more melodramatic than it is logical, and the emotional beats don’t always pay off. If I had to sum up what it was like to watch this, I’d say that the series is a mystery with a strong start and an uneven finish — like being riveted by a novel only some of whose final pages you find at the end.
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I thoroughly enjoyed it. Much better than 90 percent of Netflix’s offerings. I thought the director managed most of the intricate scenes superbly (like the Boston marathon scenes shown from different perspectives) and I loved the suspense, the plot twists, the family relationships, and the moral dilemmas. All of the lead actors and supporting cast were terrific too, especially little Milo and his mom, Marissa. My only feeling of manipulation was that key elements were only revealed in the last two episodes making it almost impossible to guess the motive for the kidnapping. I expect to recommend it to my family and friends.