TJessica De Gouw and Laura Carmichael
Photo: Sundance NowThe thriller genre has never been short on women who are having babies, had babies, lost babies or want babies. They might be out for revenge. They might be the targets of revenge. They might be innocently carrying the spawn of Satan. But you usually know which is which and who is who.
The principal twists in “The Secrets She Keeps”—a six-part melodrama created by mystery writer Michael Robotham and based on his novel—are the plural “secrets” and the singular “she”: Who are we talking about? And what does she know?
The Secrets She Keeps,
Begins Thursday, Sundance Now
Despite this Australian series being a spoiler minefield fertilized with red herrings, it seems safe to say there are two co-equal characters. And both are bulging at the waistline: Meghan (Jessica De Gouw) seems to be a happily married mother of two with an “oops baby” on the way; she’s a “mommy blogger” with quite a number of devoted followers, one of whom is sending her Bitmojis that look like the horror-movie staple Chucky and include such pleasantries as “die bitch!” Agatha (Laura Carmichael) is a shelf-stocker at the local market who is also carrying, and whose boyfriend Hayden (Michael Sheasby) is an active-duty sailor who’s been at sea for seven months (making the timing just right). Agatha is also, we infer, closing in on the anniversary of another baby’s death.
Agatha, never without an agenda, slouches through down-market Sydney sporting Doc Martens knockoffs, lank hair and the ubiquitous khaki parka; Meghan seems to go through life swathed in cashmere. But even though the class distinctions are acute, and a source of tension for the viewer, it’s not quite clear at first how they’re going to play into the story. Agatha is certainly a stalker, but she’s got other secrets, too, as does Meg, whose unplanned pregnancy has cooled things between herself and her sports-broadcaster husband, Jack (Michael Dorman). “We need to find our intimacy again,” she tells her sister, Grace (Cariba Heine), who is the picture of sibling loyalty just for keeping a straight face at a line like that.
“The Secrets She Keeps,” which swings back and forth between its heroines’ storylines as if a hand is rocking the narrative cradle, isn’t immune to humor: When Agatha is initially rebuffed by Hayden, she visits his family to enlist their support. Mom and dad (Elizabeth Alexander, Brandon Burke) are sympathetic, but Hayden’s deaf brother, Regan (Ryan Carter), starts signing furiously from the start of the meeting (“We don’t even know she’s his girlfriend!”) while staring daggers at Agatha. Regan, we suspect, is no dope.
As Meghan, the first-rate Ms. De Gouw (“The Crown”) is overshadowed by Ms. Carmichael, who not only has the meatier and more complicated performance to deliver but is far better known, at least in the U.S.: For six seasons, she played Lady Edith (aka “poor Edith”), the classic middle child of the Crawleys of “Downton Abbey,” and reprised her role in last year’s feature film. Without revealing too much, her performance as Agatha simultaneously elicits viewers’ sympathy while also raising their suspicions. But such is to be expected in a series so firmly a part of the cloak-and-dagger-and-pregnancy-test tradition.
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