All Her Fault

Marissa and Jenny carry much of the planning for their children while their husbands leave them to manage school and home duties. Peter keeps Lia and Brian dependent by hiding Brian’s surgery option and letting Lia blame herself for his injury. Marissa and Jenny lead the search and join forces to protect their sons. The finale lets Marissa kill Peter, then lets Lia protect her from the police.

The series repeatedly shows mothers carrying the planning and home work while their husbands neglect or control family members. Jenny ends her marriage after Richie leaves most parenting to her, while Marissa discovers Peter lied to control his siblings. The detectives’ story asks whether following the law is always right when a child could lose his home. Alcaras lets Marissa escape punishment after learning how Peter harmed his family.

Andrea Mara’s novel gives Brian no disability, but the series makes his disability part of the Irvine family plot. The novel’s female lead detective becomes male Detective Alcaras on screen. Those changes alter two established characters’ identities in the adaptation.

A TIME review criticized the show’s repeated mother-blame lines as pandering and said its gender message was too forceful. Reddit viewers called the show ideology-heavy and objected that most white male characters seemed selfish or bad. The supplied X pass recorded one question about whether Jay Ellis was cast for diversity, with no visible pickup.

Gallagher’s stored score is 68, and her profile notes her comments about blame placed on mothers and her planned disability storyline. Mara’s stored score is 75, with feminist parenting and anti-sexism work in her profile. Eclair-Powell’s stored score is 66, and her earlier series Torch was described as a show about modern womanhood and feminism.