Secrets and Lies Season 2 Review

Considering how much critical acclaim and awards have been directed at ABC's anthology series American Crime,  it perhaps isn't that much of a shock that they would try to have lightning strike twice with a similar idea. Based on 2015's modestly successful Juliette Lewis-Ryan Phillippe series Secrets and Lies, featuring Lewis as Andrea Cornell, a homicide detective investigating a high-profile murder, the series rebooted in LA earlier this season with an entirely different set of actors and investigation. The problem is, its still having a lot of problem finding a direction.

This season's storyline deals with the death of Kate Warner (Jordana Brewster) when she falls off the roof of a her family's building during a celebration. As the investigation into Kate's death proceeds, the story focuses around the husband Eric (Michael Ealy, doing some of his best work since his stint on The Good Wife) who, in addition to dealing with the loss of his wife, must also deal with the death of her unborn child.

The series has mainly dealt with the stories around Eric and his family, as well as the people who work in the same business that Eric was just about to take over. As the series has proceeded, we find that Kate has been keeping many secrets from her husband - she had a child when she was a teenager, and there is a possibility that he was working at their company under an assumed name. One of their more recent hires, Liam, has disappeared from the company, and was using his identity to set up false credit accounts. And the deeper Eric gets into trying to find out what happened, the more it seems that he never knew his wife as well as he thought he did.

Secrets and Lies has everything that should be the making of a great series. In addition to actors like Ealy and Brewster, it also features such fine character actors as Kenny Johnson and Terry O'Quinn. And it uses some interesting framing devices that aren't seen much on broadcast TV. The biggest problem, though, is its lead actress. Juliette Lewis is a much better actress than critics give her credit for being, but Cornell is cast into one of the most iron-jawed detectives that I have come to associate with the type like David Tennant. The difference being there has been more character development in Tennant's roles, and a willingness for change. One would expect, given how badly her character botched the investigation that she led in Season 1, that she would have learned a certain level of humility, but so far that has not been shown to be the case. It doesn't help matters that a fair amount of the more interesting storylines are passed over for typical cliches so far.

This has the makings of a good series, and it could be a player on ABC for years to come. But given the most recent level of material that they've been producing over the last couple of seasons, one wonders if they should make the effort for a series where fine acting is often overshadowed by stilted writing.

My score:2.75 stars.