The Last Thing He Told Me Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 Review: Protect Her/The Day After

Reese Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine are back at it with Apple TV+ with their latest book-t0-screen adaptation, Laura Dave’s, The Last Thing He Told Me. The mystery/thriller (which I have read!), was an instant bestseller when it was published in 2021, making it a shoo-in for a screen adaptation.

The result? Jennifer Garner stars as Hannah in the seven-part limited series, alongside Game of Thrones‘ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Mare of Easttown‘s Angourie Rice. The story focuses on Owen’s (Coster-Waldau) disappearance, but it’s the women of The Last Thing He Told Me that have control.

Because this is a limited series, the action begins in The Last Thing He Told Me Episode 1, “Protect Her.” Like many thrillers, we open on a scene of increased urgency, with Hannah (Garner) running around a large hotel searching for her stepdaughter.

Unfortunately, this is the most thrill we get from the series’ double episode premiere. They also cut the cliffhanger a little too short. Before we flash back to the real beginning, we see Hannah looking in shock at somebody. But who? She doesn’t say anything, which leaves this interaction in a weird space.

Are we supposed to be afraid for her? Is she looking at Bailey, the “missing” stepdaughter? If this scene progresses just a smidge further, it would be a tense cliffhanger. Instead, it positions The Last Thing He Told Me as a tonally confusing mystery, rather than a thrilling one.

Therein lies the obstacle for these “thriller” adaptations. It’s hard to get the “page-turner” quality from the pages onto the screen. Unless there’s a high-stakes crime, like the murders of Sharp Objects or Big Little Lies, the urgency isn’t palpable. 

The limited series format, while it kicks into the action quickly, makes it difficult to care about a missing husband/broken relationship that we barely know anything about. It also doesn’t help that they’re only celebrating their 14-month anniversary in the series premiere.

As a fan of the novel, and somebody who zipped through it quickly because I needed answers, I’m not getting the same sense of immediacy from the first two episodes of The Last Thing He Told Me. 

Perhaps if Apple TV+ had changed up its model and released all episodes at once, it would have made a nice binge. But so far, there’s not enough of a hook at the end of an episode to catch me wanting more.

The end of The Last Thing He Told Me Episode 2, “The Day After” tries to be shocking, with interesting camera direction. A flip of a bag reveals the women on the plane, but it ultimately falls flat because it was the obvious next step.

To its credit, while the story doesn’t quite have that hook yet, the performances are keeping it afloat. Jennifer Garner is no stranger to dramatic roles, and she’s leaning into it with broody glances and a lower pitch to her voice than normal.

But her role as the internet’s — and TikTok’s — favorite mom has positioned her personal brand closer to the family-friendly side of Hollywood.

So, it’s hard to believe that she would have a strained relationship with any children in her life. It’s a testament to Angourie Rice, who stars as Owen’s daughter Bailey, that she can play the reluctant step-daughter.

Their dynamic will continue to progress now that they’re forced to interact primarily with each other. Rice has proven herself as a young talent to watch, so this substantial role is exciting to see her step into.

It’s also exciting to see the locations used well in The Last Thing He Told Me. Part of what made the novel so vivid is its setting. Between the San Fransisco Bay Area and Austin, both cities have some representation in the series. It’s a benefit that they’re actually shooting on location.

The double-episode premiere has left a few questions in the balance that should keep audiences coming back to The Last Thing He Told Me. It just might not be appointment viewing, like some other mysteries.

Stray Thoughts

• I didn’t know houseboats could be so glamorous, it’s a cute little setup they have going.
• Hannah Hall could make a killing on wood-turner TikTok. That process is so interesting.
• As someone that grew up near Austin, and went to school there, I’m really excited to see it on screen.
• I’m kind of confused why Bailey is pretty close to Hannah’s friend Jules (the amazing Aisha Tyler) but doesn’t like Hannah.
• Obsessed with the small details in the show – Hannah’s phone in the first shot has the date set to Friday, April 14, which is the day the show premieres! 
• I don’t know how Bailey would have a childhood memory of a random football game. That’s killer recall for a teenager.

 

What did you think of this episode of The Last Thing He Told Me? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Last Thing He Told Me airs Fridays on Apple TV+.

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