Tell Me Your Secrets
Creepy, twisty mystery thriller is bloody and disturbing.
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Tell Me Your Secrets
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Tell Me Your Secrets is a creepy mystery thriller that focuses on a mom named Mary who's obsessed with finding her long-missing daughter who was last seen near a serial killer. She listens to the violent, disturbing descriptions of his murders, and we see the aftermath of the killer slashing his throat in prison. The killer's girlfriend, Emma, now in witness protection, slams a teen bully's face into a mirror, finds the dead body of the teen she was trying to protect, and generally seems to attract violence (some of which may be imagined). Mary makes a number of questionable decisions, including hiring a paroled rapist to find the killer's girlfriend. Originally shot for TNT, the series doesn't show sex but suggests it, and curse words ("s--t," "f--k," "bitch") are sprinkled lightly in dialogue.
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What's the Story?
Everyone has secrets in TELL ME YOUR SECRETS: Emma/Karen (Lily Rabe), the girlfriend of a convicted serial killer who enters witness protection in the Louisiana bayou and tries to recover her memories; Mary (Amy Brenneman), the mother of one of the killer's presumed victims; John (Hamish Linklater), a paroled rapist who Mary hires to find Emma; and Pete (Enrique Murciano), the therapist/guardian responsible for Emma and who may not be who he seems -- and that's just scratching the surface. How will these and many other trouble-prone characters collide? What actually happened to Mary's daughter? And when Emma's memory returns, what will it reveal?
Is It Any Good?
This thriller lets you know it will be a dark slog from the start, when bloodied prisoner Karen meets desperate mom Mary, who only wants to know if Karen's boyfriend killed her daughter. Sure you want to hear their secrets? Many mildly interested viewers will bail on Tell Me Your Secrets in the first 30 minutes, after that prison scene, the bloody suicide of the serial killer boyfriend, and our introduction to Karen's (now Emma, in witness protection) Louisiana bayou milieu where you can almost smell the sweat and musty dampness.
Parents who resist the urge to shower off are likely to find that Amy Brenneman's Mary character starts off fascinating and possibly relatable: If your college-age daughter was last seen near a serial killer seven years ago, how far would you go to find her? The little details that reveal Hamish Linklater's character, paroled rapist John, are both creepy and heartbreaking (he has hundreds of motivational Post-It notes precisely placed around his tiny studio apartment). The show tends to lag and gets particularly confusing when it turns to the teen stories about a group home and a wealthy, troubled girl.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Tell Me Your Secrets and its generally dark take on humanity. Do you think it's accurate, or deeply exaggerated? How do you think the world would react in the wake of a similar event?
How accurately does Tell Me Your Secrets portray teen culture? Can teens handle the content, or is it better suited for adult viewers?
TV Details
- Premiere date: February 19, 2021
- Cast: Amy Brenneman, Hamish Linklater, Lily Rabe
- Network: Amazon Prime Video
- Genre: Drama
- TV rating: TV-14
- Last updated: February 28, 2022
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