Summary
Mythomaniac season 2 might be seen as an unnecessary continuation, but it does a decent job of justifying its existence as it explores the consequences of a destructive lie.
This review of Mythomaniac Season 2 is spoiler-free.
Netflix’s unusual six-part French drama Mythomaniac wasn’t without its fans, but most of them agreed it didn’t really need a follow-up. Its story of a put-upon woman driven to make a terrible decision by her awful husband and children was compelling, and the show remained odd throughout its run, chronicling how a lie can snowball out of control and ultimately cost someone everything. Of course, the lie Elvira (Marina Hands) told was an unconscionable one, but the show was careful not to portray her as a monster, or someone who believed her own mistruths. It didn’t have a happy ending, but it felt like it ended.
This new season, also comprising six episodes, has its work cut out for it, then. It’s undeniable that a lot of the drama in the first outing revolved around whether — or, I suppose, when — Elvira’s deception would be revealed, and without that built-in hook, this go-around lacks some urgency. But it’s aware of that, and instead settles into a kind of new normal for the family as Patrick and the kids try to navigate their sense of betrayal, loss, and change, while Elvira watches on from close by and tries to recover what she has lost.
This is a show largely about quite unpleasant people, so it’s accomplishing something of a feat simply by being watchable. But in the same way it eventually made Elvira’s decision understandable, it also manages to make her family relatively sympathetic. Patrick, for instance, is lost, deliberately avoiding the bedroom and sleeping downstairs, refusing to wash, and getting neurotic about lies being told in his house, even for relatively mundane or well-intentioned reasons. That ties into Sam’s subplot as they navigate a relationship with Renan, a smug, budding author, and also creates a great deal of friction among the other siblings, particularly Virginie (Zelie Rixhon), who is especially hostile.
Across the six episodes, each running between 40 minutes and an hour, these subplots are all carefully developed, along with Patrick’s budding relationship of sorts with Sandrine (Marie Bouvet), and the matter of Lorenzo’s (Luca Terracciano) origins. Lorenzo, who arrived as a kind of cliffhanger at the end of the previous season, is Elvira’s oldest child from a previous relationship, and the secrecy his past is shrouded in suggests that Elvira has been prone to deception long before she lied about having cancer.
This remains a show that’ll attract, at best, something of a niche audience, but also remains a show that’s probably worth watching for its low-key challenging portrayal of a family in turmoil.
You can stream Mythomaniac season 2 exclusively on Netflix.
