This article, “Is Andy Oliver a successful detective” contains spoilers regarding Netflix’s Pieces Of Her season 1.
Access the archive of recaps, reviews, and features for Pieces Of Her.
Thirty-year-old 911 call operator Andy Oliver is thrown into a world of espionage and murder when she attempts to figure out the truth of her mother’s mysterious past. She has dreams of becoming an artist, not furthering her career in the police force. Yet by this twisted hand of fate, she ends up using her police instincts and mother’s inherited skills to survive in this new, dangerous world. But is she successful in her new profession?
Is Andy Oliver a successful detective in Pieces Of Her season 1?
Andy starts the series as a coward, unsure of her purpose in life and career prospects. At the diner shooting, she cowers on the floor, hiding behind her mother. That night she takes her first steps towards a more confident, braver self and rescues Laura from imminent death. Her mother then sends her on a perilous mission, which opens Andy’s eyes to this murky past and a sinister, criminal underbelly. By investigating Laura’s past she becomes an unofficial detective in the case.
At first, Andy is naïve and clumsy with her detective work. She investigates online in libraries and even on a stranger’s iPad. One name her mother mentioned keeps rattling around in her brain: Paula Kunde. She investigates this woman, who is now an imprisoned terrorist. Andy tries to book a meeting with Paula’s attorney but is unsuccessful. Here, Andy decides to try her hand at the secret agent life. She steals an employee’s ID badge and takes on her first disguise.
To get the ID, Andy spills coffee over the employee’s handbag and awkwardly extracts the badge. We see her next sporting a black wig and attempting to dress similarly to the employee. It’s an embarrassing and farcical element to the story. The filmmakers are clearly trying to promote a new, badass side to Andy but it comes across childishly like she’s failing in her new role. Maybe the creators are subtly hinting at this, yet it all gets lost in the chaos.
Andy visits the terrorist in her awful disguise and continues on her path of amateur sleuthing. Somehow she manages to track down the bad guys and jumps into their car unseen. Again this feels like an unrealistic plot device and she’s lucky to escape in one piece. Through further searching, she discovers that her mother is actually Jane Queller and that her father is Nick Harp, a wanted fugitive. It’s quite impressive how much information she manages to extract with such mediocre tools at her disposal, but Andy uncovers the entire plot.
In the end, Nick is arrested and her new romantic interest (Michael Vargas) survives. It’s only poor Charlie Bass who doesn’t make it, yet she seems to be coping just fine with this casualty. Overall, Andy is a naïve and awkward detective, who somehow manages to survive by sheer determination alone. Her sleuthing unearths all the secrets she desperately wanted answering and she aids in the capture of a wanted criminal. It’s a great result for Andy, that points to a promising future in the police force if she so desires it.
What did you think of the Netflix series Pieces Of Her season 1? Comment below.
