Summary
Impressive Hollywood actors and striking visuals may win over audiences, but this style of mystery series has been done many times before, to a much higher degree.
Apple Original series, The Last Thing He Told Me is Adapted from Laura Dave’s novel of the same name, this thriller miniseries follows the mysterious disappearance of coder Owen Michaels (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who appears to have both a seedy past and a scandalous present.
The Last Thing He Told Me Season 1 Review and Plot Summary
Owen’s wife Hannah (Jennifer Garner) and daughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) are the ones left picking up the pieces after Owen’s sudden disappearance. The husband leaves without a word, sending Hannah a disturbing note that says: protect her.
While he gifts his daughter with a duffel bag full of cash and her own cryptic note to decipher. In the midst of all this chaos, Owen’s tech company, The Shop, is under investigation by the FBI, and their CEO is arrested on fraud charges.
With the FBI breathing down Hannah’s neck and a US Marshal scoping out her home, Hannah has no choice but to delve into Owen’s disappearance to prove his innocence or at least gain some answers. She works with her angsty teenage stepdaughter Bailey to uncover the truth about Owen before they are arrested or placed in further danger.
Scattered throughout the miniseries are an array of important flashbacks, which help build a better picture of the main cast’s lives. Owen seemed to be the perfect husband and father, while Hannah and Bailey struggled to form a bond.
These flashbacks may aid in providing clues and backstory, but they plague the series, distracting viewers and stalling the show’s overall rhythm and flow.
Is The Last Thing He Told Me Season 1 worth watching?
The Last Thing He Told Me is an average mystery drama series following your standard plot beats. The leading ladies follow vague connections and forced clues as they hunt for Owen, indulging in eye-rolling espionage along the way.
This is then inter-cut with those jarring flashback sequences that are poorly placed throughout each installment. Sometimes they even appear mid-scene to supposedly help viewers understand our character’s thought processes better. This works perfectly in a novel setup but is poorly conveyed within the show.
For all its faults, the series is well-made and features some surprisingly impressive Hollywood talent though. All against an exquisite modern backdrop. That boat house neighborhood in San Francisco is truly captivating, showcasing a cinematic location that seems totally overlooked in film and TV to date.
The Hollywood names and the show’s excessive budget will draw viewers in from the advertising alone, but there are far better TV shows to be watching on Apple TV+ and on the many other streaming platforms out there. I would advise skipping this one.
The Last Thing He Told Me Filming Locations
The Last Thing He Told Me was filmed in two separate locations. One to authentically get the essence of the book and where Laura Dave originally set her characters and the other because they needed a big campus.
The floating homes in California are probably the most interesting draw because it’s so different than what people see on screen. It’s always nice for creators to show living situations on a smaller scope to see how different neighborhoods operate around the United States.
Sausalito, California
Sausalito Floating Homes (Credit – Roadtrippers)
The majority of the shooting was done at a floating home in Sausalito, California, because that is where Laura Dave wanted to write about her characters. Since many things happen in and around that home, that’s where most of the production is set-based. California is a beautiful place to shoot anything, but the heat can definitely get to the crew, even in Austin.
Austin, Texas
They shot in Austin, Texas, at the University of Texas at Austin for some campus scenes. There was a homey feel to the campus, which contrasts the destruction that happened at their Sausalito home in California. The cast and crew also filmed around Lady Bird Lake and Butterfly Bridge in Austin.
What did you think of The Last Thing He Told Me Season 1 and did you notice any other filming locations? Comment below.
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