This is an interesting take on a current phenomenon, the crime podcast. Poppy Parnell (Academy Award Winner Octavia Spencer) is an investigative crime reporter turned podcaster. So the premise of the series is untangling a mystery per season. The cast and performances are solid. The tone and music are evocative. My biggest problem was with how the series is held hostage to its premise. Because each episode contains portions of a podcast, the pace is dampened by heavy handed moralizations and narrative. The first season's mystery was compelling enough to compensate for it (I consistently rated those episodes 8/great) but, despite the addition of Kate Hudson to the second season, the podcast narrative ground the series to a slow crawl. Overall, I give this series only a 7 (okay) out of 10. {Mystery Drama}
195 Reviews
Labouring my way through...
jackiee19705 January 2020
... in order to see where it goes. But it's difficult. Poppy is extremely unlikeable and I'm not a great fan of Octavia's acting here. I also find her relationships with the two men (husband and ex) very mismatched - I cant see either of them being in a relationship with her to be honest.
Aaron Paul is great but he isn't seen as often as needed to hold this cast up.
The Lanie/Josie characters are a bit of a caricature and over-acted.
I'm hoping they will pull something out for the last few episodes that surprises us and redeems the series.
It starts big, ends small
fuljah11 January 2020
It starts really big.. Scenario is initially very engaging, you want to binge it..
But after 3rd - 4th episode, it starts to introduce all the cliches that were ever produced on TV.
Also, I am not sure if law works that way. A podcast producer playing with incriminating evidence and acting as a one woman police force? People getting into prison with testimonies etc?
These facts damage the plausibility of the series. The writer of the work that the series is based on is a lawyer, I can understand playing with itsy bitsy legal details for the sake of story telling but all in all, the method damages the quality.
But after 3rd - 4th episode, it starts to introduce all the cliches that were ever produced on TV.
Also, I am not sure if law works that way. A podcast producer playing with incriminating evidence and acting as a one woman police force? People getting into prison with testimonies etc?
These facts damage the plausibility of the series. The writer of the work that the series is based on is a lawyer, I can understand playing with itsy bitsy legal details for the sake of story telling but all in all, the method damages the quality.
Not good!
Just-A-Girl-1420 January 2021
The idea of the show is not bad but the writing is just not good! The characters are all unlikable and there's no flow to the show. I'm not a fan of Octavia Spencer but I actually don't think it's her fault. The characters are written in a way that makes them look weak. One minute they have faith and care all about truth and justice and then all of a sudden they couldn't care less. In one scene they talk about how it's impossible to find a certain witness and in the next scene they're talking to that exact witness (just out of the blue). Not to mention that people seem to remember things that happened twenty years ago like it was yesterday. It's not believable.
Another thing that really bother me, is that the main character starts the show worrying her actions may have contributed to the destruction of a young man's life but to get him out of it she has no problem ruining other people's lives on the most faint evidences (if you can even call it that) or stupid speculations.
The acting is mostly ok (although not always) but it feels like they are trying way to hard to sell it. There were scenes that should have made me cry but I felt nothing. It felt forced. It just didn't have a true feel to it and by the end of the season we are left with plenty of unanswered questions. There's "closure" (or something of a sort), we learned what really happened but it doesn't make a lot of sense and if you really think about it, there's just a lot that doesn't add up. Also, the dialogue is not good. I found myself wondering many times "who would say that" or "who talks like that".
Can't recommend it, sorry.
Another thing that really bother me, is that the main character starts the show worrying her actions may have contributed to the destruction of a young man's life but to get him out of it she has no problem ruining other people's lives on the most faint evidences (if you can even call it that) or stupid speculations.
The acting is mostly ok (although not always) but it feels like they are trying way to hard to sell it. There were scenes that should have made me cry but I felt nothing. It felt forced. It just didn't have a true feel to it and by the end of the season we are left with plenty of unanswered questions. There's "closure" (or something of a sort), we learned what really happened but it doesn't make a lot of sense and if you really think about it, there's just a lot that doesn't add up. Also, the dialogue is not good. I found myself wondering many times "who would say that" or "who talks like that".
Can't recommend it, sorry.
Interesting show, keeps my attention
riverqueen1621 December 2019
I don't understand the negative reviews. I find the acting by Octavia Spencer and Aaron Paul (who I love) to be superb. My attention span is not what it used to be so I cannot watch slow moving shows. This one has kept my attention and I don't find myself wandering off because the story line is not just about the plot but also about the characters.
Decent Show
12101968kaw30 March 2023
I really liked season 1 and season 2 of Truth Be Told. I thought season 2 was better than 1. Season 3 has me feeling like "I'm good!". The premise of this show is a good one. Poppy Scoville is a true crime podcaster. Some of the episodes leave me scratching my head like why would the police give her info like that. I liken her to a modern day version of Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She wrote. The busy body who gets all the scoops and figures things out before the cops do. Season 3 is dragging on and is holding no interest for me. I think I have 1 episode to go. The writing has to get better if I'm going to watch again.
Thoroughly enjoyable
zadeereviews30 January 2021
Apple TV got it right. I have seen Servant, Home before dark, sending Jacob and now Truth be told. Great mystery series about who done it in a different perspective than a usual. I binged this series in 2 days. Good character development and unveiling of characters are unique. Cinematography is refreshing and adequate. I'd love to see the 2nd season of this. Great acting by all actors.
Enjoyed it - binge worthy
admin-80227 January 2020
Yes, the main character is annoying with her self righteousness, but that's the character. Not all characters are meant to be loveable. Good acting all around, some implausible twists and turns but I was hooked and binged watched the whole thing and that's saying something. And Lizzy Kaplan twice? Cool.
Stick with this! One excellent cast
MovieQween-336226 January 2020
This is such a well rounded cast! Octavia Spencer is always amazing, I've been a fan for a while. Aaron Paul really surprised me here, he really brought So much emotion to his character. Ron Cephas Jones is also really awesome in here. Such an intense story that makes you feel so many emotions. It really makes you emotional for those who are wrongfully convicted and how much media can have an impact.
Season 2 is a snooze fest
fuzulu17 October 2021
I gave season 1 an 8 star review... It was pretty decent, it has a lil drama in it but still decent. Season 2 is absolutely infested with unnecessary time waste drama about the most boring characters, it's just a lot of utter crappy boring stuff added to the main story to kill time and elongate it, I would give season 2 5 out of 10 stars, the main story cudve been ok but they just tried to milk too much screen time out of nothing. Season 1 also has some of that boring stuff, like her family and all but that much could be tolerated but now this is just too much, nobody cares.
Giving up on this
errant-5278520 December 2019
Plot is good, scripts are not. Great cast squandered.
Thought it was passable to start. I just find myself being less and less engaged each episode. It's getting more and more ridiculous as it goes on, and not in an entertaining way.
Thought it was passable to start. I just find myself being less and less engaged each episode. It's getting more and more ridiculous as it goes on, and not in an entertaining way.
Meh...
lizroberts-4921513 January 2020
Surprised by other ratings
jlhailes28 November 2021
Really loved this show. It's unique and original. Loved the idea of the behind the scenes of a crime podcaster. I think the season is well produced and I love Octavia Spencer. Was really glad they did a second season and hope there are more!
Silly writing & directing
jmywddtd24 November 2022
So many weird choices that make this show not good. I realllly wanted to like it but was so distracted by bad writing and continuity errors and odd editing. It's like a mediocre procedural but the story stretches over a season, and they misdirect SO HARD that it's not even clever anymore. Poppy is practically an antihero with how she accuses people to their face and gets people hurt. Weird prop choices too, a podcaster that sits 4ft from her mic and wears wireless beats? Uuuh, no. I imagine the beats are product placement for Apple, buuttt it distracted me every time I saw it. I originally watched because hale appleman is in season 2 but it's a small part. Fairly entertaining if you can realllly suspend disbelief and aren't distracted by errors.
Truth Hurts
Fraudzilla16 July 2023
Truth Be Told is one of those shows that streaming services don't build their brand around or advertise a great deal, but do spend a bit of money on as they bolster their roster of shows. I'll be honest I'd never heard of it when I stumbled upon it on Apple TV.
The show centres on Poppy Parnell (Octavia Spencer) a podcast host who shot to fame for her coverage of a murder trial that saw teenage suspect Warren Cave (Aaron Paul) tried as an adult for the murder of his neighbour. Years later she begins to doubt if the correct man was sent down and begins to investigate the case once again to try and ensure justice is served.
Running for 3 seasons, Truth Be Told almost feels like 2 shows. The first season, while not perfect, stands up quite well. Largely thanks to the solid cast. The 2 leads are supported by Mekhi Phifer as Poppy's former lover turned PI and sidekick, Lizzy Caplan in a dual role as the twin sisters whose testimony sent Cave away and Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood, Ron Cephas Jones and Michael Beach as Poppy's sisters, father and husband.
Season 1 is one of those shows where it's not overly big or clever, and I managed to call where it was going to end pretty early on, but it's well made and acted so a fairly entertaining way to pass time.
Season 2 loses Paul and Caplan, but gains Kate Hudson as Micah Keith, a childhood friend of Poppy's who is thrust into the middle of a murder investigation when her husband is found dead with a mystery man. The lead cop on the case is Detective Aames (David Lyons) who must overcome his suspicions of Poppy.
Hudson leaves for season 3, but is replaced by Gabrielle Union's Eva, a former prostitute turned high school principal as they look to take down a human trafficking ring.
2 and 3 kind of merge into one, partly because the case 3 is based on has roots in a subplot of 2, but also because they both lack the direction of the first series, which felt like a properly written story, these feel quickly cobbled together and a lot more soap operatic.
They also aren't aided by poor writing that leaves a lot of the characters making mind-numbingly stupid decisions at every turn, with our lead Poppy being fairly selfish and unlikable at times. I'm not sure if it's a flaw with the character or the bizarro universe that this is set in, but this show seems to think Podcasts are a LOT bigger a deal than they are. When Poppy isn't accusing people of murder when there's an ongoing investigation, she's doing podcasts so the suspects, sometimes on the run, can hear her message. This reaches its zenith, or nadir depending on how you want to look at it, in an episode where the protagonists need the police to intervene at a crime scene. They know that the police won't respond to what's going on, but will if an important missing person is involved. Instead of just calling the police, Poppy does a live podcast, just on the off chance the cops are listening. I mean, it turns out they are, obviously, but this was the point suspension of disbelief crashed and burned.
The worst thing is, Season 3 did get my hopes up with the introduction of Eva. She's not only a character with some depth, but actually calls Poppy out for her nonsense. Given how this is resolved it becomes clear we're not actually meant to have been on her side.
Overall, this isn't a terrible show, but it's not really one I'd go out of my way to recommend. It's solidly made, I've no complaints with any of the cast, but instantly forgettable beyond a sense of missed opportunity. Not really worth seeking out, but a passable enough way to waste some time. Just brace for the drop in quality after season 1.
The show centres on Poppy Parnell (Octavia Spencer) a podcast host who shot to fame for her coverage of a murder trial that saw teenage suspect Warren Cave (Aaron Paul) tried as an adult for the murder of his neighbour. Years later she begins to doubt if the correct man was sent down and begins to investigate the case once again to try and ensure justice is served.
Running for 3 seasons, Truth Be Told almost feels like 2 shows. The first season, while not perfect, stands up quite well. Largely thanks to the solid cast. The 2 leads are supported by Mekhi Phifer as Poppy's former lover turned PI and sidekick, Lizzy Caplan in a dual role as the twin sisters whose testimony sent Cave away and Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood, Ron Cephas Jones and Michael Beach as Poppy's sisters, father and husband.
Season 1 is one of those shows where it's not overly big or clever, and I managed to call where it was going to end pretty early on, but it's well made and acted so a fairly entertaining way to pass time.
Season 2 loses Paul and Caplan, but gains Kate Hudson as Micah Keith, a childhood friend of Poppy's who is thrust into the middle of a murder investigation when her husband is found dead with a mystery man. The lead cop on the case is Detective Aames (David Lyons) who must overcome his suspicions of Poppy.
Hudson leaves for season 3, but is replaced by Gabrielle Union's Eva, a former prostitute turned high school principal as they look to take down a human trafficking ring.
2 and 3 kind of merge into one, partly because the case 3 is based on has roots in a subplot of 2, but also because they both lack the direction of the first series, which felt like a properly written story, these feel quickly cobbled together and a lot more soap operatic.
They also aren't aided by poor writing that leaves a lot of the characters making mind-numbingly stupid decisions at every turn, with our lead Poppy being fairly selfish and unlikable at times. I'm not sure if it's a flaw with the character or the bizarro universe that this is set in, but this show seems to think Podcasts are a LOT bigger a deal than they are. When Poppy isn't accusing people of murder when there's an ongoing investigation, she's doing podcasts so the suspects, sometimes on the run, can hear her message. This reaches its zenith, or nadir depending on how you want to look at it, in an episode where the protagonists need the police to intervene at a crime scene. They know that the police won't respond to what's going on, but will if an important missing person is involved. Instead of just calling the police, Poppy does a live podcast, just on the off chance the cops are listening. I mean, it turns out they are, obviously, but this was the point suspension of disbelief crashed and burned.
The worst thing is, Season 3 did get my hopes up with the introduction of Eva. She's not only a character with some depth, but actually calls Poppy out for her nonsense. Given how this is resolved it becomes clear we're not actually meant to have been on her side.
Overall, this isn't a terrible show, but it's not really one I'd go out of my way to recommend. It's solidly made, I've no complaints with any of the cast, but instantly forgettable beyond a sense of missed opportunity. Not really worth seeking out, but a passable enough way to waste some time. Just brace for the drop in quality after season 1.
3rd Season has been excellent!
mzfrankieh12 March 2023
I was very weary about watching this show again after a terrible second season. I mean the 1st season was good, excellent story, cast was great. 2nd season was all over the place. I love Kate Hudson but the story was weak and zero chemistry. I had pretty much given up on it. Although, they've lost a few original cast member the show is back and even better with Gabrielle Union, Peter Gallagher and a few other names. . The new additions and strong story writing this season has been excellent and has me glued to the television. I'm so glad Apple TV renewed it! Even If if it ends after this season, at least it will go out better then it came in!
Not as good as it should have been...
e_a_w11 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I guess it is easy to be a critic when one has never made a TV series. I can also imagine that a production has to cut costs where necessary (writing, show-running, development, direction, etc...).
My biggest issue might be with the character development of Poppy and her plot trajectory. It will come as no surprise that I've never done a podcast, either, but here I am about to critique the work of a fictional podcaster. Would a professional podcaster start naming murder suspects in real time? Do people in media/broadcasting not have a general knowledge of the legal and ethical issues around accusing (an innocent) person of murder just because a few clues have lead one in that direction, assumption-wise? It might have seemed to be a reasonable assumption based on the limited information gleaned, but naive me thinks it might have been a good idea to not make rash murder accusations on a podcast listened to by people all over the country.
So that takes me back to the first sentence in the prior paragraph. Were those words that were written for Poppy to say on her podcast simply the most expedient way to move the plot forward? Because as stories go, it was essentially unbelievable; as in, it seemed like either she isn't as good of a podcaster as the series would like for us to believe, or she isn't very bright, and/or she is totally ignorant of any legal and ethical issues that can easily be avoided. Or maybe the creator/writer/show-runner had no other way to push the plot or was trying to cut corners somewhere and resorted to having the main character do something stupid. So stupid that it was hard to forget from that point forward just how impetuous and stupid the main character is, considering she is supposed to be an experienced and respected audio journalist.
I did watch the entire 3 seasons just to see how it ended.
In general there were issues with the writing that just made the story feel less real. If the writing wasn't the problem, then there were multiple issues with the delivery from various actors. At times I would think that the words were so bad that the actors struggled to say them in a believable way. My point is that multiple times I just popped out of the suspension of disbelief to wonder for a while whether it was bad acting or bad writing or both. This happened every episode. Not throughout the entirety of every episode, but no less than once every episode.
As far as acting, in some of the final episodes I thought one or two actors had some some excessive amounts of huffing and puffing and sighing and deeply angst ridden deep breathing. I'm literally talking about breathing as an acting technique. Which - hey! - is a valid acting tool as long as it is facilitating a believable character with believable behavior.
You might like this series better than I did. In general I won't recommend this series unless it sounds like your genre or you like to follow particular actors. There are quite a few good actors in this series. It is quite the lineup. I was just never sure whether a number of them were used to best effect. I will just caution that if you have seen enough episodes to kinda be into the series except you keep thinking some of the things different characters are saying are beyond credibility, just know that it will be that way throughout, to the final episode.
My biggest issue might be with the character development of Poppy and her plot trajectory. It will come as no surprise that I've never done a podcast, either, but here I am about to critique the work of a fictional podcaster. Would a professional podcaster start naming murder suspects in real time? Do people in media/broadcasting not have a general knowledge of the legal and ethical issues around accusing (an innocent) person of murder just because a few clues have lead one in that direction, assumption-wise? It might have seemed to be a reasonable assumption based on the limited information gleaned, but naive me thinks it might have been a good idea to not make rash murder accusations on a podcast listened to by people all over the country.
So that takes me back to the first sentence in the prior paragraph. Were those words that were written for Poppy to say on her podcast simply the most expedient way to move the plot forward? Because as stories go, it was essentially unbelievable; as in, it seemed like either she isn't as good of a podcaster as the series would like for us to believe, or she isn't very bright, and/or she is totally ignorant of any legal and ethical issues that can easily be avoided. Or maybe the creator/writer/show-runner had no other way to push the plot or was trying to cut corners somewhere and resorted to having the main character do something stupid. So stupid that it was hard to forget from that point forward just how impetuous and stupid the main character is, considering she is supposed to be an experienced and respected audio journalist.
I did watch the entire 3 seasons just to see how it ended.
In general there were issues with the writing that just made the story feel less real. If the writing wasn't the problem, then there were multiple issues with the delivery from various actors. At times I would think that the words were so bad that the actors struggled to say them in a believable way. My point is that multiple times I just popped out of the suspension of disbelief to wonder for a while whether it was bad acting or bad writing or both. This happened every episode. Not throughout the entirety of every episode, but no less than once every episode.
As far as acting, in some of the final episodes I thought one or two actors had some some excessive amounts of huffing and puffing and sighing and deeply angst ridden deep breathing. I'm literally talking about breathing as an acting technique. Which - hey! - is a valid acting tool as long as it is facilitating a believable character with believable behavior.
You might like this series better than I did. In general I won't recommend this series unless it sounds like your genre or you like to follow particular actors. There are quite a few good actors in this series. It is quite the lineup. I was just never sure whether a number of them were used to best effect. I will just caution that if you have seen enough episodes to kinda be into the series except you keep thinking some of the things different characters are saying are beyond credibility, just know that it will be that way throughout, to the final episode.
Loved This!
keri81726 May 2022
I enjoyed this so much that I binged watched both seasons! Definitely emotional, yet it will have you on the edge of your seat at times and will keep you guessing until the end. It's filled with plenty of twists. Don't listen to all the negative reviews! Please see for yourself! By the way, Season 2 starts a new story line.
Meh
dangraham0422 May 2023
Octavia, Aaron Paul, and Lizzy Caplan made season 1 really good! Season 2 is abysmal. The writing and story flow makes no sense and they made the Poppy character clueless. Kate Hudson was dreadful too. They should've skipped season 2 altogether and went on to 3. I wouldn't wish season 2 on anyone. Purely dreadful. A lobotomy would be better than the hours wasted watching that opposite of a masterpiece. Mekhi Pfeiffer was awful to watch in that season too. Watch Season 1 and season 3. Don't kill your brain cells watching Kate Hudson's horrible acting and the lackluster writing of season 2. Bad.
Lead character is weak
aadams2 February 2020
It's not so much the acting by Octavia, it's the contrast of her commitment to the case which is dramatic and yet shallow at the same time. For a journalist, she is constantly jumping to conclusions and seeming to derive deep insight from superficial efforts. Her lack of real regard for everyone around her -- especially her husband -- makes her unlikeable.
There is too much hand-wringing drama. The constantly furrowed brows on the twins, played by Lizzy Caplan, start to become distracting.
Overall, the script was just poor. The story felt like it meandered for 8 episodes and the dialogue made cringe. I stuck with it to the end, but it wasn't worth it.
There is too much hand-wringing drama. The constantly furrowed brows on the twins, played by Lizzy Caplan, start to become distracting.
Overall, the script was just poor. The story felt like it meandered for 8 episodes and the dialogue made cringe. I stuck with it to the end, but it wasn't worth it.
The truth is elusive
sherylchilders8222 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Just finished season 1, and I thought I'd offer my theory / interpretation.
First of all, this show is about bias and about working against it, as is demonstrated by the main character, Poppy. Octavia Spencer seems to be expanding herself as an actor in this role, and we see a different more dramatic side of her. There is an underlying idea that many people convicted of crimes have their own versions of the truth, which are always at odds with both public perception and the justice system. It makes a point to note, though, that there are also indisputable acts (Paul jokes to inmate in the cafeteria that Poppy can prove he "didn't shoot that old woman in the head on tape"). The heart of this theme is not as pronounced with the main story of the wrongfully convicted man played by Paul, though, but in the story of the real murderers, the twins.
From the first few episodes, we start to get hints that the identity of the twins is questionable. ("I wore the red ribbon, you wore the yellow"). Lanie seems the obvious bad guy; her twin Josie the obvious victim. Then, during Susan's funeral, Lanie speaks about how Susan had helped her work through her confusion about her identity. A psychiatric diagnosis of Lanie confirms that she loves her twin so much and is obsessed with her, that she doesn't know which twin she is. In the meantime, we find that Josie has been swept away to institutions as well, and is kept protected from her evil twin, Lanie. We know that one of them killed their father, but which one? It is a chilling revelation when Lanie's daughter turns so that we see that she's wearing a yellow bow. This seems to confirm that Lanie is actually Josie.
There is hope of a breakthrough when Lanie visits the neighbor boy, accused killer, in prison. Apparently, they'd been in love. She does have a memory of this, so she must in fact be Lanie, right? It seems like the writers are toying with our emotions here - hinting that the twins identities were switched, probably after the murder, but never confirming it. If this were true, that means that it was Josie who manipulated Lanie into killing their father. Then, it was still Lanie who also killed their mother, still to protect Josie. As the mother fades out, we see Josie appear as Lanie, hinting that she had just figured it out before dying. This would also parallel Paul's story, as he becomes a murderer in prison, as a matter of survival. Was it also merely a coincidence that the street sweeper saw him that night, supposedly with a knife, or is this simply a commentary on the unreliability of eye witnesses?
When Josie sets up Lanie to confess to their mother's murder, it seems to confirm that Josie was the manipulative one. In the meantime, the entire search for truth has a great human cost for many. Practically everyone in the story is negatively affected, many people die (none of whom were actually responsible for the murder). The only person who really seems to get justice in the end is Warren Cave, who is finally redeemed, only after committing an actual murder in prison. It feels overwhelming critical of both the journalist and the justice system, that the real villain (Josie) is not caught. When they finally present their clean and logical stories to the cameras, we know that the truth is not so simple.
First of all, this show is about bias and about working against it, as is demonstrated by the main character, Poppy. Octavia Spencer seems to be expanding herself as an actor in this role, and we see a different more dramatic side of her. There is an underlying idea that many people convicted of crimes have their own versions of the truth, which are always at odds with both public perception and the justice system. It makes a point to note, though, that there are also indisputable acts (Paul jokes to inmate in the cafeteria that Poppy can prove he "didn't shoot that old woman in the head on tape"). The heart of this theme is not as pronounced with the main story of the wrongfully convicted man played by Paul, though, but in the story of the real murderers, the twins.
From the first few episodes, we start to get hints that the identity of the twins is questionable. ("I wore the red ribbon, you wore the yellow"). Lanie seems the obvious bad guy; her twin Josie the obvious victim. Then, during Susan's funeral, Lanie speaks about how Susan had helped her work through her confusion about her identity. A psychiatric diagnosis of Lanie confirms that she loves her twin so much and is obsessed with her, that she doesn't know which twin she is. In the meantime, we find that Josie has been swept away to institutions as well, and is kept protected from her evil twin, Lanie. We know that one of them killed their father, but which one? It is a chilling revelation when Lanie's daughter turns so that we see that she's wearing a yellow bow. This seems to confirm that Lanie is actually Josie.
There is hope of a breakthrough when Lanie visits the neighbor boy, accused killer, in prison. Apparently, they'd been in love. She does have a memory of this, so she must in fact be Lanie, right? It seems like the writers are toying with our emotions here - hinting that the twins identities were switched, probably after the murder, but never confirming it. If this were true, that means that it was Josie who manipulated Lanie into killing their father. Then, it was still Lanie who also killed their mother, still to protect Josie. As the mother fades out, we see Josie appear as Lanie, hinting that she had just figured it out before dying. This would also parallel Paul's story, as he becomes a murderer in prison, as a matter of survival. Was it also merely a coincidence that the street sweeper saw him that night, supposedly with a knife, or is this simply a commentary on the unreliability of eye witnesses?
When Josie sets up Lanie to confess to their mother's murder, it seems to confirm that Josie was the manipulative one. In the meantime, the entire search for truth has a great human cost for many. Practically everyone in the story is negatively affected, many people die (none of whom were actually responsible for the murder). The only person who really seems to get justice in the end is Warren Cave, who is finally redeemed, only after committing an actual murder in prison. It feels overwhelming critical of both the journalist and the justice system, that the real villain (Josie) is not caught. When they finally present their clean and logical stories to the cameras, we know that the truth is not so simple.
See also
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