Great Film overall

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Between seasons one and two, it is night and day. The first season, although there were flaws, the story-line and the work of all the actors carried it through. Right from the start, season two was weak, pretty people alone do not make good programming. All through season one the script held up, into the final couple episodes, then a reality check caused a crimp. It would have made sense had they decided to continue on into the next series, but coming into a completely different story-line just left wasted all the good work that had gone before. I think they're going to loose a huge amount of viewers with this blunder. The new series is typical and bland.. maybe it gets better, but so what, most will be gone by then.

A good title 'secrets and lies' as it seems that everyone has something to hide.On the way to uncovering the killer of a five year old boy, a small community and even the cops are thrown to the audience as sacrificial red herrings. Even if they aren't guilty of murder, they'll be found guilty of something!Everyone plays their part well and all ten episodes are filled with drama and excitement.I haven't seen the Aussie version but ABC (and the networks) seem to be finally catching up with the quality of content put out by the less restricted cable, internet and pay networks.Even though it's aired on a family friendly network, there's an extended scene of torture which Americans seem to find OK for kids to be subject to. I'm not sure why Americans find torture and violence OK for kids but sex seems to be limited to almost Victorian standards of restriction.Nevertheless, ABC have overcome these hindrances with remarkable skill and produced a gripping drama.Juliette Lewis (who seems to be in everything in one form or another) has signed on for the second season, but as yet nobody else has. Maybe this will turn in to her show. I hope so.

I liked this, especially since there was not much else on to watch so I looked forward to this every week. It was tricky enough to keep you guessing. Loved the detective. I found it hard to believe a little bit that Ryan Phillipe had kids that old - he still looks like a kid himself. A good little mystery. I guessed whodunit in the end and was right, but still good stuff. I would like to see more of the detective with spin off show. Her character was well established and interesting. I found it a lot better than the British version, in fact, this was exactly the same word for word but just American actors - so I guess this was a copycat version done American style.

I was very disappointed in the writing that came up with an absurd conclusion about who killed Tom. I just simply don't/didn't "buy it" for an instant. I was impressed with the performance of Ryan Phillippe who had his work cutout for himself since the writers didn't seem to ever really decide if "he done it" or "he didn't done it". Actually, I got the impression that they were making it up as they went along week-to-week. Sadly, leaving it as they left it makes me rather indifferent as to whether-or-not there will be a second season. I was pleased that they did finally explain the weirdness that was Juliette Lewis and justify what seemed like just bad acting in the early episodes. SECRETS AND LIES did hold my attention but the reveal is preposterous!