Toni Collette as Laura Oliver and Bella Heathcote as Andy Oliver in Pieces of Her.Courtesy Of Netflix
We assume darkness leads to light and war leads to peace in the end, no matter how uneasy that peace. We know, rather than assume, that the past comes back to haunt us. That is the theme of a good new thriller series that is excellent escapism without taxing your already tired brain.
Pieces of Her (streams on Netflix) is a thriller with an outstanding, can’t-take-your-eyes-away performance in the main role. And it asks a question – what if you discovered your sweet-natured mom was in the past a baddie, a whip-smart assassin who could kill you with her bare hands, and without breaking a sweat? You’d be shocked, right?
Things start with Andy (Bella Heathcote) a woman staffing the 911 desk at a police station in small-town Georgia. Andy is a bit bored, you can tell. She’s not a cop, she just answers the phones. She’s been back in town to take care of her mom Laura (Toni Collette) who had a cancer diagnosis but is now doing fine. In fact, Laura is back working as a therapist helping injured police officers recover from injury. Andy meets Laura for lunch. They banter about Andy going away, back to her own life, and getting a real job.
Catch up on the best streaming TV of 2021 with our holiday guide
Then a man pulls a gun in the restaurant and starts shooting. His target is his ex-girlfriend, but then he’s shooting and killing indiscriminately. Andy freezes but mom Laura protects her. Then Laura takes over the situation, eliminating the gunman with ease. A video of the scene goes viral and, suddenly Laura is both wary and all-business, lying to the cops, laying low and telling Andy to just get out of town.
What unfolds is a compelling cat-and-mouse game as Laura evades men who clearly want to kill her, and Andy must assist. It’s Andy who is the slightly hopeless one, rather naive, and it’s mom who is the ruthless boss here. What you’ve got is an interesting dynamic.
Toni Collette is fiercely good as Laura, a woman who transforms from benign therapist/mom to one tough mother. It’s a powerhouse performance that often carries along a wobbly plot. In fact, Collette’s performance is the single prestige-TV quality here. Otherwise this might be called prestige-popcorn, in the parlance of the TV racket these days.
Still, it’s a great escapist journey, with the audience, for a long time, trying to figure out what Laura could have possibly done in the past and the viewer just waiting for the next violent turn.
Secondary characters begin to abound as the series progresses – there are eight episodes – as flashbacks to the 1980s reveal a parallel storyline. We meet a talented but tortured young piano player, Jane (Jessica Barden, so good in The End of the F***ing World, and here), who might be Laura herself in the past. It doesn’t always coalesce perfectly into complete coherence, but Pieces of Her (based in the bestselling novel by Karin Slaughter) keeps you stuck on the puzzle at its heart – what was Laura in her youth and why is she so skilled in violence?
Pieces of Her is a thriller with an outstanding, can’t-take-your-eyes-away performance in the main role.Courtesy Of Netflix
It also has some home truths to add to the thriller content. It’s Andy the daughter who makes a bunch of bad decisions and the message, such as it is, suggests that you should never make assumptions or underestimate your mom and it’s best, even at age 30, to do what she says.
Finally, another recommended and timely treat is Visionary Gardeners (starts Monday, Vision TV, 9 p.m.) a beautifully made series (created by Ian Toews) about different and sometimes far-seeing approaches to gardening. In five half-hour episodes, it arrives just when many of us are thinking about spring planting. The first episode profiles playwright and novelist David Young on his small Georgian Bay island, where he has become very philosophical about how he treats what grows in the landscape. He says, “I think gardening is a conversation you have with nature about time. Your time and the world of nature’s time.” Small and big beautifully cultivated landscapes are found aplenty here, with much talk to make you think about what you plant and cultivate in your own gardens.
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