The Last Thing He Told Me is the slowest thriller you will ever have to sit through. While I am sure the target audience had a much better time with this series than I did, I can’t recommend it based on the pacing. Maybe the book is better?
Hannah is a wood spinner who lives a quiet life in Sausalito with her perfect loving husband and his angry teenage daughter. Hanahs peaceful life is taken from her when her husband disappears without a trace. In the wake of his disappearance, the two women find themselves desperately searching for answers, and the truth they find will change them forever.
The acting is the best part of the series, but it’s boring. While it may not be the worse suspenseful thriller I’ve seen this year, it is hard to recommend. The pacing hurts the narrative because there is too much filler. Whatever suspense and mystery this series creates is rendered ineffective by the constant flashbacks. I understand that the flashbacks explain why Hanah makes certain decisions, treats Bailey the way she does, and finds certain clues, but the series could have been shorter. It still wouldn’t be the best drama out there, but it would be better. Unfortunately, the series feels slow, and I stopped caring about the mystery early on.
The characters are fine because the actors are good. I wouldn’t have stuck around as long as I did if it wasn’t for the actors. Hannah is a bland character who is unbelievably competent when she needs to be. I have mixed feelings about this character. I like that a lot of her actions are grounded by realistic limits, but things will always go her way. She has the supernatural ability to get out of any adverse situation because she didn’t grow up with a mother. This series has no stakes, so I stopped caring.
Bailey is a generic angry teenager, and although the actress does a solid job, there isn’t much to her character. She is used as a catalyst for a lot of the plot because she doesn’t do anything else. At the start of the series, she is your typical pissed-off edgy teenager with an unconditional love towards her mother and a frustrating amount of defiance. As she becomes closer to Hannah, she begins to disappear, only showing up when the plot needs her. For a series so focused on making sure Bailey can lead the kind of life she deserves, it’s a bit disappointing to see her disappear the way she does. Not that she had much of a presence, to begin with.
The mystery is okay, but it doesn’t matter. This series is about the power of unconditional motherly love and will toss out plot, suspense, and mystery to show this. The series will take every possible moment to let you know that Hanah is a great mother who will do anything for Bailey, even though they aren’t related. It is a little nauseating how over-the-top and cheesy this series gets when dealing with the relationship between Hannah and Bailey. After a while, it becomes tedious filler to pad out the boring fantasy.
The Last Thing He Told Me is hard to recommend because it is boring. I’m sure the people this was made for will enjoy it more than I did, but it wasn’t for me. You can stream it on Apple TV if you have a subscription, but there are better examples of this genre you could be watching instead.