Reviews of Peacock's The Good Daughter: strong cast, weak or over-familiar story
Two reviews of Peacock's limited series The Good Daughter, adapted by Karin Slaughter from her novel, praise the lead performances. The Hollywood Reporter finds it compulsively entertaining despite its tropes, while Screen Rant calls it a trauma-saturated mess.
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The story, neutrally told
Mixed · 2Peacock's limited series The Good Daughter is adapted by Karin Slaughter from her own Georgia-set novel, with Steph Green directing and Meghann Fahy, Rose Byrne and Brendan Gleeson starring. The Hollywood ReporterLC “Adapted by Karin Slaughter from her book of the same name” Read at The Hollywood Reporter ↗ Screen RantN “Slaughter also serves as showrunner and wrote all six episodes, with Steph Green (Watchmen) directing and Meghann Fahy, Rose Byrne, and Brendan Gleeson starring.” Read at Screen Rant ↗ Mixed · 2The story follows sisters Sam (Byrne) and Charlie (Fahy) Quinn, who as children survive a violent attack on their home and mother. As adults, Charlie is a lawyer in their Georgia hometown of Pikeville, and Sam is a patent lawyer in New York. The Hollywood ReporterLC “Charlie (Fahy) has grown up to follow in her father’s footsteps, working out of his ramshackle office in the same Georgia town” Read at The Hollywood Reporter ↗ Screen RantN “Sam has fled to New York, where she has a lucrative job as a patent lawyer.” Read at Screen Rant ↗ Mixed · 2A school shooting brings Sam back to town to help defend the shooter, Kelly, alongside their father Rusty (Gleeson), a defence attorney. The case also draws the sisters into mysteries from the family's past. The Hollywood ReporterLC “Rusty, who has a bad cough and a history of heart problems, and likes to wear — for reasons that are never explained — a red clown nose, shows up to represent Kelly” Read at The Hollywood Reporter ↗ Screen RantN “Rusty persuades Sam to return and represent the shooter, high school senior Kelly Wilson (Shayna Benardo).” Read at Screen Rant ↗
Left · 1The Hollywood Reporter's Daniel Fienberg calls the series overly familiar, interchangeable with a dozen recent limited series such as The Better Sister and His & Hers. He criticises its inconsistent Southern accents, its barely mysterious plot and its over-explaining finale. The Hollywood ReporterLC “is interchangeable, in terms of title, plot or structure, with a dozen recent limited series”“Too bad the finale collapses under the weight of all its over-explaining.” Read at The Hollywood Reporter ↗ Left · 1Fienberg still finds it compulsively entertaining, crediting Slaughter's characterisation and dialogue, Green's direction, and performances by Fahy, Byrne and Gleeson. He also says Green keeps the tense material from feeling exploitative. The Hollywood ReporterLC “somehow ends up being compulsively entertaining is a tribute to Slaughter’s gift for characterization and dialogue”“modulate most of the agonizing parts of the story so that they feel tense but not exploitative” Read at The Hollywood Reporter ↗ Centre · 1Screen Rant's Liz Hersey calls the show a tonally chaotic, trauma-saturated mess that wastes its cast. She says it comes out swinging with a riveting first episode but that its blunders outweigh its merits, and compares it unfavourably with Peacock's All Her Fault. Screen RantN “a tonally chaotic thriller that revels way too much in female trauma”“For a show whose blunders outweigh its merits tenfold, The Good Daughter comes out swinging with a riveting first episode” Read at Screen Rant ↗
Centre · 1Hersey praises Fahy and says the show is unwatchable without her. She says Sam is defined entirely by trauma, that Rusty is all personality with no substance, and that Gleeson overplays the folksy charm. Screen RantN “Fahy alone is what keeps The Good Daughter from being totally unwatchable.”“the problem is that Sam is a character entirely defined by her trauma” Read at Screen Rant ↗ Centre · 1Hersey also argues the series is more interested in things happening to women than in telling a decent story, and says it exploits Kelly, an impoverished teenager with an intellectual disability, by sidelining her. She notes this is Slaughter's first television writing and that adapting a 500-plus-page novel into six episodes did not pay off. Screen RantN “by sidelining Kelly after putting her through the wringer, the show exploits her every bit as much as the broken systems it wags its finger at”“The Good Daughter is Slaughter's first time writing for television” Read at Screen Rant ↗ Mixed · 2Both reviewers single out Harper Steele, who plays Rusty's assistant Lenore, as a welcome presence. Both also mention Rusty's red clown nose. The Hollywood ReporterLC “Harper Steele — you know her from the documentary Will & Harper — who isn’t an actor and comes across not as studied but as gentle and natural.” Read at The Hollywood Reporter ↗ Screen RantN “Rusty's secretary Lenore (Harper Steele, a welcome ray of sunshine)” Read at Screen Rant ↗
Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.
Left1 outlet
- Framing
- The Hollywood Reporter treats the series as a derivative genre piece that is rescued by its actors and by Slaughter's character writing, and ends up enjoyable.
- Emphasis
- Familiarity with other recent limited series, uneven accents, the lead performances and the way the finale over-explains.
- Leaves out or plays down
- Little on the series' treatment of female victimhood as a theme, which Screen Rant makes central.
- Charged language
- “Southern-Fried”“succotash”“weakly staged monologues”
- For example
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“That The Good Daughter is so full of tropes I find tedious or annoying and yet somehow ends up being compulsively entertaining” — The Hollywood Reporter
“a succotash of colorful and, to put it politely, inconsistent accents” — The Hollywood Reporter
Centre1 outlet
- Framing
- Screen Rant gives a harshly negative verdict, presenting the series as a wasted opportunity that misuses trauma and falls short of Peacock's All Her Fault.
- Emphasis
- Gendered trauma, weak characterisation of Sam and Rusty, Kelly's treatment, and Fahy as the show's one real strength.
- Leaves out or plays down
- Does not mention the genre overlap with other recent limited series or the accent issue raised by The Hollywood Reporter.
- Charged language
- “Trauma-Saturated Mess”“unceremoniously throw it off a cliff”“totally unwatchable”“The Good Victim”
- For example
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“Alas, The Good Daughter doesn't so much drop that baton as unceremoniously throw it off a cliff.” — Screen Rant
“the better title would be The Good Victim” — Screen Rant
Right0 outlets
No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.
What every side reports
- The Good Daughter is a Peacock limited series adapted by Karin Slaughter from her novel.
- Meghann Fahy, Rose Byrne and Brendan Gleeson star, with Steph Green directing.
- Both reviewers praise Fahy and call Harper Steele's Lenore a bright spot.
- Both reviewers criticise the series' writing and its handling of trauma.
Where accounts differ
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Overall quality and watchability
- Left
- Despite its tropes it is compulsively entertaining, and the cast makes viewers care about the characters.
- Centre
- A tonally chaotic mess in which Fahy alone keeps it from being totally unwatchable.
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Handling of trauma and sexual violence
- Left
- Green keeps most agonizing parts tense but not exploitative, though the show leans on sexual violence to prop up a thin mystery.
- Centre
- The show is obsessed with things happening to women and exploits Kelly.
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Byrne's performance
- Left
- Some of it is actorly takes on disability, but the artifice pays off.
- Centre
- Byrne is not at fault, but the character is defined by trauma and drags the show down.
Left1 article
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The Hollywood ReporterLC · · Opinion
Mixed Admits to tedious tropes and derivative plotting but concludes the series is compulsively entertaining thanks to its writing, direction and leads.
Centre1 article
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Screen RantN · · Opinion
The Good Daughter: Peacock’s Trauma-Saturated Mess Wastes Its Stellar Cast | Review
Critical Treats the series as a squandered chance, with the cast wasted on trauma-heavy writing, and favours All Her Fault by comparison.
Right0 articles
No coverage yet.
- 11 Nov 16:00 First The Hollywood ReporterLC ‘The Good Daughter’ Review: Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy Elevate Peacock’s Overly Familiar Southern-Fried Thriller Opinion
- 11 Nov 16:00 First Screen RantN The Good Daughter: Peacock’s Trauma-Saturated Mess Wastes Its Stellar Cast | Review Opinion
Times are when each article was published, or when we first saw it if the outlet gave no time.
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