TV Obsessive
Truth Be Told
Amber: In a world where so many streaming services exist, it is easy to overlook excellent original content, which happened with Truth Be Told. When I last upgraded my iPhone a while ago, I was offered a free year of Apple TV. I was not interested in adding another service, free or not, so I just let it go. Apple did not let it go. I eventually accepted the offer and still managed to sleep on a handful of excellent original series. This is why it took me almost eight months to find Truth Be Told.
I love to binge-watch shows. If there were an Olympic medal for binge-watching shows, I would be a contender. Truth Be Told was one of the most delightful binge-watches in recent memory. Truth Be Told is a mystery based around a podcast that helped put away a teenage boy for the murder of his neighbor. We come in many, many years into Warren’s (the fantastic Aaron Paul) prison sentence, as a new piece of evidence has been discovered.
Poppy Scoville-Parnell, played by the equally amazing Octavia Spencer, starts to worry that her podcast helped put the wrong man away, and embarks on a journey of the conscience. Poppy is simply unable to live her life without knowing the truth, not only about this case but in any case she works—this sentiment kind of sums up Poppy as a whole.
On the surface, Truth Be Told seems like a pretty straightforward premise, but the show has a lot more in store for its viewers. There are so many facets to each character, and they are all examined in this eight-episode season. It never feels like too much is going on, but once you finish that last episode, you have learned so much about all of the characters. While presented with backstory on each person, mysteries continue to be presented and solved like a revolving door throughout the entire season.
What starts as a murder mystery quickly evolves into a multi-family drama, a look at what survival in prison entails, and just how impactful a mental illness can be on a community. Poppy is also forced to face her father with the information that she is helping a (now) white supremacist in possibly getting out of prison. There are layers upon layers of emotional weight in this show, and a lot of social commentary weaved in. I felt almost disoriented through the entire watch, as new information would be uncovered and switch the narrative on its head.
The main focus of Truth Be Told is finding out who really killed the neighbor, Chuck Buhrman, played by Nic Bishop, and why. The answers surrounding the murder opens a Pandora’s box of dysfunction, led by his twin daughters Josie and Lanie, both played by Lizzy Caplin. The clues often lead to more questions, and I can honestly say that the majority of my assumptions about what would happen ended up being incorrect.
It takes a lot to keep my attention these days, and in fact, the only two shows I have been able to really dig into are both Apple TV originals. This is not an advertisement because there is only one more show that I care to delve into before I run out of things that look interesting. Also, I have read some rather scathing reviews about Truth Be Told, which are likely just as valid as my praise for it, but the fact is that the show posses a talented and star-studded cast and it taps into that prevalent true crime genre.
I certainly am glad that I gave the show a chance, and if Apple keeps putting out this kind of original content, I might just have to keep it beyond the free trial. The fact that there are so many true crime shows and police procedurals out there that I cannot find engaging speaks to how well I feel Truth Be Told was done. It’s the little things keeping me sane right now, and this show just happens to make that list.
