Pieces of Her (2022)
Netflix
Creator: Charlotte Stoudt
Starring: Toni Collette; Bella Heathcote; Jessica Barden; Gil Birmingham
Toni Collette can be a dividing force among audiences, but there is no denying her talent. Bella Heathcote gives a stellar performance here and is the one that keeps us engaged in this 8 episode season.
Charlotte Stoudt comes from shows like Homeland, Fosse/Verdon and House of Cards, so she is no novice and no stranger to this kind of thing. Problem is, she kind of outthinks herself and gets herself stuck in some weird situations that has you thinking – “wait, what? Then why did – wait” which is not good for any series.
Pieces of Her starts out making you think one thing, then goes another way, then goes another way still. Great for soap operas on a 10 year mission, but not so great for an 8 episode series.
Speaking of soap operas, this thing is about mother and daughter and a very corrupt and crooked billionaire family. So yea, that just about fits. It plays towards family and crushes and romance and all that stuff – and does the soap opera twist so many times, i got lost and stopped caring.
I would love a great story, but this thing tells two sets of flashbacks, plus two current storylines and all of them have a twist or two and all of them you could really care less about. I man, I don’t care who is back stabbing who, but mainly I think that’s because I’m a guy. I thought this was going to be an action packed Bourne Identity kind of show, but by eps 3 you realize it’s about a daughter and her rich family and you just start rolling your eyes.
8 episodes was plenty for this kind of thing, I was about to quit at episode 6, but I did want to muddle through, and it still really didn’t make any difference to me. I just checked my watch and shrugged my shoulders. I was proud I made it through a Toni Collette project though, that took some guts and stamina. She usually is very harsh on my palate, but I made it through. Sad that that is the crowning achievement of this entire series, but I think that tells you all you need to know about it.
