Apple TV+
Based on the novel by Laura Lippman and adapted for television by Alma Har’el,Lady of the Lake” upon Apple TV+ “The Story of Women” is a story about female ambition and what happens when that ambition is denied. It is set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1966 and revolves around two women: Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) is a Jewish housewife and mother who escapes her monotonous life and pursues her lifelong goal of becoming a journalist. On the other side of town, Cleo Johnson (Moses IngramA young black mother, Cleo (Jackie) is determined to give her two sons a better life. But while her husband, Slappy (Byron Bowers), pursues his dream of becoming a comedian, Cleo is relegated to working as a department store window model, bartender and bookkeeper for big-time gangster Shel Gordon (Wood Harris). The women initially lead parallel lives, but their worlds collide on Thanksgiving Day. Despite its compelling characters and setting, Lady in the Lake never becomes the noir thriller it could have been. Har’el embeds the story in baffling surrealist moments. As a result, Ingram’s Cleo is positioned as a bystander in her own story, while Portman’s Maddie emerges as an insufferable, unpleasant character who will achieve her ends at any cost.
“Lady in the Lake” opens with a horrific crime: A young girl goes missing after watching the Thanksgiving parade, spurring the community to action. Shut out of the search party and frustrated by her own inaction, Maddie can’t take it anymore. Enraged, she packs a suitcase, leaves her husband Milton (Brett Gelman) and teenage son Seth (Noah Jupe) behind, and moves to The Bottom, a black neighborhood in Baltimore. Wanting to prove herself, Maddie joins the search party and discovers the girl’s body in the lake. She then uses her “heroism” to infiltrate the editorial staff of The Baltimore Star.
While Maddie is busy building her career, Cleo is struggling to make ends meet. Needing to make more money, she takes a new position under Shel Gordon, which ultimately leads to her death. Invigorated by her work at the newspaper and her life at the Bottom, Maddie decides to use Cleo’s death to further her career, but things don’t go as planned. Despite Portman and the entire cast being great actors, Maddie is exhausting. She is so consumed with self-reflection and carving out her own path that she never stops to consider how her existence as a middle-class white woman is upending the ecosystem of the Bottom and literally putting its black residents at risk. As a result, as the full extent of Maddie’s past is revealed, the audience is forced to do everything in their power to sympathize with her.
“Lady in the Lake” is frustrating because it has a strong underlying story. But Har’el forces the viewer to dig into dizzying, unnecessary exposition and bizarre sequences. Episode 6, “I Know Who Killed Cleo Johnson,” is a baffling and off-the-rails piece. For the entire 45-minute runtime, the viewer walks with Maddie through an overlong dream sequence. The production design by JC Molina is vibrant, the textures and colors of Shiona Turini’s costumes sparkle, and the hair and makeup by Jose Zamora and Claudia Humburg, respectively, are superb, but little is said here. In fact, removing this episode would have made for a much sharper series overall.
Unfortunately, the show’s mystery fades as its slivers of surrealism begin to trickle into the story, as if the show had glued two detailed tapestries together to create a complete painting in its final hour. The limited series is crammed with so many details that it forces the viewer to consider too many things at once, leaving them confused instead of suspenseful.
Women have always paid a price for pursuing their ambitions, especially in the pre-women’s rights era. In “Lady in the Lake,” Maddie and Cleo are determined to get more out of life. As the two women struggle with their new roles and endemic misogyny, the series fails to maintain suspenseful tension and instead repeats what we already know. After all, racism comes at a high cost, but privilege (and whiteness) may set you free.
The first two episodes of “Lady in the Lake” will premiere on Apple TV+ on July 19, with new episodes available every Friday.
