New Financial Year 2024/2025 Streaming - Lady in the Lake - Miniseries

Lady in the Lake is the latest Apple TV+ I smashed. Well that said I also caught up with Severance over the weekend. Yes I have been busy.

This is one of the most random miniseries I have watched in 2024. It is based on the novel of the same name by Laura Lippman. 

The seven episode run commenced in mid-July. The finale, My story concluded on Friday.

Apple TV+ have loads of quality content right now. This sadly isn't their best. But what is this Natalie Portman lead series all about you ask? Cause let's be honest, this is not getting the Presumed Innocent or Bad Monkey press/advertising.

In 1960s Baltimore, an investigative journalist working on an unsolved murder clashes with a woman working to advance the agenda of the city's Black community. She ditches her abusive, overbearing husband and Pikesville home to pursue a career as a newspaper reporter. She becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery of two separate killings: eleven-year-old Tessie Durst and a bartender named Cleo Johnson.

SPOILER ALERTS INCOMING.

By the time Lady in the Lake‘s finale comes to a close, the two women at the heart of the series have gotten what they wanted. 

Maddie (Portman) has solved the murder of Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) & made a name for herself as a journalist. 

Cleo has faked her death, escaped to Europe with her family and launched a new career.

And then there’s Ferdie (Y'lan Noel), whose career and heart are in tatters thanks to his relationship with Maddie.

So why was it not Apple's best? Basically it was a mess. It was super random with musical numbers, plot and storylines happening, then adding in more social issues on top of what could have been a fun murder mystery.

In the end I was disappointed I sat through all seven lacklustre episodes. I was expecting more from a Natalie Portman lead series. Plus I always like a miniseries. Hopefully unlike Presumed Innocent which was also meant to be a miniseries, this doesn't turn into a series. 

Alongside Portman, Ingram and Noel, Noah Jupe, Mike Epps, Byron Bowers. Josiah Cross & Pruitt Taylor Vince also star. If you have nothing else to watch, Lady in the Lake is streaming now on Apple TV+.