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Jul 18, 2024 By Lily Moayeri Photography by Apple TV+ Web Exclusive

This seven-part limited series turns Laura Lippman’s bestselling 2019 novel into a gripping noir thriller. Created and direct by Alma Har’el (Honey Boy, Bombay Beach), Lady in the Lake stars Academy Award winner Natalie Portman as narcissistic Jewish housewife-turned-amateur investigative reporter Maddie Schwartz and Emmy-nominated Moses Ingram (The Queen’s Gambit, Obi-Wan Kenobi) as Cleo Johnson, self-sacrificing mother of two who is doing what she needs to “step up” as a Black woman in 1960s Baltimore.

It is Cleo who is the (deceased) “lady in the lake,” on whose death Maddie becomes fixated. Not because Maddie cares about Cleo but because this mystery is a great way for her to catapult her self-appointed new career. But before Cleo, it’s a young girl, Tessie Durst, who first disappears, and is later found dead, discovered by Maddie and Judith (Mikey Madison, Better Things, Scream VI), Maddie’s landlord’s daughter. Maddie has a landlord because early in the series, she leaves her husband and son. Why she makes such a weighty decision is unclear other than she’s looking for something beyond her Mrs. Maisel-before-she-became-a-comedian existence.

Maddie shares more than just her first initial with Midge Maisel. She tears around town like a Midge/Jackie O. (coincidentally whom she portrayed in Jackie) fashion clash, grabbing meat for dinner from the butcher, (another overlap with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s premiere episode) and demanding to try on the dress in the department store window, which is being modeled by Cleo a living, breathing mannequin.

Posing in windows is just one of Cleo’s many jobs, among them, barmaid and bookkeeper, plus volunteering for progressive senator, Myrtle Summer (Angela Robinson). It’s when she runs an errand for her main boss, the chilling crime lord Shell Gordon (Wood Harris, Creed) who operates all the shady activities in the area, that Cleo is put in the crosshairs of his criminal dealings, making her a liability.

Cleo’s and Maddie’s lives are parallel to each other. They only intersect with Cleo’s post-mortem voiceover, in which she berates Maddie for leveraging her death into a career move. Cleo makes clear is how she wishes Maddie would leave her death alone. But Maddie is not only myopic, she is also avoiding facing her own longstanding demons. Instead, she plants herself in a Black neighborhood, which is as incongruous as it is obnoxious.

Maddie is in turns manic and flirtatious. She manipulates everyone in her vicinity into doing her bidding, including a mentally ill imprisoned suspect. She is repeatedly told that she doesn’t look Jewish by non-Black people and deals with up-down glances and invasion of her personal space, not to mention uninvited touches. Portman is more than a little hysterical in her teeth-baring portrayal of Maddie, she of the questionable Baltimore accent.

In contrast, Ingram is nuanced. A replacement for Lupita Nyong’o who was originally slated for the role of Cleo, Ingram is an inspired choice. She brings a sensitivity and simmering sorrow to the part that is palpable. The episodes that feature more of Ingram are the ones that make Lady in the Lake. As the series moves forward, the screen time tips toward Portman, whose mannered performance is hard to take without Ingram to balance it out.

The series’ detailed production design is yet another commonality with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel which puts the viewer squarely in both its time period and its locations. The costumes, hair and makeup similarly advance the storytelling. Marcus Norris’ string- and brass-filled score elevates the tension while the on-point musical performances at Cleo’s nightclub job take the vibe of the series to another level.

Lady in the Lake premieres with the first two hour-long episodes, then one episode weekly, on Fridays. Overall, not a minute is wasted with key information packed into every frame, each minuscule element filling in another piece of these multilayered and intersecting stories, guided by a cast that grasps and leans into the complexity of its setting. Were it not for Portman dragging the series down, it would be a must-watch. As it stands, skip the sixth episode altogether and the rest fits together a lot better. (www.tv.apple.com/us/show/lady-in-the-lake)

Author rating: 7/10