In a crowded TV landscape, it’s quite a feat when a series breaks through to audiences in the way that “All Her Fault” did on Peacock. The twisty mystery, led by Sarah Snook’s Marissa Irvine, tallied 46 million hours watched in its first three weeks on Peacock, and landed as the top show the week after its release on Luminate’s streaming lists.
It was all helmed by creator, writer and executive producer Megan Gallagher, who adapted Andrea Mara’s novel of the same name into the Peacock series, which has also garnered critical recognition across the Golden Globes, the Actor Awards and more.
As she transformed the novel into an eight-episode series, Gallagher walked the line of “deepen[ing] a lot of the characterizations [and] expand[ing] relationships” while knowing what should remain untouched, including the striking opening scene when Marissa shows up to pick up her son, Milo, from a playdate to see that he — nor the babysitter — are there.
“I was gifted, through this book, with an absolutely incredible opening,” Gallagher told TheWrap in a new installment of How She Did It, presented by Peacock. “The things I wanted to stick to most in the book were these incredible twists and turns that Andrea had laid out. It’s such a pleasure as a writer to be given those things — those are all the kinds of things that you just absolutely would never turn away and we never considered turning away.”
Beyond the propulsive mystery that kept viewers ticking off and re-adding characters to their suspect list with every episode, what especially resonated with viewers was the show’s depiction of the sometimes invisible — but always present — labor carried by modern mothers who balance their family with their careers.
“I knew that was going to sing — I knew that audiences were going to respond to that,” Gallagher said.
The showrunner even recalled the uncomfortable response from the men in the room when Jake Lacy first read Peter’s Episode 2 line telling Marissa, “You just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” “Well, no one tells women what to do!” Gallagher said.
That stress — which is heightened to the max when Milo goes missing — is portrayed masterfully by Snook in her first post-“Succession” role, but what made her the perfect Marissa in Gallagher’s eyes was the range the actress delivered, even while her character is experiencing trauma practically the whole series.
“We knew there was going to be a profound amount of hysterics and crying. I think an actress who isn’t as skilled as Sarah might have become lost in the trauma,” Gallagher said. “She might have forgotten that even somebody in trauma has a personality outside of that, and we needed to see glimpses of who Marissa is outside of the trauma.”
Part of that personality and lightness is brought out by Dakota Fanning’s Jenny, whom Marissa leaned on amid Milo’s disappearance. Their friendship, which kicks off after they show up to a school function wearing the same dress well before Milo’s kidnapping, was crucial for Gallagher, who noted “These two women have every reason to hate each other.”
“I know too many women who, even in the most difficult of circumstances, show up as the best version of themselves, not the worst, and I’m tired of seeing women pitted against each other for drama on television and cat fights … everybody just goes for the low-hanging fruit,” Gallagher said, explaining they never wanted to throw suspicion on Jenny as a suspect.
“There’s so much suspicion everywhere — they’re our warm little core, and that friendship feels remarkable … because these two women shouldn’t be friends and then they are,” she said.
The next challenge was sticking the landing with the limited series’ conclusion. “I feel like so many [thrillers] that we watch today start out really great and then run out of gas by the end, and I really value eight hours of people’s time,” she said. “I’m always going to be working towards an ending that means something and that feels satisfying.”
After unveiling Peter’s role in the situation — he swapped his and Marissa’s dead baby with Carrie’s (Sophia Lillis) living one after a fatal car crash that set up Carrie’s kidnapping intentions — the finale sees Marissa poison Peter via his peanut allergy, leading him to fall to his death without an EpiPen in sight.
Marissa, however, gets off scot-free, thanks to Michael Peña’s Detective Alcaras, who, after dealing with his own family struggles with his neurodivergent son, can’t bring himself to send Milo into the foster system.
It’s a storyline especially close to Gallagher’s heart, given that her son has cognitive disabilities. “I’ve never put any of that on the screen before,” she said. “That ending just felt right.”
Gallagher and the “All Her Fault” team will do it all again as they adapt Katherine Faulkner’s mystery novel, “The Break-In,” which was greenlit by Peacock on Thursday.
“All Her Fault” is now streaming on Peacock.
