On Screen: “All Her Fault”

All Her Fault

Best known as Shiv Roy on HBO’s “Succession” and a 2025 Tony-winner for Broadway’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Sarah Snook is one of our most formidable actresses. Now she stars in “All Her Fault,” a mystery thriller that pivots on every parent’s worst nightmare.

When Marissa Irvine (Snook) arrives to pick up her five-year-old son Milo (Duke McCloud) from a playdate in a Chicago suburb, she discovers that the woman who answers the door doesn’t have her child — and there never was a playdate. Milo has been kidnapped.

Panicked, Marissa and her husband Peter (Jake Lacy) along with their extended family — Peter’s recovering drug-addict sister Lia (Abby Elliott), their disabled younger brother Brian (Daniel Monks) and Marissa’s business partner Colin (Jay Ellis) — attempt to figure out what happened during the earlier timeline.

Apparently, the Irvines’ nanny Ana (Kartiah Veraga) was befriended by Carrie (Sophia Lillis), a nanny employed by another mother, Jenny Kaminski (Dakota Fanning), to care for Milo’s schoolmate Jacob. And they were both part of the crowd at the Chicago Marathon.

Since Marissa and Jenny are both hard-working moms, they carry understandable guilt about relying too much on hired help. Undoubtedly, their respective husbands also bear responsibility for not being present for their children.

That’s repeatedly reflected, along with fear and dread, as they work with methodical Police Detective Alcaras (Michael Pena), who faces a dilemma with his own neurodivergent adolescent son, Sam (Orlando Ivanovick).

When the Irvines ask the public for help to find Milo, the media immediately attacks affluent Marissa — while, as long-hidden secrets and betrayals surface, various friends and family are all under suspicion.

So — whodunnit? And why?

Based on Andrea Mara’s novel, the limited series — with its unexpected plot twists — was created by Megan Gallagher, who delves into the concept of blame and how eager we are to use it to deflect accountability.