I'm not one to nitpick on acting, except in egregious situations, but I think this is one of them worthy of that critique. The first half of the series is poorly acted (the writing doesn't help) and is just wholly uninteresting when it looks like a teen drama. Mare's daughter is full of the most boring and pointless plot line for the full series run.

The latter half of the series is much better as it becomes a more 'adult' criminal investigation but really drags it out when the surprise is not all that shocking for anyone who has seen a lot of this content, so they have to throw in multiple twists on the way to get there. Once again, there is significant overacting in the finale. And I didn't find it to be a very fulfilling conclusion. Really thought this economically depressed small-town setting would have been a great premise for this show, but it lacked execution.

Personally, I thought "Defending Jacob" was a much better produced crime investigation miniseries in 2021, exploring similar concepts while keeping you on edge longer and testing the values of truth, justice, family/friends and loyalty.