User reviews

This is an interesting take on a current phenomenon, the crime podcast. Poppy Parnell (Academy Award Winner Octavia Spencer) is an investigative crime reporter turned podcaster. So the premise of the series is untangling a mystery per season. The cast and performances are solid. The tone and music are evocative. My biggest problem was with how the series is held hostage to its premise. Because each episode contains portions of a podcast, the pace is dampened by heavy handed moralizations and narrative. The first season's mystery was compelling enough to compensate for it (I consistently rated those episodes 8/great) but, despite the addition of Kate Hudson to the second season, the podcast narrative ground the series to a slow crawl. Overall, I give this series only a 7 (okay) out of 10. {Mystery Drama}

... in order to see where it goes. But it's difficult. Poppy is extremely unlikeable and I'm not a great fan of Octavia's acting here. I also find her relationships with the two men (husband and ex) very mismatched - I cant see either of them being in a relationship with her to be honest. Aaron Paul is great but he isn't seen as often as needed to hold this cast up. The Lanie/Josie characters are a bit of a caricature and over-acted. I'm hoping they will pull something out for the last few episodes that surprises us and redeems the series.

I really liked season 1 and season 2 of Truth Be Told. I thought season 2 was better than 1. Season 3 has me feeling like "I'm good!". The premise of this show is a good one. Poppy Scoville is a true crime podcaster. Some of the episodes leave me scratching my head like why would the police give her info like that. I liken her to a modern day version of Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She wrote. The busy body who gets all the scoops and figures things out before the cops do. Season 3 is dragging on and is holding no interest for me. I think I have 1 episode to go. The writing has to get better if I'm going to watch again.

It starts really big.. Scenario is initially very engaging, you want to binge it..

But after 3rd - 4th episode, it starts to introduce all the cliches that were ever produced on TV.

Also, I am not sure if law works that way. A podcast producer playing with incriminating evidence and acting as a one woman police force? People getting into prison with testimonies etc?

These facts damage the plausibility of the series. The writer of the work that the series is based on is a lawyer, I can understand playing with itsy bitsy legal details for the sake of story telling but all in all, the method damages the quality.

The idea of the show is not bad but the writing is just not good! The characters are all unlikable and there's no flow to the show. I'm not a fan of Octavia Spencer but I actually don't think it's her fault. The characters are written in a way that makes them look weak. One minute they have faith and care all about truth and justice and then all of a sudden they couldn't care less. In one scene they talk about how it's impossible to find a certain witness and in the next scene they're talking to that exact witness (just out of the blue). Not to mention that people seem to remember things that happened twenty years ago like it was yesterday. It's not believable.

Another thing that really bother me, is that the main character starts the show worrying her actions may have contributed to the destruction of a young man's life but to get him out of it she has no problem ruining other people's lives on the most faint evidences (if you can even call it that) or stupid speculations.

The acting is mostly ok (although not always) but it feels like they are trying way to hard to sell it. There were scenes that should have made me cry but I felt nothing. It felt forced. It just didn't have a true feel to it and by the end of the season we are left with plenty of unanswered questions. There's "closure" (or something of a sort), we learned what really happened but it doesn't make a lot of sense and if you really think about it, there's just a lot that doesn't add up. Also, the dialogue is not good. I found myself wondering many times "who would say that" or "who talks like that".

Can't recommend it, sorry.

I don't understand the negative reviews. I find the acting by Octavia Spencer and Aaron Paul (who I love) to be superb. My attention span is not what it used to be so I cannot watch slow moving shows. This one has kept my attention and I don't find myself wandering off because the story line is not just about the plot but also about the characters.

Season 1 is decent enough. Season 2 goes off the rails. Octavia Spencer and Kate Hudson have zero chemistry and the story sucks.

Apple TV got it right. I have seen Servant, Home before dark, sending Jacob and now Truth be told. Great mystery series about who done it in a different perspective than a usual. I binged this series in 2 days. Good character development and unveiling of characters are unique. Cinematography is refreshing and adequate. I'd love to see the 2nd season of this. Great acting by all actors.

I liked this show right off the bat, however it lost its steam for me after a few episodes. Dragged on and on and on. Disappointing.

Really loved this show. It's unique and original. Loved the idea of the behind the scenes of a crime podcaster. I think the season is well produced and I love Octavia Spencer. Was really glad they did a second season and hope there are more!

This is such a well rounded cast! Octavia Spencer is always amazing, I've been a fan for a while. Aaron Paul really surprised me here, he really brought So much emotion to his character. Ron Cephas Jones is also really awesome in here. Such an intense story that makes you feel so many emotions. It really makes you emotional for those who are wrongfully convicted and how much media can have an impact.

I gave season 1 an 8 star review... It was pretty decent, it has a lil drama in it but still decent. Season 2 is absolutely infested with unnecessary time waste drama about the most boring characters, it's just a lot of utter crappy boring stuff added to the main story to kill time and elongate it, I would give season 2 5 out of 10 stars, the main story cudve been ok but they just tried to milk too much screen time out of nothing. Season 1 also has some of that boring stuff, like her family and all but that much could be tolerated but now this is just too much, nobody cares.

Plot is good, scripts are not. Great cast squandered.

Thought it was passable to start. I just find myself being less and less engaged each episode. It's getting more and more ridiculous as it goes on, and not in an entertaining way.

Yes, the main character is annoying with her self righteousness, but that's the character. Not all characters are meant to be loveable. Good acting all around, some implausible twists and turns but I was hooked and binged watched the whole thing and that's saying something. And Lizzy Kaplan twice? Cool.

So many weird choices that make this show not good. I realllly wanted to like it but was so distracted by bad writing and continuity errors and odd editing. It's like a mediocre procedural but the story stretches over a season, and they misdirect SO HARD that it's not even clever anymore. Poppy is practically an antihero with how she accuses people to their face and gets people hurt. Weird prop choices too, a podcaster that sits 4ft from her mic and wears wireless beats? Uuuh, no. I imagine the beats are product placement for Apple, buuttt it distracted me every time I saw it. I originally watched because hale appleman is in season 2 but it's a small part. Fairly entertaining if you can realllly suspend disbelief and aren't distracted by errors.

I loved S1, S2 was OK (although multiple of the protagonists became increasingly unlikeable) and S3 is a disappointing, predictable disaster.

A lot of the characters of the show were never really likeable - Poppy and her family are incredibly self-righteous, accept no-one's flaws but their own and believe they are a force for good while leaving a trail of destruction behind. Under the premise of "justice" they feel entitled to harass whoever they feel like to advance their own agenda, which are often things as trivial as making a success of their podcast or their own curiosity. They constantly lecture everyone on morals, while setting that bar extremely low for themselves.

S1 was great because the core story line was an actual mystery. By S3, politics are the key focus of the show and the mystery is non-existent. The question of what happened is basically solved in the first episode, with the rest of the season focussing on an extremely simplified and reductionist narrative of how literally every white person is evil en every POC is a saint - or if they're flawed, that's OK because they mean well or they're a victim. I have a very multicultural family and lean very left politically, but this show was just horribly written. There was no nuance to anything - skin colour basically determined if someone would turn out a protagonist or antagonist (with maybe 1 exception on both sides, in an attempt to keep it unpredictable). How this writing was approved, I do not know. Somehow nobody intervenes when one of the main characters is an alcoholic and basically pressures and bullies and tries to control his traumatised teen daughter - somehow he is a protagonist as well, instead of sent to rehab or a therapist.

On the mystery/crime plot of the season: the most obvious clues and conclusions are somehow presented as genius contributions from Poppy, no matter how basic and predictable they are. In every scene there is at least one moment of unbelievable coincidence - people always walk in on exactly the right times, suddenly witness something super important or come up with an idea exactly when it is needed. No tension is built, because everything is solved immediately. As mentioned, the mystery is basically resolved in the first episode and the rest of the season only focusses on who to blame for it, while the suspects are barely given any depth or airtime. Other than that, the season just repeats the same storyline over and over. Multiple victims - but still no real mystery to what happened.

All in all, I would classify S3 more as a (badly written) political drama than a mystery show. Which would even be fine as a genre, but not with such poor character development, such extreme moral reductionism basis skin colour and such general simplicity, predictability and lack of plot-twists. Although I may watch S4, for the odd chance the show returns to what it was in S1.

Great story, sucks you in from the start. Octavia is amazing as usual, actually all the acting is great.

I was very weary about watching this show again after a terrible second season. I mean the 1st season was good, excellent story, cast was great. 2nd season was all over the place. I love Kate Hudson but the story was weak and zero chemistry. I had pretty much given up on it. Although, they've lost a few original cast member the show is back and even better with Gabrielle Union, Peter Gallagher and a few other names. . The new additions and strong story writing this season has been excellent and has me glued to the television. I'm so glad Apple TV renewed it! Even If if it ends after this season, at least it will go out better then it came in!

Truth Be Told is one of those shows that streaming services don't build their brand around or advertise a great deal, but do spend a bit of money on as they bolster their roster of shows. I'll be honest I'd never heard of it when I stumbled upon it on Apple TV.

The show centres on Poppy Parnell (Octavia Spencer) a podcast host who shot to fame for her coverage of a murder trial that saw teenage suspect Warren Cave (Aaron Paul) tried as an adult for the murder of his neighbour. Years later she begins to doubt if the correct man was sent down and begins to investigate the case once again to try and ensure justice is served.

Running for 3 seasons, Truth Be Told almost feels like 2 shows. The first season, while not perfect, stands up quite well. Largely thanks to the solid cast. The 2 leads are supported by Mekhi Phifer as Poppy's former lover turned PI and sidekick, Lizzy Caplan in a dual role as the twin sisters whose testimony sent Cave away and Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood, Ron Cephas Jones and Michael Beach as Poppy's sisters, father and husband.

Season 1 is one of those shows where it's not overly big or clever, and I managed to call where it was going to end pretty early on, but it's well made and acted so a fairly entertaining way to pass time.

Season 2 loses Paul and Caplan, but gains Kate Hudson as Micah Keith, a childhood friend of Poppy's who is thrust into the middle of a murder investigation when her husband is found dead with a mystery man. The lead cop on the case is Detective Aames (David Lyons) who must overcome his suspicions of Poppy.

Hudson leaves for season 3, but is replaced by Gabrielle Union's Eva, a former prostitute turned high school principal as they look to take down a human trafficking ring.

2 and 3 kind of merge into one, partly because the case 3 is based on has roots in a subplot of 2, but also because they both lack the direction of the first series, which felt like a properly written story, these feel quickly cobbled together and a lot more soap operatic.

They also aren't aided by poor writing that leaves a lot of the characters making mind-numbingly stupid decisions at every turn, with our lead Poppy being fairly selfish and unlikable at times. I'm not sure if it's a flaw with the character or the bizarro universe that this is set in, but this show seems to think Podcasts are a LOT bigger a deal than they are. When Poppy isn't accusing people of murder when there's an ongoing investigation, she's doing podcasts so the suspects, sometimes on the run, can hear her message. This reaches its zenith, or nadir depending on how you want to look at it, in an episode where the protagonists need the police to intervene at a crime scene. They know that the police won't respond to what's going on, but will if an important missing person is involved. Instead of just calling the police, Poppy does a live podcast, just on the off chance the cops are listening. I mean, it turns out they are, obviously, but this was the point suspension of disbelief crashed and burned.

The worst thing is, Season 3 did get my hopes up with the introduction of Eva. She's not only a character with some depth, but actually calls Poppy out for her nonsense. Given how this is resolved it becomes clear we're not actually meant to have been on her side.

Overall, this isn't a terrible show, but it's not really one I'd go out of my way to recommend. It's solidly made, I've no complaints with any of the cast, but instantly forgettable beyond a sense of missed opportunity. Not really worth seeking out, but a passable enough way to waste some time. Just brace for the drop in quality after season 1.

I enjoyed this so much that I binged watched both seasons! Definitely emotional, yet it will have you on the edge of your seat at times and will keep you guessing until the end. It's filled with plenty of twists. Don't listen to all the negative reviews! Please see for yourself! By the way, Season 2 starts a new story line.

The cast is great and the acting good. The pretense and concept are interesting. Every show has their flaws but these are just distracting. Yes, the writing isn't consistent. But it's the little things that bother me. For example, for two seasons straight, there has been a fireplace in the living room that is always on, even in the summer. People aren't that crazy in California. Also, I love that they're showing her as wealthy and successful but (A), no true crime podcaster makes millions (If anything, they'd have a few hundred thousand followers on IG, if they're lucky; and (B) you can show a wealthy religious woman without having a ridiculous private chapel in her house with stained glass windows and antique Catholic chapel pews and candlabras. That's just an example of quite a few things where logic distracts. Although I can't finish season 2, I still love the cast and look forward to seeing them in other things.

It's not so much the acting by Octavia, it's the contrast of her commitment to the case which is dramatic and yet shallow at the same time. For a journalist, she is constantly jumping to conclusions and seeming to derive deep insight from superficial efforts. Her lack of real regard for everyone around her -- especially her husband -- makes her unlikeable.

There is too much hand-wringing drama. The constantly furrowed brows on the twins, played by Lizzy Caplan, start to become distracting.

Overall, the script was just poor. The story felt like it meandered for 8 episodes and the dialogue made cringe. I stuck with it to the end, but it wasn't worth it.