Facebook Watch ‘Sacred Lies’
If you’re looking for an inspired tale of a teenage girl overcoming abuse, misogyny, dillusion and the challenges of juvenile detention then you might want to check out the new Facebook Watch drama web series Sacred Lies.
Sacred Lies is a 10 episode, half-hour drama series on that plays on Facebook Watch. The show premiered on Friday, July 27. Unlike most streaming shows on rival platforms, Facebook has chosen to launch episodes every Friday at 9pm ET/6pm PT rather than put all episodes up all at once for binge viewing. Sacred Lies is available at www.facebook.com/sacredliesshow on Facebook Watch.
Sacred Lies comes from Executive Producers Raelle Tucker and Scott Winant. It is produced by Blumhouse Television. The series bases it dark premise on the Grimm Brothers tale titled The Handless Maiden as well as the Stephanie Oakes novel The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly. The show follows the journey of a handless teen who escapes from a cult and finds herself in juvenile detention, suspected of knowing who killed her cult leader.
It took one episode to get me to me, but now I’m hooked. I wasn’t sure at first why I cared, but the heavy flashbacks developed a compelling story of Minnow Bly, played by Elena Kampouris, who is probably best known as Paris Miller in My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016). Minnows wounded spirit and body find resilience while she bides her time in juvenile detention. Over the course of the first few episodes viewers literally watch Minnow bloom as she reclaims personal choice and personal perspective—perhaps more importantly, she rediscovers her own personal power.
The flashbacks reveal Minnow’s journey from trailer park kid to the cult of “Charlie,” the name given to God (a god) by The Prophet (Toby Huss). The Prophet preaches separation, racism and a twisted form of faith as he leads his small troop into the forest as they await the coming of Charlie and judgment of humankind. The always smart Minnow discovers discontinuities of faith and challenges the carefully curated belief systems nurtured by The Prophet and that sets up the fall of Minnow and the ministry.
The tension between belief systems fuels some great acting from atheist best friend Angel (Ryan Robbins) who proves more moral than those who profess themselves as fonts of morality. Ryan Robbins plays Minnow’s father, and arch believer and defender of the faith, Samuel Bly, in his most intense role (science fiction and genre fans will know him from a variety of genre shows including Sanctuary, Van Helsing, Arrow and The Magicians). An agonized and haunted Kevin Carroll serves up a multi-layered Dr. Alan Wilson, an FBI psychiatrist charged with discovering the truth behind Minnow’s past and what happened to the cult while battling his own demons.
Sacred Lies walks an uncomfortable edge but it also celebrates humanity at its most fundamental level. This is a little drama about what can happen when regular people perceive the world so differently that they do separate from the world in not just belief but behavior—but it is also the story of the people caught in that incredible singularity, orbiting the distortion if they know it or not, and fighting every moment not to fall in.
Watch Sacred Lies if you want to be reminded how valuable paying attention to the world around you is, and what can happen if you slip, ever so slightly, into an alternative reality where subtle changes in variables result in changes to everything.
Note: make sure you click “HD” under settings or the show will default to a low quality stream.
An edgy coming of age drama based on the Grimm Brothers tale titled 'The Handless Maiden' as well as the Stephanie Oakes novel 'The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly.' The web series explores faith, redemption, weakness, friendship, truth and fear. A well-curated collection of complex characters face moral tensions that fuel some great acting from series regulars Elena Kampouris, Kevin Carroll, Ryan Robbins and Kiana Maderia.
- Free