White Lies

White Lies: South African Noir. A journalist is drawn into a tangled web of crime when her estranged brother is murdered and his wife left in a coma. Her teenage niece and nephew are suspects and she must now try and care for them. She is a stranger to them though. A hard boiled detective is convinced that the nephew did it. But a myriad of suspects emerge as a shoal of red herrings swim into the script. Some pointed social commentary on race, class and corruption in present day South Africa. There are some violent scenes but the real violence exposed is land grabs. A few interesting plot twists. Created by Sean Steinberg and written by Darrel Bristow-Bovey. Eight episodes on Channel 4. 7.5/10.

This is a much better than average TV murder mystery series. The murder mystery starts with the discovery of two murders in the same house. A newspaper reporter who is related to the victims and their family, begins investigating and almost immediately runs into opposition from a police detective that she has confronted before. Unfortunately for both of them, they discover that they need each other to solve the mystery which takes many twists and turns, some of them sordid. There is far more going on than you realize until all is uncovered. Everybody is hiding secrets. This is definitely worth watching.

"A decent script and thrilling show that did keep us guessing who the murderer was, and it was surprisingly well thought out as a story, but a classic modern South African letdown.

The dialogue may as well have been written for a 10th-grade stage play. I feel for Natalie Dormer, having been subjected to such bad material, especially coming from GOT to this. The South African cast was monotone and unconvincing throughout the show. The most believable performances in the entire show were the gangsters and skelems. Yet another South African show that just can't seem to hit the mark.

I feel for the cast as their cringe-worthy performances were clearly a result of poor directing and production. Yikes."

I used to consider Lifetime or Hallmark stuff are bad, but if compared them with this White Lies, they'd immediately transform into masterpiece. I don't even know why I need to write a review on this horrible drama series. The screenplay is so bad, all the actors, except Dormer, who's also the producer, are just so amateurish, especially the young guy who plays the son of the murdered parents and the elder brother to his sister. His bad acting in addition to the bad screenplay and those horrible actors who played the cops, are the major reasons that nearly ruined this drama from the very beginning. I have to admit that I didn't waste my time to watch the whole eight episodes; I really didn't need to since it's so predictable. After in the middle of the second episode, I skipped to the last one, and voila, nothing really out of my prediction. I have to say that even in the last episode, it's still so bad and I was lucky I didn't so mindlessly waste my time going through the whole series.

Writing this review is perhaps the hardest one that I've ever did, because it's just so bad that I don't even know how to put it into words to describe it. To fulfill the required words is just so painful like a torture.

I'm only on episode 5 atm. Natalie Dormer is fantastic in every role she portrays. This is an interesting story so far I think I've figured it out but my mind changes with each episode. The acting by other cast is pretty basic. The brother and sisters acting is really bad and at times uncomfortable to watch. If it wasn't for Natalie I don't think I'd be sitting through each episode although I need to finish so I can get through to the end.

The scenery is nice to look at, the writing could've been a little less wishy washy.

I will persevere and see if my thoughts on what the go is are right or if I'm completely wrong.

Overall I would say it's a worthy watch if only for Natalie.