The Perfect Mother – Netflix Series Review

THE PERFECT MOTHER on Netflix is a new thriller series in four episodes. It’s a French, German, and Belgian co-production with mostly French spoken. The original title is Une mère parfaite and you’ll see several familiar faces. Read our full The Perfect Mother series review here!

THE PERFECT MOTHER is a new Netflix thriller series that is mostly in French but also with quite a bit of German spoken, The story plays out in Paris and Berlin, so this obviously explains the languages spoken. The series is a French, German, and Belgian co-production (org. title Une mère parfaite) and it has everything you’d expect from a crime thriller.

WATCH THIS SERIES ON NETFLIX IF YOU LIKE…

All the Harlan Coben series – though this isn’t quite up to the level of the best series based on Coben’s novels >

Also, if you’re familiar with other Netflix series such as the German sci-fi series Dark or the very international Messiah, you’ll see several familiar faces.

Continue reading our The Perfect Mother series review below. All four episodes are out on Netflix from June 3, 2022.

So many lies mixed with truth

Throughout the four episodes of The Perfect Mother, you’ll be confronted with different versions of the truth. Or, to be exact, you’ll be watching a lot of versions of one specific event that ends with a young man being killed. That means we’ll be seeing a lot of lies. Often mixed with elements of truth, but you’ll struggle to figure out which is what.

Who killed him?

Why did they kill him?

And how many people know the truth?

These are the main questions asked in this Netflix series. Just like most other people in this series, you’ll probably change your perspective on things several times. Who is guilty (in some way) and is anyone really completely innocent?!

From the title alone, you can probably gather that the mother plays a big part in this story. The title refers to the mother of the young woman accused on having killed the young man. However, it could also refer (in a much lesser degree) to the mother of the young man.

Both mothers suffer from the same affliction; Believing their own child is good and pure and innocent. Even when faced with facts that point to the opposite.

A strong cast but few likable characters

In the title character as the mother, Hélène Berg, we see Julie Gayet who is always amazing. She has had a huge acting career for decades. If you look her up on IMDb, you’ll see titles such as the brilliant Raw (org. title Grave) or Murder Me, Monster (org. title Muere, monstruo, muere). However, do note that she was a producer of these films. Not an actor.

It seems like she is focusing on both acting and producing these days. And when it comes to producing, she is choosing some very exciting project that tends to be genre films, which mean we cover them.

Other key actors in The Perfect Mother include Andreas Pietschmann who will be familiar to every fan of the amazing German Netflix series Dark. He played “The Stranger” in that one. Also, you’ll see Tomer Sisley who was in the Netflix series Messiah (which sadly only got one season), and in the Netflix movie Don’t Look Up (2021).

Finally, as the daughter, Anya Berg, we see Eden Ducourant. She does an excellent job of showing very different sides of her character. Still, she ultimately becomes almost over-used as the story changes again and again. And again!

I never mind characters that aren’t likable. However, in The Perfect Mother series, you’ll probably end up disliking most of them. Either due to their ignorance and stupid decisions or because they deceive and lie for their own selfish purposes.

Watch The Perfect Mother series on Netflix now!

Frédéric Garson is the director of The Perfect Mother series on Netflix. Prior to working on this series, he directed several episodes of Insoupçonnable (2018) which is a French remake of the brilliant series The Fall. The original starred Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan. If you haven’t watched it already, then I highly recommend it. The original, that is.

The Perfect Mother was written by Thomas Boullé and Carol Noble. Thomas Boullé also wrote on the mini-series Pour Sarah which starred Eden Ducourant of this new series. She had the title role back then and is now the daughter of the title character. Carol Noble has written on all kinds of TV series. Including the iconic British soap EastEnders back in the 1990s.

Ultimately, I like the twist that is meant to explain everything in the final half of episode 4 (the last episode). And yet, it also feels like we’ve been dragged around with various “versions of the truth” for three episodes for no good reason. So much so that I find myself thinking: So is this the real truth or just another version tainted by the person telling it?

Each of the four episodes has a runtime of around 45 minutes, so you can watch the whole The Perfect Mother (Une mère parfaite) series in around three hours.

The Perfect Mother series is out on Netflix from June 3, 2022.

Details

Director: Frédéric Garson
Writers: Thomas Boullé, Carol Noble
Cast: Julie Gayet, Tomer Sisley, Eden Ducourant, Andreas Pietschmann, Cyril Gueï, Halima Ilter