What if everything you think you know about your life is a lie?
That’s exactly what happens to 30-year-old Andy Oliver (The Man in the High Castle, Bella Heathcote) in the upcoming thriller Pieces of Her on Netflix (which airs all eight episodes on Friday, March 4).
Based on the novel of the same name by Karin Slaughter, the series tells the story of Andy and her mother Laura (Tony Colette from Unbelievable), after women have a horrific experience near death in a diner in a small town in Georgia. When the media realizes the situation, it triggers a chain of unexpected events, causing Andy to make a dangerous late night escape from the city. Hungry for answers about her mother’s mysterious past, she soon reveals shocking secrets that shatter her entire existence.
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But even before all the trauma, violence, and persecution occurs, the mother-daughter relationship is not exactly what one would call a perfect picture.
“It’s a little tense, a little torn,” Colette told TVLine. “My hero spends his whole life trying to protect Andy from all sorts of truths, and that doesn’t work for anyone. You can’t do this in life! Andy suffers from this. She has low self-esteem. She is frustrated with life and can’t connect properly. We go to this diner and I try to attract her and tell her I’m there for her, and she’s so dismissive. Then something much bigger and harder happens and we are forced to do something else.
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The media attention turns women’s lives upside down, and shortly after, Andy is alone and runs away, questioning everything she ever knew about her mother and their life together. As a result, the relationship between the two “changes and changes and changes again,” Heathcott said.
“You’re as sick as your secrets,” she says. “The revelations that happen and the nature in which they come to her… Andy barely had time to process one truth before something else was revealed.”
After sharing their traumatic experience, Laura quickly separates from her daughter for specific reasons that slowly unfold over time. But to say more would be too close to the territory of the spoilers.
“Once she’s been exposed and Laura’s face is everywhere, she knows her past will be knocking on her door, so she tries to push her daughter away,” Colette said. “She is trying to save her. It’s a bit of panic and protection. She built a house of cards and she started shaking. She tries to keep him upright, but everything will fall.