REVIEW: ‘Secrets We Keep’ Will Give You Whiplash

Secrets We Keep (Reservatet) has much to say in its short, allotted runtime. From creator Ingeborg Topsøe and director Per Fly, this crime thriller starts its mystery at a speed run, leaving little time to let the suspense build and settle in place. This whiplash viewing experience does find a steady pace later on and is unafraid to show how wholly out of touch its wealthier characters are. Still, with such a limited episode count, this mystery thriller doesn’t give enough beats for its audience to digest the discoveries unearthed. And that’s a shame.

Secrets We Keep is set in a wealthy, isolated neighborhood north of Copenhagen, almost like a bubble separating the wealthy from the rest. The physical divide is apparent long before the series entirely takes off. It is further reinforced by how the core group of wealthy characters employ and talk about their au pairs. For those unfamiliar, au pairs are typically outsourced childcare providers and household workers. The dissection of society’s treatment of this vulnerable group of workers is one of the more blatant topics Topsøe explores.

Central to the mystery is Rose (Donna Levkovski), an au pair working for Katarina (Danica Curcic) and Rasmus (Lars Ranthe). Her disappearance not long after Rose tries to talk with Katarina’s neighbor, Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen), and Cecilie’s au pair, Angel (Excel Busano), about something bothering her sparks an immediate suspicion in Cecilie. Something must be wrong, yet Katarina and Rasmus dismiss her concerns.

An au pair’s disappearance triggers a landslide of discoveries in rapid order.

The police are also dismissive. A Filipina au pair has gone missing? That happens all the time. They assign the case to a newly minted investigator, Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), who is out of her element. Taking matters into her own hands, Cecilie obsesses over the disappearance. However, the more clues are uncovered, the more she is forced to acknowledge that something is off in her home. As her priorities shift away from the case to her house, it becomes clear that Cecilie is not the savior she would like to believe herself to be.

Locked in at six episodes and committed to an average runtime of 40 minutes per episode, crafting a compelling mystery in a short time is a hefty task. Unfortunately, to set up the mystery, well-earned suspense and dread are sacrificed in Secrets We Keep‘s first half to move the plot forward. Things move with such speed that it almost impacts how character reactions come across. Cecilie’s urgency immediately after Rose disappears is almost odd, partly because we get minimal time to explore her and her personality before the disappearance.

Things fare better in the Secrets We Keep‘s second half. There is more balance between pushing the plot forward and building suspense. With more secrets unveiled, the waters become muddy, creating more fascinating possibilities for where the plot will go. The suspense intensifies when Cecilie’s actions return to haunt her, and the escalation hits juicy heights. The biggest reveals are surprising, but thankfully, not out of left field, due partly to the tinier segue moments baked into the plot earlier.

Secrets We Keep finds its sweet spot halfway through and never lets go.

While Secrets We Keep focuses heavily on Cecilie and her family life, the real heart of the series centers on Angel and the au pair community. Making her acting debut in the series, Excel Busano’s Angel offers a glimpse into one au pair’s experience navigating the complexities of her society. Her status in the country is fragile, something community members remind her of. Coupled with conversations Cecilie experiences between her husband, Katarina, and Rasmus, there is a necessary conversation being sparked by Secrets We Keep surrounding au pairs, how they are treated, and – inexplicably – motherhood.

When not having discussions surrounding these things, Topsøe also takes time to explore toxic masculinity through Cecilie’s son, Viggo (Lukas Zuperka), and his interactions with Katarina’s son, Oscar (Frode Bilde Rønsholt). Through Zuperka’s introspective performance, it is easy to see the complicated terrain Viggo has to navigate as a teen boy. How he handles the situations thrust upon him further emphasizes Angel’s impact on him and intensifies Cecilie’s growing insecurities around her mothering.

Cecilie has other struggles, too. For most of the series, she’s a bit of a one-note character, with much of what we see being more surface-level. She certainly comes across better than the other people in her life. No one she associates with is great, though. The compromised morality clearly assists in misdirecting the audience. But, as the main character, she’s not compelling enough to care about and is more symbolic of the privilege she embodies than anything else.

Despite this, most of the series’s elements culminate in an impactful finale that surprises but ultimately highlights the disparities in privilege depending on one’s status. Explaining further will ruin the surprise. Just prepare for grueling bittersweetness as the camera pans back in the final moments of Secrets We Keep.

Secrets We Keep is a decent binge-watch. Its first half prioritizes plot over cultivating dread early on. It finds its balance halfway through, ultimately coming through with an ending that will shock and prompt discussions. However, it needed to take a beat to let the suspense grow and be savored properly. Without those moments to pause, the suspense doesn’t find its legs late in the game, undercutting the overall thrill.

Secrets We Keep is now streaming on Netflix.