Want a good story? View the sideline players

When most folks watch the news, they focus on the key players.
Some writers, however, eye the people on the side. That’s what led to “The Good Wife” and now to “The Last Thing He Told Me” (shown here), a sometimes-compelling Jennifer Garner mini-series that starts Friday (April 14) on Apple TV+. Consider:
— Michelle and Robert King were intrigued by all the women who manage to seem stoic as their husbands are charged with evil deeds. That led to “The Good Wife,” which had a seven-year run.
— Laura Dave was watching a TV interview, with Linda Lay defending her husband, Enron chief Kenneth Lay. She envisioned a story about a woman “who believes that the world is telling her one thing and yet she knows, in her soul, who she has married,” she told the Television Critics Association.
In that case, Lay was convicted and died (of a heart attack, at 64) shortly before sentencing. In 2012, a decade after the Enron bankruptcy, Dave began working on her novel.
By the time “The Last Thing He Told Me” reached book stores (in May of 2021), it had been embraced by Lauren Neustadter, head of Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s company. She “was one of the early-adapter fans of this book, which has now sold two million copies, largely thanks to her and Hello Sunshine,” said Josh Singer, a screenwriter who is married to Dave.
That company has turned books into movies – “Gone Girl,” “Wild” and “Where the Crawdads Sing.” But this would be different, Singer said. “Lauren said, ‘This isn’t a movie …. I think it’s six episodes.’”
(It turned out to be seven, but some viewers might have preferred a sleeker four or five. For that matter, some will end up questioning many of the shaky choices that Garner’s character makes.)
That sort of length is needed, Garner insists. “There are so many misdirects … that it unfolds slowly.”
This becomes more than a mystery about the husband, Neustadter said. “The relationship between Hannah and Bailey is ultimately the heartbeat of the piece.”
Parenting is unfamiliar and uneasy turf for Hannah (Garner); her teen step-daughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) is distant, distrustful and quick to disagree with her.
For Garner, this is sort of familiar territory; in real life, she has a pre-teen son and two teen daughters. “I understand not being able to do anything right,” she said.
But in this case, a connection is vital; Bailey may have clues to the past. “She remembers stories that don’t sound right anymore,” Rice said, “and she sees everything in a new light.”
Adolescence can be tricky under any circumstance. It’s even trickier when you’re running around with your step-mom, trying to find the elusive truth.