Drama
Unfamiliar
Filled with gritty violence and foul language, when it comes to this German spy drama, “unfamiliar” is how most viewers should stay.
What do you picture when you hear the words crime family? Perhaps you think of the powerful Corleone family in The Godfather. Or maybe you picture the mobsters in GoodFellas.
You probably don’t picture a bumbling older couple from a small town in England committing life-insurance fraud.
Retired couple Debbie and William Fendon are indeed the culprits in Can You Keep a Secret? on Paramount+. They weren’t trying to embark on a life of crime, though. Two months ago, Debbie really did think William was dead.
After she came home from a quick errand, she found William passed out in front of the television. When the town’s germaphobe general practitioner Dr. Harper came, she was too grossed out to actually touch William’s body, so Dr. Harper proclaimed him dead.
Shortly after Dr. Harper’s visit, William woke up and acted like his usual self. Turns out, he’d just overdosed on his medication for Parkinson’s Disease. But by the time Debbie tried to sort out the misunderstanding, the funeral home had its own mix-up: They misplaced the paperwork of an unidentified body, so when Debbie walked in with William’s death certificate, they erroneously connected William’s paperwork with the other body.
Before Debbie could clear the confusion, she realized something. William had a life insurance policy. So, 250,000 pounds later, Debbie and William Fendon are insurance scammers. Or as Debbie puts it, “We’re just a bit complicated.”
But “complicated” doesn’t begin to describe the twisted web Debbie and William are weaving for their family.
For one thing, their son, Harry, had fallen into a state of depression when he heard about William’s death. So when Debbie and William let Harry in on their secret, he’s angry, confused … and a bit excited about all the money he’s inheriting. To complicate things further, Harry’s wife, Neha, is a police officer. If she discovers her in-laws’ secret, she’ll face an ethical dilemma.
Most alarmingly though, someone seems to be blackmailing the Fendons. They’re not sure if it’s their narcoleptic friend, Billie, their blind friend, Jean, the town troublemaker, Pigfish, or someone else. Whoever the culprit is, he (or she) knows the Fendon family’s secret—and hopes to make a killing of their own.
If it wasn’t clear from the show synopsis, the family dynamics displayed in the Paramount+ original, Can You Keep a Secret? aren’t what you’d call healthy. Family members lie to one another. Harry hides a massive secret from his wife. Debbie dominates her husband—and pretty much everyone else—to keep the insurance cash. To say the least, the Fendons aren’t the best models of good family values. Or good values in general, for that matter.
And the show harbors other content issues, too.
Characters use profanity including the s-word, “bloody,” “a–,” “h—” and misuses of God’s and Jesus’ names. There are crude references to male genitalia and some sexualized moments. For example, Debbie pulls up her shirt in one scene, revealing her bra and rubs her chest in her husband’s face. And despite the show’s mature rating, Can You Keep a Secret? isn’t above bathroom humor.
Can You Keep a Secret? is certainly not the worst offenders in the landscape of TV-MA shows, and its British wit and outlandish shenanigans keep the story afloat. But it’s no secret that families who are looking for wholesome content featuring good role models will need to keep searching.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Harry Fendon is grieving his father William’s death. But Harry’s mom, Debbie, seems just fine. Perhaps it’s because William is actually alive, and they’re swimming in 250,000 pounds of his life insurance money.
Characters use profanity including three uses of the s-word, one use of “p-ss,” one use each of “h—“, “a–,” “crap,” “b–tard” and “tw-t.” We also hear four uses of “bloody” and six misuses of God’s or Jesus’ names. A character tells someone to “shut up.” There is also a scene featuring crude bathroom humor.
A man named Pigfish allegedly likes to use the town’s petrol pump in an intimate area, a rumor of which we hear repeatedly. A woman lifts her shirt to reveal her bra. Then she rubs her chest in her husband’s face. The same women tries to wake up her husband by telling him that another woman is wearing a skirt. A woman kisses the dead body of a random man. Someone jokes that a man will spend money on OnlyFans. People use crude words to describe male genitalia.
Harry can be disrespectful to his parents, and Debbie isn’t always the most gracious mother. For example, when Harry discusses being prescribed antidepressant drugs, she tells him that only people with “real” problems—like being from broken homes—should be on antidepressants. When William talks about a television show that featured smugglers from China, Debbie tells her husband to stop being racist. There is a minor joke about someone being an absent father.
Someone accidentally overdoses on prescription medication, which causes him to pass out. A doctor tells her patients that every day is her own “Vietnam” because she doesn’t like being around germs.
A character refers to William as a “geriatric Anne Frank.” There is a very minor reference to the Hindu holiday Diwali.
Filled with gritty violence and foul language, when it comes to this German spy drama, “unfamiliar” is how most viewers should stay.
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