Jake Lacy as Peter and Sarah Snook as Marissa in "All Her Fault."
Duke McCloud as Milo and Sarah Snook as his mom Marissa in "All Her Fault."
Thomas Cocquerel as Richie Kaminski and Dakota Fanning as Jenny Kaminski in "All Her Fault."

Spoiler alert! The following contains mild spoilers from the Peacock limited series, "All Her Fault."

There is a lot to think about in "Succession" star Sarah Snook's new Peacock crime thriller, "All Her Fault."

The harrowing and shocking new series, based on the 2021 book by Andrea Mara, follows Marissa Irvine (Snook), a wealthy working mother who goes to pick up her 5-year-old son Milo (Duke McCloud) one afternoon from a play date only to discover he's not there, and no play date was ever scheduled. The tense series chronicles the search for missing Milo, the investigation into why he was kidnapped and the lives and secrets of the adults in his orbit, including Marissa and her husband Peter (Jake Lacy).

But though the series is packed with soapy melodrama and crime thriller twists and turns, what I couldn't stop thinking about after watching the entire series had nothing to do with kidnapping or murder. It had to do with marriage.

"Fault," at its core, is a story about parenting and domestic labor, about gender and the roles we all take on in our personal and professional lives. When little Milo is snatched from his school by someone else's nanny (Sophia Lillis), everyone blames the moms involved. Marissa didn't do enough due diligence about the supposed playdate. Her friend Jenny (Dakota Fanning) hired a sketchy nanny and therefore put many children in danger. Both moms, clearly, worked too much and cared too little about their children to prevent something as horrifying as this from happening.

It's all their fault − except, they're not the only parent in charge of their kids.

In ways both subtle and overt over the eight episode series, creator Megan Gallagher ("Suspicion") is able to elevate important questions about how society sees and treats mothers versus fathers in heterosexual couples, and what we expect each of them to contribute to the immense project of raising children.

Marissa's husband Peter is what society might call a "heavily involved dad." He's by no means an equal partner to her − she makes the playdates and takes Milo to the doctor and even manages Peter's own healthcare for him − but hey, at least he likes to play with his son. In flashbacks we see Peter and Marissa bring Milo home from the hospital, and though they bottle feed him as a newborn, meaning either of them could jump in to take care of him, somehow it's Marissa who is up all night with the screaming baby. Peter goes back to work right away, and Marissa tries to keep her career alive during Milo's short naps, between reading articles on how to help with infant sleep and trying to get a few moments of shut eye herself. When Milo goes missing, however, the police and public only criticize her parenting.

Jenny is even less lucky in her relationship. Her husband Richie (Thomas Cocquerel) resents her high-powered career and does the bare minimum care tasks for their son he can get away with. At a visceral moment partway through the season, Jenny discovers that he has been lying to her for months about a fake work commitment, just to avoid having to pick their son up from school and take care of him. He tries to defend himself by (falsely) accusing Jenny of working too much and being a bad mother. Jenny's rage is palpable for any parent, particularly any mother, as she yells at her lazy, entitled husband and demands a divorce.

In our modern society parenting is excruciatingly hard. There are very few supports for parents from the government, and many families are isolated from extended relations and communities that might be able to offer a helping hand. Economic realties require many households to have both parents work to be able to support their kids, but everything from school schedules to pediatrician appointments assume that one parent will always be at home. How can you pick your kid up from school at 3:30 p.m. when most working days don't end until 5 p.m.? Who stays home from their job when a little one is sick? How do you get dinner on the table, tuck them into bed, finish your work and find some semblance of yourself and your identity left at the end of a long, arduous day?

These are the struggles that families go through all around the country everyday, mostly in silence. It's a thousand times more difficult if your partner isn't pulling their weight. Instagram and TikTok are littered with stories of women and their unsupportive husbands, men who can't remember their own children's birthdays or be bothered to take a weekend off from their golf hobby to spend time with their families. Society still expects moms to be more and do more for their kids than dads, and it's a double standard that's egregiously harmful to us all.

"Fault" puts that double standard in harsh relief, and perhaps paired with a sensationalist story of kidnapping, conspiracy and crime more of us will be able to hear the calls for men to step up in their homes.

Because when something goes wrong at home, it's simply not all her fault. He has responsiblity, too.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'All Her Fault,' modern motherhood and the scary double standards of marriage

Reporting by Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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