Succession star Sarah Snook is back in an addictive TV adaptation of the bestselling novel All Her Fault by Andrea Mara, starring alongside Dakota Fanning in this twisty thriller that follows the abduction of Marissa’s child.

But the series is quite clearly more than just another “child abduction” whodunnit – we had one of those earlier on this year with The Stolen Girl, as well as BBC’s The Missing, among many others over the years. It’s every parent’s nightmare, and therefore makes regrettably compelling TV. What sets All Her Fault apart, actually, is its depictions of motherhood, specifically the unfair and sexist expectations that women face if they opt to return to work after having a child.

Snook plays super-rich wealth manager Marissa Irvine, who goes to pick her child, Milo, up from a playdate, to find he had never been to that address. What follows, obviously, is a manhunt for Milo, but also a series of underhanded questions from the police, members of her family, and even her own husband, Peter (Jake Lacy), as to why she hadn’t vetted the location her child was set to visit more thoroughly. Why hadn’t she done more? Do you know who didn’t get that grilling? Her (creepy, controlling) husband.

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We see a group of mums at the school gates pass judgment throughout Marissa’s ordeal, questioning why she wasn’t at home looking after her own child instead of being at work. Dakota Fanning’s Jenny is also a second, critical case study of this damaging pressure and bias. A passionate executive working in the publishing industry, she is constantly juggling last-minute meetings with authors with school pick-up and worrying about looking unprofessional during work events when her (useless) husband calls while “babysitting” because he has no idea what he’s doing and would rather defer to her, even though she’s at work. She’s shamed at the school gates for having “just one child” and working, instead of volunteering her spare time at school events. It’s maddening.

In a really poignant scene, as Marissa and Jenny build a friendship, Jenny says, “I’m tired of being amazing. I don’t want to be amazing anymore.” The line really stuck with me. The pervasive expectation of “perfection” in working mums. That they are revered if they get absolutely everything right and balanced, and ripped apart and guilt-tripped if they don’t. The name of the show, All Her Fault, says it all – the responsibility falls to the mothers, as does the guilt and shame. For the abduction, yes, but also all the other little things they could’ve done better as parents. A burden their husbands are spared.