🩺Little Disasters Review | When Friendship Meets Fear on Paramount+

Little Disasters is a gripping psychological thriller that peels back the layers of friendship, motherhood, and moral duty — one heartbreaking choice at a time. Adapted from Sarah Vaughan’s best-selling novel, this six-part Paramount+ series (created by Ruth Fowler and directed by Eva Sigurdardottir) asks one haunting question: What happens when the person you trust the most doubts you?

Streaming December 11 on Paramount+, Little Disasters delivers a slow-burn storm of secrets, guilt, and emotional unraveling that feels both terrifyingly real and painfully human.

👩‍⚕️ A Night in the ER That Changes Everything

It all begins with a single night.When Jess (Diane Kruger) rushes her baby into the emergency room with an unexplained injury, her longtime friend — and A&E doctor — Liz (Jo Joyner) is the one who treats her. What should have been a routine medical checkup turns into a moral nightmare.

Liz, alarmed by Jess’s fragile state and inconsistent answers, does the unthinkable: she calls social services. And in that one phone call, their decade-long friendship begins to crumble.

“Sometimes, protecting someone means betraying them.”

From that moment on, Little Disasters spirals into a tense exploration of motherhood and paranoia — where every glance, every whisper, and every memory hides another layer of truth.

🕯️ Mothers, Masks, and the Myth of Perfection

This series doesn’t rely on jump scares or melodrama. Instead, it strikes deep with its emotional realism. Through Jess’s fragile state and Liz’s quiet guilt, it shows the impossible standards women are expected to meet as mothers and friends.

Diane Kruger is remarkable as Jess — raw, vulnerable, and quietly terrifying in her emotional breakdown. Her performance mirrors the ache of someone trying to hold it all together while the world quietly judges her.

Jo Joyner, best known for her grounded performances, delivers one of her career-best roles as Liz — torn between her medical duty and her human heart. Ben Bailey Smith, as Liz’s husband Nick, and JJ Feild, as Jess’s husband Ed, provide the series its emotional grounding, though the true heartbeat of the story remains between the two women.

“We all have cracks, Liz. Some of us just hide them better.”

💔 Friendship Tested by Fear

At its core, Little Disasters isn’t just about a medical incident — it’s about the silent expectations between friends. Liz and Jess’s bond, built over years of shared laughter and motherhood, begins to twist into suspicion and quiet resentment.

Director Eva Sigurdardottir keeps the camera close, claustrophobic — capturing the tremor in a hand, the flicker of doubt in a mother’s eyes. Every frame breathes unease, reminding us that even love can be weaponized when fear enters the room.

🔥 Performances & Direction

• 🎭 Diane Kruger gives a hauntingly powerful portrayal — the kind that lingers long after the credits roll.

• 👩‍⚕️ Jo Joyner balances empathy and restraint, embodying the weight of impossible decisions.

• 🎬 Eva Sigurdardottir’s direction turns domestic spaces into emotional battlegrounds — hallways feel like traps, kitchens like confessionals.

The series’ writing by Ruth Fowler and Amanda Duke stays faithful to Sarah Vaughan’s novel but also tightens the suspense for television, making each episode feel like peeling back another painful secret.

⚖️ A Study of Judgement and Guilt

What makes Little Disasters unforgettable is its realism. It doesn’t offer villains — just flawed people caught in impossible situations. The show forces viewers to ask themselves: Would I have done the same?

The beauty lies in its ambiguity. Jess’s truth remains layered and murky, much like real life — where the line between care and cruelty is often blurred by love.

As one character quietly says, “Sometimes disaster doesn’t strike — it grows, silently, inside us.”

Streaming on: Paramount+

Release Date: December 11, 2025 (Global) | May 22, 2025 (UK & Ireland)

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Drama

Based on: Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan

Starring: Diane Kruger, Jo Joyner, Ben Bailey Smith, Shelley Conn

Created by: Ruth Fowler

Directed by: Eva Sigurdardottir

📺 Final Verdict: A Quietly Devastating Thriller

⭐ Rating: 8.5/10

Little Disasters isn’t loud — it whispers its horror through human emotion. It’s a tense, compassionate drama about trust, motherhood, and the unbearable pressure of being seen as “perfect.” Fans of Big Little Lies and The Cry will find themselves at home in its emotional complexity.

This is not a story about monsters. It’s a story about mothers. And sometimes, that’s far scarier.