All 4 Liane Moriarty TV Adaptations Ranked from Worst to Best
A good Liane Moriarty adaptation gives you more than a puzzle to solve. It introduces a community where people know one another’s routines, hides old hurt behind pleasant conversations, and lets a single disappearance, death or family secret change the way every relationship looks. If you have finished one of her TV dramas and want to compare the rest, this ranking puts the four released adaptations in order from the weakest overall fit to the strongest.
This is a small group, but it covers several different kinds of viewing. One is a pressure-cooker retreat story about strangers who arrive hoping to remake their lives. One turns a tennis family into the centre of a disappearance mystery. One takes us to an Australian island whose history has shaped generations of women. And one builds a polished coastal drama around friendship, marriage, motherhood and a death that pulls several lives into public view.
The order is based on how well each adaptation turns Moriarty’s interests into television: complicated relationships, characters with believable contradictions, a mystery that deepens the drama instead of replacing it, memorable performances, and a satisfying sense of place. It is not a vote on which novel is best, and it is not a claim that every viewer will agree. A breezy mystery may be exactly what you want on a quiet evening, while someone else may prefer the slower character work of a prestige drama.
We have kept the descriptions spoiler-light. You will learn who the central characters are, how each story begins and what question keeps it moving, but the entries avoid revealing the major answers that the shows ask viewers to wait for. The article also makes clear why each series sits where it does. The top choice wins because it balances a strong ensemble, sharp writing, emotional stakes and a central mystery more completely than the other three.
A note on scope: these are the four released television adaptations of Moriarty’s novels included here: Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall, The Last Anniversary and Big Little Lies. The list treats each series as one adaptation, even when it has more than one season. Streaming rights change between countries, so use the official service pages linked below to check what is currently available where you live. Let’s get into it.
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How We Chose and Ranked the Adaptations
The best adaptation is not automatically the one that copies every scene from its novel. Television has different tools: a season can let a friendship sour over several episodes, give a secondary character a whole storyline, or hold back one piece of information until the audience has learned to care about the people involved. We considered whether each series uses those tools to make the relationships and the mystery feel like parts of the same story.
The ranking also considers how clearly each show establishes its central situation. A viewer should understand what the characters want, what has gone wrong and why the problem matters before the plot begins adding complications. In a Moriarty story, the secret is rarely enough on its own. The family history, friendship, marriage or community around that secret is what turns a reveal into an emotional event.
Performances and tone matter too. Moriarty’s work can be funny, unsettling, tender and uncomfortable within the same chapter. The screen versions are strongest when humour does not cancel the pain and suspense does not turn every character into a suspect-shaped clue. We gave credit to casts that make those shifts feel human, and to settings that influence the choices people make.
Finally, the ranking weighs the whole viewing experience: pacing, consistency, atmosphere, emotional payoff and the strength of the ending without spoiling it. That is why the list is not arranged by popularity or by how many famous actors appear on the poster. A starry cast can open the door, but the writing still has to keep us in the room.
4. Nine Perfect Strangers
Nine stressed guests arrive at Tranquillum House, a secluded wellness retreat promising a ten-day reset, and each has a private reason for wanting to leave ordinary life behind. The retreat’s director, Masha Dmitrichenko, presents herself as a guide who can help them change, while the guests try to work out whether they can trust her methods or one another. Nicole Kidman plays Masha, with Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, Regina Hall, Michael Shannon and Luke Evans among the first season’s ensemble. The series begins as a story about people seeking renewal; its tension grows as the retreat’s promise of healing becomes harder to separate from control.
That premise gives the adaptation an appealing pressure cooker. The guests are strangers, but the show quickly supplies the emotional baggage each has brought with them: grief, anger, guilt, loneliness and the feeling that a life that looks successful from outside has stopped working from within. Their group sessions create a stage for those conflicts, while the beautiful setting gives the retreat an almost too-perfect calm. That contrast can be funny and uneasy at once, especially when the guests realise that “letting go” is not a clear instruction when nobody has explained what they are being asked to surrender.
The series earns the fourth spot because its most interesting ideas sometimes compete with its character development. Masha’s enigmatic presence and the resort’s increasingly unconventional routines keep the central question alive, but the large ensemble means that some guests receive less depth than the premise promises. The show can be compelling when it lets a character’s vulnerability sit in the open; it is less even when a new twist or a heightened moment pushes the emotional work to one side. Its glossy style is a feature, but it can also make the story feel more remote than the people at its centre.
There is still plenty to recommend if you want a psychological mystery with an unusual setting. Kidman gives Masha an elegant stillness that keeps you watching for what she is not saying, while the guests bring different comic and dramatic rhythms to the group. The series is also an interesting example of an adaptation that extends beyond the novel’s original storyline: the later season takes Masha and the retreat concept into a new setting with a different group of guests. That makes it a broader screen franchise than a one-season book retelling, though the first season remains the clearest meeting point with Moriarty’s novel.
It ranks below the other three because its premise is stronger than its balance. The retreat, the ensemble and the question of what healing should look like give it a distinct identity, but the other adaptations connect their central mystery more consistently to the lives surrounding it. If you like stories about wellness culture, people at a crossroads and a group dynamic that turns uneasy, this is a good pick. If your favourite Moriarty element is a tightly interwoven family or community drama, the entries above it are more satisfying.
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3. Apples Never Fall
The Delaney family has spent decades building a life around tennis. Joy and Stan, once successful coaches, have sold their academy and are ready to enjoy a calmer chapter with their four adult children. Then a wounded young woman named Savannah appears at their door, and the family’s routines begin to change. When Joy later disappears, Stan and the children have to reconsider what they know about their parents’ marriage, Savannah’s place in their home and the family history they thought they understood. Annette Bening plays Joy, Sam Neill plays Stan, and the ensemble includes Jake Lacy, Alison Brie, Conor Merrigan-Turner and Essie Randles.
The series alternates between the present-day search and events from the Delaneys’ past, so the mystery is also a family audit. Each adult child has a different relationship with the parents and a different reason to interpret old arguments in a new way. Joy’s disappearance gives the family an urgent problem to solve, but the show’s deeper question is whether the Delaneys ever saw one another clearly. Savannah’s arrival adds another layer: she is not simply a visitor who changes the household’s mood, but a person whose presence leaves the family wondering how much of their private life has been shared with someone they barely know.
Bening and Neill make the marriage feel lived-in rather than polished for a publicity photo. Their characters can be affectionate, competitive, funny and frustrating in the same scene, which gives the family’s earlier history real texture. The adult children also have enough distinct personalities to create believable friction, even when the shifting timeline asks the viewer to keep track of several versions of the same relationship. The Palm Beach setting is bright and comfortable, but the show uses that surface to frame the Delaneys’ unease rather than pretending that sunny weather makes a family mystery less complicated.
Apples Never Fall ranks third because the central disappearance is a strong engine and the lead performances hold the family drama together, but the series is less precise than the two entries above it. It sometimes moves between family secrets and mystery mechanics without making every turn feel equally earned. The cast provides warmth and tension, yet the story can feel crowded as each new detail asks for attention. Compared with Nine Perfect Strangers, it has a more grounded set of relationships; compared with The Last Anniversary and Big Little Lies, its setting and ensemble do not become quite as distinctive or cohesive.
It is a solid choice if you enjoy domestic mysteries where a disappearance sends adult children back through their memories of growing up. You get a family with history, a marriage seen from several angles and a mystery that keeps changing the meaning of ordinary moments. It sits at number three because those ingredients are engaging and well performed, but the adaptation does not shape them into as seamless a whole as the island story or the Monterey drama. Peacock’s official series page describes the Delaney family setup and confirms the show is based on Moriarty’s novel.
2. The Last Anniversary
Journalist Sophie Honeywell inherits a house on Scribbly Gum Island from the great-aunt of an ex-boyfriend, an unexpected gift that takes her into a family and a place she does not fully understand. The island is famous for the decades-old disappearance of a couple and the baby left behind, a mystery that has become part of local life and local business. As Sophie settles into the house, she meets generations of women whose relationships to the island’s story are personal, complicated and sometimes contradictory. Teresa Palmer leads the series as Sophie, with Miranda Richardson and Danielle Macdonald among the cast.
The setup gives this adaptation a particularly rich sense of place. Scribbly Gum Island is not merely a pretty backdrop for a mystery; its history shapes who belongs, what people tell visitors and how the family understands itself. The old case has been repeated so often that it has become both a public legend and a private inheritance. Sophie’s arrival disrupts the familiar pattern because she has been given a home without knowing why, and the audience learns about the island through her outsider’s questions. That perspective makes it easier to follow the family tree without reducing its members to a list of names.
The series also widens the emotional frame beyond “who disappeared?” It is interested in motherhood, ageing, family loyalty and the stories women inherit from one another. The central mystery draws viewers forward, while the character work asks them to notice how a community can turn a painful event into a shared identity. Palmer gives Sophie a mix of curiosity and uncertainty that suits a character who has entered a family history sideways. Richardson and Macdonald add different energies to the ensemble, helping the island’s long memory feel inhabited rather than explained.
The Last Anniversary takes second place because its Australian setting and multigenerational structure make the adaptation feel distinct, and because its mystery grows naturally from the family’s life. It is more cohesive than Apples Never Fall in how it links the people, the place and the secrets. The story has a gentler, more whimsical surface than Big Little Lies, and the ensemble sometimes asks for close attention as the family connections accumulate. Still, it creates a world that you can picture after the episode ends, and that lasting sense of place gives it an edge over the more isolated retreat story.
It is not the same kind of punchy suburban suspense as Big Little Lies. The pace is more interested in peeling back a community’s layers than in keeping every episode on a single fast track. For viewers who like island mysteries, family sagas and stories centred on women across generations, that slower rhythm is part of the appeal. The limited series premiered in 2025, and the official AMC+ announcement describes it as a six-part adaptation of Moriarty’s novel. In Australia, Binge’s title page lists the series and its lead cast; availability varies by region.
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1. Big Little Lies
In Monterey, California, a group of parents arrives at a new school year carrying private pressures beneath their carefully arranged lives. Madeline Mackenzie is outspoken and fiercely loyal; Celeste Wright seems to have the life everyone envies; and Jane Chapman is a newcomer whose past makes her wary of becoming part of the town’s social circle. Their paths cross through their children, school politics and the polished rituals of wealthy coastal life. Then a death at a school event turns the opening story into a mystery, and the viewer gradually learns how the community’s friendships, rivalries and secrets have led to that night.
The series has a clear structure that lets the suspense build without making the characters feel like pieces on a board. Interviews with witnesses frame the question of what happened, while the main story moves back through the months before the death. Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley form the central trio, with Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz adding important perspectives to the ensemble. Their performances are distinct, but the show’s real strength is how it makes the women’s relationships feel both supportive and competitive. A school fundraiser, a parent’s comment or a dinner conversation can carry the weight of a much larger conflict.
Big Little Lies also understands that a beautiful setting can hold real unease. Monterey’s coast, expensive homes and school-community events establish a world where image matters, but the drama keeps asking what that image hides. The show can be funny about status and social performance without losing sight of the danger and pain in its characters’ lives. It moves between domestic drama, mystery and social satire, and the transitions usually feel like different angles on the same central idea: what people choose to show, and what happens when they can no longer keep the rest private.
It earns number one because it brings together the strongest overall combination of story, character, performance and momentum. Nine Perfect Strangers has a striking premise, and The Last Anniversary has a memorable world, but Big Little Lies makes its ensemble relationships the heart of the suspense. Apples Never Fall offers a compelling family setup, while this series gives every major character a clear place in the larger social web. The mystery matters because we have spent time with the people it affects, not because a final twist is the only reason to keep watching.
The first season’s awards success helped make the series a major television event, but acclaim alone is not why it wins this ranking. Its emotional range, memorable performances and carefully controlled structure make it easy to discuss after the mystery has been resolved. The show gives viewers both an immediate question and a deeper reason to care, then lets the answers change how we understand the relationships that came before. That is the most complete expression of Moriarty’s screen appeal among these four adaptations. HBO’s official series page introduces the drama and its leading cast.
Final Thoughts
The strongest Moriarty adaptations understand that a mystery becomes more compelling when it is tangled up with people’s loyalties, self-image and shared history. The four series approach that idea in different ways: a wellness retreat gathers strangers in one isolated place, the Delaney family revisits the story of its matriarch, an island community lives beside a decades-old mystery, and Monterey’s school-parent circle turns a death into a question about an entire social world.
Nine Perfect Strangers is the choice for viewers who want a high-concept psychological setup and a cast of people being pushed out of familiar routines. Apples Never Fall is a family-focused option built around an absence and the memories that surround it. The Last Anniversary suits anyone who enjoys an island setting, a layered family tree and stories about women across generations. Big Little Lies remains the strongest overall recommendation because it balances the ensemble drama and the central mystery so effectively.
That ranking is an editorial judgement, not a rule for every viewer. You may prefer the island’s quieter secrets or the retreat’s stranger atmosphere. Tell us which adaptation you would put first, whether you would change the order, and which Moriarty novel you would most like to see adapted next.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many Liane Moriarty novels have been adapted into released TV series?
This ranking includes four released TV adaptations: Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall and The Last Anniversary. Each brings a different part of Moriarty’s fiction to the screen, from a coastal ensemble mystery to a wellness-retreat thriller and an Australian island family saga. The list counts each television series once, rather than treating multiple seasons as separate adaptations. It also leaves out announced projects that have not yet been released.
What is Big Little Lies about?
Big Little Lies follows Madeline, Celeste and Jane, three mothers whose lives intersect through their children’s school in Monterey. Their friendships, marriages and rivalries develop against the backdrop of an unidentified death at a school event. The series moves between the months before that night and the questions witnesses answer afterwards, gradually revealing how the community’s relationships are connected to the central mystery. Its appeal comes from both the suspense and the character drama.
Is Nine Perfect Strangers based on a Liane Moriarty book?
Yes. The first season adapts Moriarty’s novel about nine guests who arrive at Tranquillum House for a ten-day wellness retreat led by Masha. The television series later continues with a new group of guests and a different retreat setting, expanding the screen story beyond the original novel. Nicole Kidman plays Masha, the calm and mysterious director whose approach to healing becomes part of the guests’ growing uncertainty about what is happening.
What is Apples Never Fall about?
Apples Never Fall centres on Joy and Stan Delaney, retired tennis coaches with four adult children. A young woman named Savannah arrives at their home, and later Joy disappears, prompting the family to revisit its history and question what it knows about the parents’ marriage. The series moves between the investigation and earlier family events, so its mystery is closely linked to how each child remembers growing up. Annette Bening and Sam Neill lead the cast.
What is The Last Anniversary about?
The Last Anniversary follows journalist Sophie Honeywell after she inherits a house on Scribbly Gum Island from the great-aunt of an ex-boyfriend. The island is known for a decades-old disappearance and the baby left behind, and its local family has spent years living with the case’s legacy. Sophie’s arrival brings fresh questions about why the property was left to her and how the island’s women are connected. Teresa Palmer, Miranda Richardson and Danielle Macdonald star.
Which Liane Moriarty adaptation is best to watch first?
Big Little Lies is the strongest starting point if you want the most complete mix of an ensemble cast, a central mystery and character-focused drama. It quickly establishes the main relationships and gives the viewer a clear question to follow. If you prefer a self-contained island family mystery, The Last Anniversary may suit you better. For a wellness-retreat story with a psychological edge, start with Nine Perfect Strangers.
Are the four adaptations connected to one another?
No. The four shows adapt separate Moriarty novels and have different characters, settings and storylines. They share an interest in complicated relationships, hidden histories and ordinary communities under pressure, but you do not need to watch them in a particular order. Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers both feature Nicole Kidman, though her roles and stories are unrelated. The Last Anniversary also has Kidman among its producers, not as a lead performer.
Where can I stream the Liane Moriarty TV adaptations?
Streaming availability depends on your country and can change as licensing agreements shift. The official pages linked in this article identify services associated with individual series, including Peacock, HBO and AMC+; the Australian home for The Last Anniversary is Binge. Check each service’s current catalogue in your region before subscribing or renting. A show’s official page may also direct you to local providers.
Does The Last Anniversary have a complete story?
The adaptation was released as a six-part series in 2025. It adapts Moriarty’s novel as a family mystery centred on Scribbly Gum Island, Sophie’s inheritance and the local story of the missing couple and abandoned baby. The series is a limited six-episode run, so viewers can approach it as a contained story rather than expecting a long-running procedural format. Check current service listings for regional availability.
Why is Big Little Lies ranked above the other adaptations?
Big Little Lies takes the top place because it makes the ensemble drama and the mystery work together. Its central question gives the season momentum, while the relationships among Madeline, Celeste, Jane and the surrounding community give the eventual answers emotional weight. The other adaptations each have strengths, but Big Little Lies is the most consistent in balancing performances, tone, setting and narrative structure. It also remains the most distinctive introduction to Moriarty’s style on screen.
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