Natalie Portman’s TV debut is an Apple TV+ murder mystery dropping next month

One of the tentpole Apple TV+ releases this summer also happens to be Natalie Portman’s first ever starring TV role. Lady in the Lake, which was first announced over three years ago, will finally hit TV+ next month on July 19.

Today new details for this seven-part limited series murder mystery have been shared, highlighting what’s expected to be one of Apple’s most compelling shows this year.

Lady in the Lake is based on the best-selling 2019 novel by Laura Lippman and serves as Natalie Portman’s TV debut. The show, which has been described as a ‘feverish noir thriller,’ is set in the 1960’s as Portman’s character investigates a mysterious death in her neighborhood.

Julie Miller at Vanity Fair shares more details:

It doesn’t take long for Natalie Portman’s character to reach her breaking point in Lady in the Lake, the Apple+ adaptation of Laura Lippman’s best-selling mystery novel. After one domestic indignity too many, and a true-crime event triggering her hidden past, Portman’s Maddie is stirred out of her bored existence as a Jewish housewife and mother in 1965 Baltimore. She packs a suitcase, leaves her husband and the suburbs, and starts anew in the largely Black neighborhood where she can afford to live on her own.

Alit with fresh ambition and excitement over her freedom, she becomes obsessed with the reported mystery around Cleo Johnson, a Black single mother played by Moses Ingram (Queen’s Gambit) who was on her own path before she was found dead in a fountain. As viewers follow Maddie’s investigation, and her tone-deafness to the struggles of her new neighbors, Cleo’s final four weeks play out in storylines that first run parallel to Maddie’s.

With Lady in the Lake and also the forthcoming Presumed Innocent, Apple TV+ seems set to have a summer filled with strong mysteries and thrillers. Sign me up.

Are you interested in seeing Natalie Portman’s TV debut? Let us know in the comments.