The Undoing

“The Undoing” is brilliant and will be this fall’s most talked about dramatic series.

Ugliness has never looked more spectacular than in this juicy tale of innocence lost among the rich and beautiful. [26 Oct - 8 Nov 2020, p.12]

It’s more of a conventional thriller than Big Little Lies was, favoring plot over character as it spins a twist-laden murder mystery. And if it’s ultimately not as emotionally complex as Big Little Lies, it’s more immediately gripping, with a breathless pace and a wealth of compelling performances.

This is an entertaining story that's well-performed by an impressive cast, so here's hoping the final episodes show me something I haven't seen before.

Initially it lacked the bitchy bite of Big Little Lies. Kidman's character seemed too bland and nicey-nicey to intrigue. Grant's performance outshone hers. ... Then it started to ripen. ... Kidman's eyeswivelling was off the charts as Grace's perfect life looked to be unravelling. Tasty. Again we seem to be gazing at the dark, maggoty underbelly of wealth and privilege. I'm definitely in.

As enjoyably ambiguous as those lead performances are, it’s The Undoing’s support cast that leaves you wanting more.

“The Undoing” is plush to the point of voyeuristic ecstasy. ... [The Undoing] is delightfully shameless in flaunting its characters’ wealth and their cluelessness about it. ... The antidote to all the self-absorption is Jonathan, who as played by Mr. Grant—I confess, I love Hugh Grant—is the seemingly perfect spouse, a man in love with his wife (they phone each other like teenagers) and a delightfully unedited critic of their social circle.

It offers a moody sense of atmosphere, a welcome reminder of New York’s pre-pandemic days (the series was shot in 2019), fine acting, and a seductive mystery that will likely lure in even viewers who try to resist it. It is chilly in here, yes. Nevertheless, you’ll still want to stay a while.

“The Undoing” is bathed in rich, autumnal colors as we quickly get to the trial portion of the proceedings, which of course feature all sorts of goings-on you’d never see in real life. But who cares, as we’re firmly in guilty-pleasure courtroom thriller territory by now!

The Undoing is beautiful — the people, the locations, the coats! — and we’re all apt to cut beautiful things a little slack. Through all of the misdirects, the characters’ dumb decisions, the dreamy detours, The Undoing kept me guessing — and, of course, gloating over everyone’s misfortune.

Presented as a prestige piece, The Undoing is instead more like a pulpy thriller novel. A slightly new spin on a familiar genre, it’s a page-turner for the duration of the ride, but once put down it doesn’t leave you with much.

“The Undoing” is entertaining and absorbing, too, but not in service of anything thought-provoking. It’s a straight-up, highly manipulative mystery game, as it toys with your suspicions and certainties, and you will cycle through a long list of potential perps along the way. ... It’s fun to watch Grant in action, dodging our presumptions about his character. Kidman is good, too, if a bit distractingly waxen.

The Undoing owes debts to earlier high-class HBO miniseries, but the net effect feels like "Big Little Lies Lite." Reuniting Nicole Kidman and writer-producer David E. Kelley, the six-part production hinges on a murder mystery and trial, but even with its twists and feints, doesn't possess the requisite qualities to become another viewing obsession.

Handsome production, excellent Long Island locale, and the first two episodes are best. But after that, "The Undoing" takes its slow, sweet time.

Where Big Little Lies found a distinctive voice, The Undoing’s various virtuoso sections never quite play in concert.

Early on “The Undoing” seems like it may cast a spell, too, but that feeling wears off.

“The Undoing,” which mostly resembles an intriguing, ‘90s throwback erotic thriller in its first few episodes eventually settles into the familiar courtroom drama territory writer David E. Kelley built his name on but peppered with crime flashbacks and horrified-by-the-ways-in-which-she-has-failed-to-heed-her-own-advice moments of self-reflection and self-recrimination.

Kelley has created a crackling mystery with terrific actors. But ultimately, it has nothing to say.

“The Undoing” is somewhat undone by its dawdling pace. In truth this is a movie’s worth of story dragged out over six slow hours.

“The Undoing” is not subtle, which at first I didn’t mind. The pilot episode hit the exact pleasure center between mild critique and life-style porn. ... At least [“Little Fires Everywhere”] makes an attempt to contend with some of the questions of race and class that it raises. In “The Undoing,” such questions are made irrelevant.

Despite Kidman’s and Grant’s performances, we couldn’t muster up enough energy to care about anyone in The Undoing, at least not enough to spend six hours unraveling its central mystery. It’s certainly watchable, but having this show come so soon after BLL makes it feel like we’ve seen it all before.

For all of its trappings, "The Undoing" cannot avoid coming off as dull murder mystery elevated by Kidman's incredible performance and festooned with overwrought melodrama. Some moments are utterly laughable when they shouldn't be.

[The second episode is] a different tone from the first episode, more crime drama than social commentary, but it’s still engaging. Then—bizarrely and rather disappointingly—the show becomes a courtroom drama. ... As the show leans into legal strategy and the dreary interiors of courtrooms, it leaches out all the nasty fun that made the series so gripping in the first place.

On the surface it may look similar to “Big Little Lies,” but in the ways that count, it is darker, slower and not as captivating. ... By the fifth episode (HBO provided all but the sixth and final episode for this review), the story feels fully spent and too thinly stretched. Beauty and mood can take things only so far.

“The Undoing” has undeniably high production values and a top-notch cast, but they’re in service of increasingly lackluster and inconsistent storytelling.

The new HBO limited series is, to no one’s surprise, ably acted and handsomely made. ... It’s just a shame that it couldn’t resist those [true crime] clichés to become something much more powerful than just another case of the week.

Neither the sharp performances nor the lush window dressing can save scripts littered with predictable plot twists, hoary genre clichés, thin supporting characters and relatively little to say.

This should all be sexily entertaining, and even fun. .... The fun lasts a little way into the second episode, with Jonathan’s whereabouts uncertain, Grace’s nerves fraying and the shape of the mystery still unclear. It dissipates pretty quickly after that. ... Scene after scene, we’re put through the wringer of watching manifestly intelligent people doing stupid and highly improbable things on the witness stand, on TV or in response to late-night booty calls. ... After a while, everything else about the show is just noise.

With the exception of the way director Susanne Bier and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shoot Manhattan itself through a slight haze, lending an unnervingly off tone to the proceedings, it’s all extremely rote, like an expanded version of the mid-budget Nineties movie that would have starred Kidman and Grant at their respective heights of celebrity.

A glacially paced, frustratingly scattered and stubbornly uninteresting drama that’s one of the most disappointing shows I’ve seen all year.