The Undoing

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.