TV Review - The Undoing (2020)

Nicole Kidman won her first Emmy Award for HBO's Big Little Lies (2017), a miniseries that was an adaptation of a book about a murder that arises from the domestic troubles of a fairly wealthy, married couple. That series was incredibly successful, winning awards not only for Kidman but for the man who wrote the series, that of David E. Kelley (The Practice and Ally McBeal). With that much success, HBO decided to pair the two again for this series. Kelley adapts the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. However, given that again the story is about a murder that arises from the domestic troubles of a fairly wealthy, married couple, this series can't help but be compared to Big Little Lies and feel a bit lesser as a result. Beyond the creative team behind it, this series does stand a bit apart from Big Little Lies. Even though similar themes like classism and elitism are shared between both, this series is more of a murder mystery and more of a whodunit than Big Little Lies where that's not really the focus. The whodunit is put more in the foreground here than in Big Little Lies.

Kidman plays Grace Fraser, a therapist in Manhattan who is the daughter of a very wealthy man. She's the daughter of a probable billionaire, played brilliantly by Donald Sutherland. She's married to a successful doctor and has a son who goes to a high-profile and fancy, private school. Like Big Little Lies, the focus becomes what happens at this school or in relation to it because in fact, Grace is a member of a fundraising committee that is trying to bolster her son's private school. The committee consists of mothers of children who attend the school. When Grace learns that one of the mothers has ended up dead and in fact murdered, Grace becomes pulled into the investigation.

Hugh Grant (About a Boy and Notting Hill) co-stars as Jonathan Fraser, an oncologist who specializes in childhood cancer. He's Grace's husband and father to their son. At first, he's like the comic relief.  He's very randy and he's always tossing out funny one-liners. He's also very charming and personable. He's set up as this great and compassionate man, which is why it's a shock, when the murder occurs, that people start to accuse Jonathan of being the brutal killer. All the evidence is stacked against him and his own actions at times make him look guilty. The question becomes if his wife will believe he's innocent or not.

The first half of the series is about establishing the mood and these characters. The second half leans into the legal drama aspects, which are a mainstay for Kelley as a writer. As such, there are some really great courtroom scenes and some great lawyer moves, led by Noma Dumezweni (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Black Earth Rising) who plays Haley Fitzgerald, the cunning attorney who agrees to represent Jonathan after he's accused of murder. In addition to the Law & Order aspect of the whole thing, I would say Kelley is good at crafting each episode with enough dramatic propulsion to keep the audience engaged. He's also very good at ending each episode with a narrative hook that keeps us wanting to see what will happen next.

Noah Jupe (Honey Boy and A Quiet Place) also co-stars as Henry Fraser, the 12-year-old son of Grace and Jonathan. He gets caught in the middle of the media and public backlash that occurs against his family after his father is accused of a horrible crime. He then has to deal with the subsequent secrets that emerge in the wake of it. Jupe proves himself a very good young actor who can go toe-to-toe with heavyweights like Kidman and Grant.

The series though is about the twists and turns as we bounce around between the various suspects who could have committed the crime. Kelley's script accuses every principal player at some point. At the top of the suspect list includes Ismael Cruz Cordova (Miss Bala and Ray Donovan) who plays Fernando Alves, the husband of the victim. Haley tries to do all she can to cast suspicion on him as a potential suspect, as well as criticize the police for not properly investigating him. Edgar Ramírez (American Crime Story and Carlos) plays Detective Mendoza, the cop whose investigation becomes a source of terror and derision because it favors the creepy Latino and not the seeming benevolent white guy.

Unfortunately, I can't say that I liked the ending. The reveal and the realization of who the killer really is feels way over the top and a bit ridiculous. It felt like the producers of this show thought they needed an action scene and so out of nowhere we get a car chase and a helicopter sequence that just felt stupid. Even one of the characters, namely Haley, points out the stupidity. The series though still stands as a somewhat thrilling pulp narrative. I think Big Little Lies is better. Director Susanne Bier's The Night Manager was probably better told too. Bier also directed every episode of this series, which turns out to be a good diversion.

Rated TV-MA-LSV.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 6 eps.

Available on HBO.