HBO’s The Undoing wants to be a slow-burn thriller about a wife whose husband is murdered. Instead, it mostly just wants to watch Glenn Close cry. The seven-episode miniseries, based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel You Should Have Known, premiered in November 2020 and stars Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser, a therapist whose world falls apart after her husband, Jonathan (Hugh Grant), is found dead.
The problem is that the murder is announced within the first episode, and the show spends the next six hours circling around it without ever finding a reason to make the audience care. Close plays a grieving widow who is also a suspect, and she does it well. But the script, written by David E. Kelley, is less interested in whodunnit than in why Grace might have done it herself. That shift is the show’s fatal flaw.
Trailer, via HBO.
Grace Fraser’s Grief Machine
Close plays Grace as a woman who is constantly on the verge of tears, and the show leans on that performance heavily. She is a therapist who helps others process their feelings, but she cannot process her own. The grief is so constant that it becomes a character in itself, a force that drives every decision she makes.
Grant plays Jonathan as a successful oncologist who is also a liar. He is charming, handsome, and deeply untrustworthy. The show establishes early that he is hiding something, and it eventually explains what that something is. The result is a portrait of a man who is both sympathetic and repulsive, but never fully human.
The relationship between the two is the emotional core of the series, and it is also the weakest part of the script. The show wants the audience to believe that Grace loved Jonathan despite his flaws, but the writing never earns that belief. The flashbacks that pepper the series are meant to show the couple’s history, but they feel like filler rather than insight.
A Murder Announced Too Early
The biggest structural problem with The Undoing is that the central crime is revealed in the first episode. Jonathan is found dead, and the show then spends the rest of its runtime explaining how he got there. This is a classic mistake in serial storytelling, and it leaves the viewer with no reason to keep watching.
The show tries to compensate by introducing a second mystery: who killed Jonathan? But the answer is obvious from the first scene. The show is not asking the audience to solve a puzzle, it is asking them to sit through a long explanation of something they already know.
The pacing suffers as a result. The middle episodes drag, with scenes of Grace talking to detectives and revisiting old memories that add nothing new. The show is at its best when it focuses on Close’s performance, and at its worst when it tries to be a traditional procedural.
The Ensemble Cast Around Them
The supporting cast is strong, but they are underused. Donald Sutherland plays Grace’s father, a retired detective who offers advice that is often ignored. Edgar Ramirez plays Alberto, a colleague of Jonathan’s who becomes a love interest for Grace. Noma Dumezweni plays Elena, Grace’s best friend and a fellow therapist. Lily James plays Zoe, Grace’s daughter.
None of these characters gets enough room to breathe. They exist to move the plot forward, not to become people in their own right. The show’s attempts at subplots involving Alberto and Elena fall flat because the writers have no interest in developing them beyond their immediate function.
The show also includes a recurring character named Mr. Fox (Christopher Walken), a private investigator who seems to know more than he lets on. His scenes are the most memorable in the series, but they are also the most confusing. The show never quite explains what Mr. Fox wants, or why he is involved in the case at all.
Close’s Performance Carries It
Close is the reason to watch The Undoing. She gives a career-best performance as Grace, a woman who is trying to hold everything together while the ground beneath her feet crumbles. Her scenes of grief are devastating, and she carries the weight of the entire series on her shoulders.
Grant is also good, though he is playing a type he has inhabited many times before. The show gives him a chance to be more complicated than usual, but the writing never quite trusts him to be fully realized. The chemistry between the two is the show’s strongest asset, even if the story around them is weak.
The direction by Susanne Bier is competent, but it is not distinctive. The show looks expensive, with lush locations and stylish cinematography, but the visual style is not used to serve the story. It is simply there to make the show look pretty.
What Works and What Doesn’t
Here is a quick rundown of the show’s strengths and weaknesses:
- Close’s performance — the highlight of the series.
- The Fraser marriage — the most compelling element of the story.
- Mr. Fox — the most interesting character, though underdeveloped.
- The murder reveal in episode one — the biggest misstep.
- The ensemble cast — talented but wasted.
- The pacing — slow in the middle, fast at the end.
The show’s final two episodes resolve the mystery quickly. The revelation of who killed Jonathan is delivered without much fuss, and the show finally feels like it is moving toward a conclusion. But the damage has already been done. Six hours of meandering plot are hard to shake off in the space of two episodes.
A Grieving Machine That Runs Out Of Gas
The Undoing is a show that is too smart to be dismissed entirely, but too slow to be recommended. It has a great lead performance, a decent premise, and a few genuinely surprising moments. But it is also a show that is more interested in watching its protagonist suffer than in solving the mystery that brought her there.
The show’s obsession with Grace’s grief becomes a trap. It is a trap that Close plays brilliantly, but a trap nonetheless. The audience is left feeling sorry for Grace, but not necessarily rooting for her to find justice.
The show’s final episode ends with a resolution that is satisfying in the moment but hollow in retrospect. The questions that were raised about Grace’s role in Jonathan’s death are answered, but the answers do not feel earned. The show has spent so much time on the grief that it forgot to spend time on the crime.
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