The Undoing dares to suggest Hugh Grant’s abundant charm is hiding something sinister
TV Reviews Recap
Coming to you fresh from the New York of what feels like roughly 200 years ago at this point, The Undoing dares to ask the age old question that has fascinated pop culture for ages: Are rich people not that nice, and do they have secrets?
This may seem like an oversimplification of the show, but at least in the first episode, this is roughly the level of subtlety going on. The credits sequence literally ends with a bubble being burst. And we’re introduced to our main character through a maze of class indicators that will feel all too familiar to anyone who’s watched an episode of Gossip Girl—Grace and her husband Jonathan live in a massive home in New York, Jonathan is a doctor, their son Henry attends a fancy private school, and they’re busy making plans to attend a fundraiser for it. Plus, Grace will be attending a ladies’ tea later to plan for the fundraiser. It’s a virtual checklist for a certain kind of upper crust New York family. And the most notable item on the checklist is what, exactly, will bring this family crashing down to earth.
The elements are teased throughout the episode. Jonathan is rakishly charming, but there are signs he’s actually pretty discontented—his jokes about how much he doesn’t want to attend the school fundraiser begin to wear, and earlier in the episode, his own son accuses him of being joyless. At what point does joking about not wanting to engage in the social milieu in which you live curdle into outright contempt for your peers? When Grace suggests the family might be happier somewhere other than Manhattan, he flippantly says they don’t like anyone besides each other anyway, and she corrects him to say that’s just him.
That Jonathan is played by Hugh Grant only adds to the suspicion that something dark is lurking within him. In recent years, Grant has made something of a specialty of turning his tremendous personal charm into malice. It’s been an intriguing career shift for someone who got his start playing the sweet nice guy, and one that can practically be measured movie by movie—the charm started to be modified by a deep layer of selfishness in movies like About a Boy and Bridget Jones’ Diary, and in more recent years, the top layer of charm has gotten thinner and thinner, becoming more of an apparent veneer. Jonathan doesn’t actually do anything menacing in this episode, and yet our suspicions are roused simply because Grant has gotten so good at telling us exactly what charm usually hides. By the end of the episode, after the Big Event of the miniseries has taken place, his own wife seems to suspect him of murder simply because he’s left his phone at home and doesn’t seem to have taken the business trip he’s said he would. What does it say about this marriage and this man that his own wife makes what appears to be an immediate mental jump to murder instead of something far simpler, like an affair?
That big event is the murder of Elena, the young mother of a scholarship student at Henry’s school. It’s here that The Undoing stumbles most notably. Elena is in only a few scenes, but she’s naked in half of them and crying in the other half. She’s an emotive body as much as she is a human. Moreover, she seems to be pushing that body entirely in Grace’s direction. The show is told from Grace’s perspective, and so the idea that her behavior is directed mainly at Grace may just be Grace’s own bias taking precedence, but Elena is relentlessly sexualized and made into a damsel in distress. She’s beautiful and troubled, the show seems to want us to know, and the reason we know that is because she flaunts her body in the presence of her social betters. Grace’s interest in Elena is a little hard to parse—she’s unaccountably fascinated from their first encounter, but it’s hard to tell what exactly is drawing her in. When Elena impulsively kisses her in an elevator, Grace has a fairly stony reaction. She doesn’t push Elena away, but she doesn’t exactly seem overcome by lust, either. We also learn from Elena’s own family that Elena is an artist, and yet at no point in her conversations with Grace does Grace evince even the slightest interest in who Elena is as a person.
All told, it’s an odd way to introduce us to the character around whom the rest of the series is clearly going to revolve. Her murder brings police to Grace’s doorstep, where they stay for long enough to frighten her son, as though to emphasize the degree to which her life is now about to be invaded by outside forces. But Elena is given confusingly little interiority up to that point. Here’s hoping the rest of the series has more to say about who she is, and how she ended up in the middle of this mess.
Stray observations
- The show puts a lot of eggs in the “don’t trust the husband” basket, from Grace’s client who she accuses of seeing things that aren’t there in the men she marries to the constant refrain of people blaming Elena’s husband for her death. It’s made me oddly invested in Jonathan NOT being the culprit, if only so all of that is a red herring.
- Speaking of which, I wonder if it will turn out that Grace and Elena interacted more than what we saw in the pilot—we got a late addition of an extra scene from their gym conversation, which to me implied there might be more that we haven’t seen.
- I’m also curious to see how much we’ll be sympathizing with Grace as the show goes on. She’s our main character, and Elena keeps saying how kind she is, but there isn’t actually a lot of evidence of that! She’s less outwardly catty than the other moms, but her reaction to seeing Elena crying in the bathroom is to offer a free therapy session instead of treating her like a peer and offering friendship. And when she mentions the breastfeeding moment to Jonathan, she’s just as condescending and put off as the other moms were—she’s just framing it differently.
- What is the level of wealth you must achieve before you begin to swan around the home in a diaphanous gown before going out for the day?
- This is a small moment, but I do hope that Grace and Jonathan revisit with Henry how important it is to clean up your peanut butter spoon immediately after making a smoothie. Peanut butter becomes cement in a matter of moments, as far as I can tell.
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Nicole Kidman looks just insanely beautiful in this episode. Elena’s hair at the fundraiser I’m sure was supposed to look like she’s chaotic lol, but they went over board. And there’s definitely more that happened in the change room.
Is it me or does she look a lot better than she did a while back? I am thinking back to when she was sort of waifishly thin. Maybe she had something going on, but between “Big Little Lies” and this, she is looking like a million bucks. Not that she didn’t before, but she is looking pretty radiant these days. She has always been insanely beautiful. /suckerforredheads
Same. I thought this is the most beautiful she’s looked since Moulin Rouge or maybe even going back to Dead Calm.
She looks lovely for her age, but let’s be real. She doesn’t look as gorgeous as she did 32 years ago in Dead Calm.
I agree, I was thinking the same thing throughout! she’s always looked beautiful, but she honestly was glowing throughout here. Those eyes with those red curls.
She looked bad-plastic-surgery horrible in Big Little Lies II, but I agree she looks fantastic here. I guess she was hitting the botox hard for BLL2, which probably would have been true to her character.
Yes, it’s clearly the wig, “sucker for redheads.”
This may be the first show or movie I’ve ever watched with Nicole Kidman in it. She was beautiful throughout; certainly must travel with her own hair stylist at her heel.
If you’re liking this one so far, highly recommend Big Little Lies. Similar vibe but in California and also Nicole Kidman is excellent in it. The first season is perfect. Second’s only okay, but definitely watch the first.
A show for which David E. Kelly had a major hand. He clearly knows how to write for NK.
Or she just has curly hair. I can get mine to look like that pretty easily, and sometimes do it on purpose depending on what the weather’s like (too much humidity can take the whole thing truly overboard)
ok thanks
Too bad it’s a wig. She really can’t sport her natural red curly hair anymore. All that bleaching has ruined her curls. So she’s stuck with boring straight blond hair. Red is a hard color to obtain as you get older.
I love Nicole Kidman, but my first thought is that she had more than just Botox for her aging face. Yes, she is still beautiful, but I am sure she would still look amazing if she let herself age gracefully.Editing to add that her face also looked much fuller than usual, and the fullness is a good look on her.
Yeah, just a little bit of weight has helped.
Yes, I thought the same thing watching the episode. I’m sure her agent doesn’t agree but she’s always going to be beautiful, why not let her age gracefully?
Agreed. First time I ever saw her was in Batman Forever when I was a kid and I thought she was stunning in this show.
I can’t recall her looking this good since Eyes Wide Shut, which I’m convinced the opening scene of this series is nodding to
yes her in the shower was giving me total Eyes Wide Shut vibes.
This hair is much closer to her natural coloring than the bleach-blonde she tends to favor. The reddish curly hair looks so good on her.
The book this series is based on is one of the most unpleasant reading experiences I’ve ever had. It hates its main character so much and for no real reason, and believes the elaborate comeuppance she gets is deserved but is really just unnecessarily punishing. It in no way deserves the prestige-drama treatment – it’s just straight-up revenge fantasy trash.
you have NO idea what you’re talking about. That book was my “gym” book and I read it on stair master – after I suffered same sociopath narrative/life for 11 years… I cannot believe they made it into a show! I have lived this – this is REAL
I am very sorry for your experience, but this book does not, in my opinion, demonstrate any sympathy for Grace for being unaware of what was going on. Big Little Lies does a very good job of showing how any woman – through no fault of her own – can end up with a bad man. This book places fault on the women, and I do not agree with that.
Maybe, just Grace was well – couple’s therapist? (you should have known part) plus white privilege, etc. in her belief that she was leading a good sheltered life and nothing bad was gonna happen to HER, and just showing that we are all equally vulnerable to life’s curveballs no matter the size of the bank account… I do not believe it blames women for bad choices what so ever. It actually helped me to get over some things in a way, showing how even such Olympus dwellers like Grace can fall prey to sociopaths and showing how well sociopaths disguise themselves as good upstanding citizens, etc… I have a completely different opinion from yours. I also do not think that characters in books and TV shows should be either “likable” or “unlikable”. They are vehicles for telling a story and as in real life we are all different and can be likable or unlikable at different times – human that is.
So, how do you really feel?
I certainly liked this better than the review. I think we are seeing such extremes with Elena, so jarring, uncomfortable and sad but it is intentional. We are seeing the box cover of a puzzle and the balance of the show is putting them together for the viewers. Seems unfair to criticize in the first episode.As for the setting within the highly affluent of New York, it’s easy to dismiss as more “rich peoples problems.” But it does intrigue even if we are tourists because it is foreign to some degree. So much of it is a veneer (beautifully deconstructed in SUCCESSION) and with so much wealth and position, the characters colliding into real world situations show how tenuous their hold is to that facade. And it is almost a mirror of families like Trump. When Ivanka came out with her “Choose something new” campaign, her disconnect to middle and low income workers was so glaringly apparent in a long list of face-slapping cluelessness. Peel back the curtain, it’s time people see the shallow and ugly.
“Women that Work”??? really? seriously?? I WORK!!! you f***ing – just stop me
I think we are seeing such extremes with Elena, so jarring, uncomfortable and sad but it is intentional. We are seeing the box cover of a puzzle and the balance of the show is putting them together for the viewers. That’s what I thought, as well. It’s a pretty standard mystery trope for the victim to be a cypher, with little more than a glimpse of who they are before they get knocked off. That way, every new thing you “learn” to fill in the blanks can be second-hand and potentially unreliable while everything gets pieced together.
I liked this first episode, especially visually. There’s a beautiful crispness to the images. The urban city looks sharp. The lighting is fantastic. Loved the exterior night shot of Grace through a window.I was trying to place who played Elena. Looked like JLaw crossed with Olivia Thirby. She’s an Italian actress who was physically stunning. If I were a straight woman, I would think about that kiss, too. I do have questions on how Elena could afford 50 grand a year, even on scholarship. Theory: She’s Grace’s dad’s mistress and he’s paying for it. Kidman and Sutherland—Cold Mountain father-daughter reunion!
Oh, that’s interesting. I’m like 90% sure Elena’s husband isn’t the father of her baby, mostly because the baby looks white with light hair (I know genetics can be weird, but I feel like for tv they usually have babies look like their tv parents). But I was thinking it would turn out to be Hugh Grant’s kid because he’s clearly shady. Wasn’t even thinking of Donald Sutherland. Also I’m sympathetic to Elena and sad that she died already, but come on girl, you can’t be naked for a locker room conversation if your bush is eye-level with the person you’re talking to. That’s just poor etiquette.
Hmm. That small runway should never be called a “bush.”
I immediately turned to the Mrs and said “Donald Sutherland did it.”
Mrs. F. made the J Law comparison too.
I thought the scholarship would cover most of the tuition.I just loved seeing the shots of NYC. I love the vacations I’ve taken there, and I miss it.
The scholarship could have.The show did make NYC look attractive.
The actress’s eyes are amazing.
Obviously I don’t know where you’re from but: the truly prestigious private schools on the East Coast have endowments that enable them to give FULL scholarships this creates some startling class divides and sets these schools apart from the more class-homogenous private primary/secondary schools in the rest of the US.
Even if we assume that her son is on a full scholarship, how does she afford to go to the same gym that Grace goes to? I don’t think it’s the local Y.
I enjoyed the first episode. It does remind me of a show I would have watched from another time in the past, but so far I like all the hidden yes-no-maybe thoughts I am having about all of them. Nicely paced and beautifully shot, hoping each episode keeps up that pace.. Wonder what the call list and voice mail messages on his phone would reveal? Curious why was she so stilted in her responses to the investigators who did act like they might know more about her husband… That poor woman’s face looked mutilated, there was only a glimpse, but someone with personal anger was involved…
Are rich people not that nice, and do they have secrets?New York Stars and Celebrities: What Secrets Do They Have? Do They Have Secrets? Let’s Find Out!
This doesn’t look like the Paddington sequel I was hoping for.
There’s nothing interesting on the pilot that made me want to keep watching. It was mostly a “white rich people’s problem” chick show. So was Big Little Lies but the ensemble cast made the show appealing.
So Donna Moss dumped Josh and married a Richie Rich NY er?
That’s my first read too, and I get the feeling there’s going to be the latest in HBO’s string of slow-burning underplotted-but-overstuffed-mystery miniseries. They really haven’t done well with these since the first Big Little Lies. But we’ll see.
Why did you feel the need to include ‘white’ in your critique? I watch a lot of Asian TV. Tales of the unctuous power-elites are common. One podcaster derisively refers the those makjang stories as ‘rich people problems’ but does not call out the characters’ race.
What the… ? I’m going to assume you’re not an American and this is your first day on the Internet. Either that or you’re a Republican. They really get upset when someone brings up race.
Maybe they included “white” because this is, in fact, a show about white people.
I love Hugh Grant and I was mostly watching for him, but I agree with your take. Between this and Big Little Lies and Succession I’m getting a little weary of “Rich people have problems” troupe. It’s like wealth porn.
Hugh Grant is the Cary Grant we deserve.
What does that say about us?
I fully expect this show to drop back further into the past to reveal more about the relationships, wherein the Hugh Grant character knows Elena (walks his kid to school, so has seen Elena sitting at the park). I do not like this method, as the producers are teasing the viewer, “We know what’s going on and you don’t.” Still, I’ll watch for a shot of Nicole. Loved her since “Flirting.”I don’t think Sutherland is involved, so much as being a “fixer” of reputations. All three left early, as did Elena. So, they’re all suspects.
As someone who hated Hugh Grant’s floppy-haired stammerer phase, I’m really glad he’s finally embraced his true core of evil.
He was great in Cloud Atlas, laying fully into his inner villain.
Yeah, that “adorable stammer” schtick got old fast. Apparently it did for him, too — he pivoted so fast after his “Getting a Blowjob From a Hooker in Public” scandal that I still half think he got caught on purpose.My favorite recent Hugh Grant role was Mr. Waverly in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. — wearing his classist attitudes on his sleeve, pretending to be an overbred bumbler when he’s really a manipulative SoB, puppet-mastering the US and USSR into giving him two of their best field agents….
I still need to watch that, but my favorite Hugh performance of recent vintage is his delightful turn in Paddington 2.
I think you’ll like it — I certainly did, despite Arme Hammer playing Ilya more like The Incredible Hulk than David McCallum’s adorably slight, rumpled Russian who always wore the same grey suit.I was surprised to find out Hammer was the one who’d actually done his homework on the television show, as Henry Cavill’s Napoleon Solo was as pitch-perfect a Robert Vaughn impersonation as Karl Urban’s Dr. McCoy in STAR TREK was a DeForest Kelley one. The movie updates the show’s formula fairly well, setting it in a futuristic Sixties that never was but should have been.
I really hope the movie’s afterlife was successful enough to justify a second film, or perhaps a television series on one of the major streamers. Maybe AppleTV+, which is where the kids who watched THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. when it was new grew up to work at…?
Anyone notice that the older Hugh Grant gets, the more he is beginning to resemble James Fox?
Now age 60, Hugh Grant, by all rights, should have transitioned to proper ‘character roles’ a good decade ago.
He did — where have you been…?
Wait—artist? I thought she was a pilates instructor.
I’m definitely thinking the same thing as you when it comes to the husband. They want us to think he did it… in the book I believe he was the killer. I 100% believe they are changing the plot for the show.
So are we going to see more Hugh Grant in this? Because I am here for Hugh Grant. I fell in love with him when the elevator opened in Bridget Jones and haven’t looked back. I love his darker characters. I thought Nicole looked beautiful. She went through a bad Botox phase and it seems to have run its course. I would die to have her figure. And her hair is exactly right. Looking forward to the rest of this. Edgar Ramirez is an added bonus!
I legitimately though that Elena was played by Dua Lipa lol
Hugh Grant is for sure Elena’s baby daddy
I’m feeling a Donald Sutherland as baby-daddy extortion victim vibe with a lesbian seduction extortion of his Nicole Kidman daughter for good measure, enacted when daddy big-bucks started getting tight with the funds. (That baby is definitely is not of Elena and her husbands DNA mix.)
I think they’ll use the popular time-shift style to slowly go back and expose the relationship between her and Kidman, with Hugh Grant discovering it to some level, thus making them all suspects, including their affable son who might fear his family being destroyed.
So my odds-on favorite for “typical” murderer is Sutherland. My “twist” ending murderer is their son – and the kid is English and speaks “American” better than 99% of Americans. Good opening episode.
getting a real “unreliable narrator” vibe from kidman’s character. case in point: the locker room scene — it seems highly unlikely that these two would belong to the same Manhattan gym, given their respective financial situations — so i was thinking that bizarre interaction might not have happened that way? maybe i’m reading into it too much.
Hugh Grant definitely gives off that “serial rapist/devoted husband on L&O:SVU” vibe.
The star of this episode was Nicole Kidman’s dress at the fundraiser. Good god, it was STUNNING.
I literally gasped when she took her cape off.
Interested that review doesn’t mention that Grace has a job until the stray observation, and then only as an afterthought. She is very likely a doctor, like her husband (although probably a PhD, not an MD).