The Undoing

 

The Undoing is the new series created by HBO. As I spend my weekends watching TV series and movies, especially during winter and autumn, this time I chose this one. I really like these mini-series, consisting of up to 10 episodes, because you can watch them in one day or two and that means = perfect for the weekend. 

First of all, I have to admit that it was very nice to see Hugh Grant in a different movie than romantic comedy. What is most important, he is doing great.

Thinking about this series, I realized that it would be very difficult to write a short review without revealing details. Ok, but... starting with the basics - The Undoing is an American mystery psychological thriller television miniseries based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. 

How to summarize the plot... I don't want to write like filmweb usually does, in this case: "The life of a successful therapist turns upside down overnight" - very nice description, isn't it? Well, after reading this sentence I didn't want to watch this series, but when I realized that the actors who starring in this series are Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant - it looks incredibly interesting.

I've seen very different opinions. Some people liked it, others didn't. And such an ambiguous statement even more encourages (at least me) to watch something.

So without unnecessary description, the plot concerns the story of Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman), a psychologist whose world falls apart when her husband, Jonathan (Hugh Grant), is linked to the death of a Elena Alves (Matilda De Angelis), a fellow parent at Reardon, their children's fictional private school in Manhattan.

As in the case of the other HBO mini-series (such as Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects - I also recommend these ones!), they were based on books as I have written before. 

Otherwise, I've always heard that you should read a book first, and then watch a series or a movie. Well, in my opinion, this is completely untrue. And then, you watch a series or a movie, you look for details from a book and you are disappointed all the time because the main character is not like the main one in your head, the actor who was supposed to play this character does not correspond to the character in the book, blah blah blah... = total disappoitment. The worse opinions about the show, of course, came from people who read the book first and then watched the series.

Of course, I don't mean to stop reading books. But from my own experience as a fan of good movies and books, I recommend not to be prejudiced and read books after watching the movie... ;)

Especially in this case. For me, watching this series was a really great experience. It was really hard to take my eyes off the TV, and the whole time I tried to guess who the murderer was. The actors really did their best. 

Generally, I love miniseries from HBO. Particulary, the series with mystery aspects. I'm really looking forward to the next show, because this is another production of them that really consumed me. It was the same with the series I mentioned earlier. Apart from that, I highly recommend True Detective - oh my... this is an excellent piece of good cinema!

But going back to The Undoing, I would also mention Donald Sutherland's great supporting role. I adore him. This is one of the actors who are playing just being yourself... I don't know why but his presence was absolutely complementary. 

So... I'm really afraid to write more without writing the spoilers. 

Finally, to play the role of detective (whom I don't like very much in this series), I encourage you to watch the show. Perhaps you, like me (but not my dad who didn't guess, and even argued with me that it would be someone else), can guess who the murderer was... :) 

If you haven't had anything to watch the next weekend... well, you're welcome!

*Source of images: HBO Max