There have been spiritual sequels, like Sharp Objects, and literal sequels, like the less-glowingly-received Season 2 of BLL from last year. The Undoing is not HBO’s first attempt to bottle BLL’s lightning and have it strike twice, thrice, and beyond. (Another executive producer, Bruna Papandrea, was Witherspoon’s partner in Pacific Standard, her company before Hello Sunshine.) Kidman, of course, serves as an executive producer, following the Reese Witherspoon model of leading behind the camera as well as in front. And, like BLL, The Undoing is adapted from a novel: Jean Hanff Korelitz’s You Should Have Known, from 2014. Bier isn’t nearly as cut-happy as Jean-Marc Vallée, but she still finds every conceivable angle on Kidman’s quivering eyeball as her character’s life falls apart. More strands of Big Little Lies’ DNA show up in style and structure. The central plot devices, naturally, are a murder and the implied contrast between the polite social norms of the rarefied elite and the brutal violence that punctures their bubble. A pivotal scene in the pilot takes place at a fundraiser for said institution. Their son attends a tony private school where a new, younger, less-well-off mom named Elena (De Angelis) earns the suspicion of the bitchy clique she disrupts.
Kidman and Grant play Grace and Jonathan Fraser, a wealthy and successful couple whose happy facade, if you can believe it, is not all it seems underneath. The parallels only multiply when you dig into the actual plot. So, yes, The Undoing is an obvious, unabashed echo of Big Little Lies, the blockbuster miniseries featuring Kidman as part of an ensemble cast that took Movie Star TV from budding curiosity to endlessly replicated business model. The director, Susanne Bier ( Bird Box, The Night Manager), is a name big enough to add prestige, but not so much as to overwhelm the beautiful people and big performances who serve as the main attraction. The cast of The Undoing ranges from late-career screen legends (Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland) to respected character actors (Lily Rabe) to exciting up-and-comers (Matilda De Angelis). Kelley, the television titan who’s transitioned seamlessly from procedurals like Chicago Hope to the more polyglot assortment of Peak TV. The new limited series, which debuted Sunday, stars Nicole Kidman as a casually blessed Upper East Sider and was written by David E.
HBO’s The Undoing is less exciting for what it is than what it could portend.
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