User Reviews

A fine ending to an interesting and at times gripping drama. Strong performances throughout and great to see Hugh Grant stepping outside what you may consider his comfort zone. So there was no huge twist, (the guy that looked like he did it, did it!) but perhaps that was the twist if you need a twist. We are always looking for twists so perhaps this was the twist on the viewer, the suprise ending we needed for once. The final car chase and helicopter sequence really wasn't needed I'm sure they could have come up with a more fitting simplified ending, perhaps just with the son and father having a heart to heart somewhere that wasn't a death defying chase through red lights. But in the end why not have the guy that looked like he did it. Do it?

Hugh Grant at times is a little psychotic, and supposedly he is able to deal with stressful situations. Thing is it well, obvious now, but the series kept me thinking it may have been anyone really but him. Well

It seems like a lot of people are mad because they expected the unexpected, without realizing that having the most obvious ending is in itself unexpected! Don't you get? Plot twists are already so common in crime stories that if there where to be one, it would've been predictable. So you thought Grace was going to be the killer? You're not the only one! I was so sure of it that I was actually surprised when we got the logical ending. That is what makes The Undoing so special, it's something we don't see very often.

Either way, you can't blame the TV series for respecting a pre existing plot. If you wan't to talk about the show specifically, it was perfectly crafted. It had good cinematography, great production design and the most amazing editing i've seen in a while. The acting was great, everyone offered their best performance but especially Hugh Grant. His acting was so great that you actually believed him! He was the most accurate portrayal of a psychopath i've ever seen, he made us actually root for his freedom and bet on his innocence. And here you all are getting mad at an ending which was meant to happen, without realizing that maybe it was the point all along.

As another user wrote: it was never about a plot twist.

I mean, 2 or 3 episodes in and it was pretty clear that any of the presented possible twists (Grace done it, Henry done it, whatever) would feel extremely cheap, lazy and even stupid. Nothing even close to what I'm used to getting from HBO's writing standard. Come on, after all these years, we oughta know better.

For example, think of the whole first episode, when Grace is genuinely intrigued by the appearance of this new mom, who is weirdly - as even pointed out by Sylvia - acting in a passive-aggressive way towards her. Then Grace's whole reaction to hearing about Elena's death. I mean, she was by herself on that scene after she hung up the phone. And then her whole - again - entirely genuine preoccupation and utter confusion with the whole situation, very umconfortably reaching for small details from Henry to try and put the pieces together. You're telling me we're supposed to be surprised by a "VOALA! We got ya! She's actually a femme fatale who brutally smashed the woman's head"? That would be eye-rolling to say the least. A dozen of scenes and reactions she had to a number of things wouldn't make any sense.

Henry did it? Not good either. By the end of episode 5 - when the murder weapon is found right after we basically have Jonathan diagnosed with sociopathy by his mom - I thought for a second they could go with the "okay, the guy is a complete narcissist with a God-complex and our audience got that already, so we'll have the son inheriting it from him". I was so glad that the first minutes of the next and last episode took that possibility out. That'd be lazy too, since we're reaching the end of the whole thing already and there had been not a single hint of the boy's violent behavior. And we're talking an incredibly serious case of psychopathy here. Elena was unrecognizable.

So as soon as you see all that in front of you, it leaves you to be clear of what the series is all about: Jonathan's narcissism. It's in the details they give us throughout. He's presented from the start as sensual, charming, funny, full of clever wit, but also a bit of an anti social hiding behind all that. He doesn't like to attend parties or fundraisings, and Grace even at one point says "you hate everybody", in a harmless innocent way. Which is a very crucial moment to the story, since we have a lot of dialogue reflecting on the "confirmation bias", the inability to see what's in front of you when it comes to a husband, father, etc. This is the series. This is the subject and what is going on there. The study of a textbook sociopath and of course with some strong criticism to how the whole justice system works. I mean, if you were not on page with Fernando when he was angry out of his mind calling the lawyer "vial and disgusting", you were watching it all wrong. The whole thing was a circus. Jonathan was obviously the murderer. You're all just gonna have to watch it again or watch something simpler for your own good.

I wanna point out Hugh Grant's absolutely brilliant acting. I couldn't believe how good he was. When you come to realize that all the lines he was given where he was supposed to cry, be sad, feel injustice were all "fake", the acting gets even more amazing. When I watched the scene where he cries on television, I felt very uncomfortable because I thought it was a badly acted scene. I thought it wasn't a very very bad crying but definitely not a convincing one. Once you see that was literally the whole point, it knocks you out.

Brilliant miniseries, fantastic character study. 9/10

A very unsatisfying last episode and its artificially dramatic ending, at least IMO. It destroyed everything that it built up throughout mostly its 4 and a half previous episodes.

I expected something more sophisticated. #Sigh#

Just like Dr Fraser, I am also an experienced counsellor. I've got over 25 years experience of working on the front line. I guarantee that a different ending and outcome would have magically transformed those negative reviews into positives. Why? Because many feel cheated the ended because they wanted more. They expected more. They demanded more. But what the got instead was a the brilliant portrayal of a psychopath by Hugh Grant. We see on full view the full toolkit of the psychopath. This presentation isn't clichéd or silly, as in the majority of depictions. It's the way they are. Such was the skill of the writing and acting that Hugh grant had people actually believing him. They wanted him to go free. In many ways the negative reviews are a testament to the high quality of the series. The fact they wanted a different ending proves what a brilliant series this was. Such people were taken in by the evil psychopath. And that is because The undoing is sheer class.

Up to the last minute, I was expecting more.

Everything is a red herring.

Great plot. I enjoyed the series right up to the point when the credits started to roll.

Why offer so much and deliver so little?

This week in courtroom theatrics, a wife dumpsters her husband because she's finally decided that the first 5 episodes of sticking up for him weren't worth it...and how does she do it? By slipping info of hearsay from a skype conversation she had with Hugh's incredibly old mother...who was seemingly lucid at 4am, gave her unprofessional opinion, said that she thinks her son can't experience remorse.

The judge overruling many valid objections - they even missed calling out a couple of them was also a massive oof.

I get that they're slowly trying to unravel Hugh's character by painting him as some ole happy go lucky bloke and then slowly trying to show him being divorced from reality, but they spent way too much time on Nicole's character as one struggling with indecision/wishy washy-ness.

All in all the acting from the main characters was superb, but the writing fell short - I've gotten more thrills playing the rigged claw machine at Denny's.

You see many red herrings throughout the series that make you question most of the main characters, but they ultimately lead to nowhere, which was very disheartening. This show had me chasing my losses - I was hoping up to the very last minute that there'd be some twist/revelation/etc that would make the series really stand out, but here we are.

I had predicted the whole time that it was Reinhardt. He left the fundraiser super early, he demonstrated wealth and power by threatening the principal of the school, he showed great disdain for Hugh's character because he was ashamed of his own infidelity, and he most likely knew of his being fired from the hospital. He could have easily found out about Hugh's affair and had him framed.

They also left a huge gaping hole - where did all of the couple's money go? Nicole said Hugh drained the bank accounts, and Reinhardt said he loaned him 500k. No one ever speaks of this.

The last episode lets the whole show down and makes it an unreasonably oversized 6-part episode in a courtroom drama series, and a weak one at that. Ridiculously flat, almost from the very beginning, and simply ridiculous when Kidman offers to testify. Additionally, perhaps her worst performance ever, throughout the entire show.

All the actors, especially Noah Jupe, Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman, were excellent. The manipulative, unnecessarily drawn-out storytelling and the sometimes silly and unlikely courtroom scenarios were disappointing. Although many scenes in the miniseries as a whole were effective, this writing was inferior to what one might expect from David Kelley.

The only way this show comes back , was if there was a dream sequence , during the chat with the lawyer and the family after the hammer was found , it jumped to this week's episode and finale. David E Kelley is a very smart creator and he could do this , he could go back a few episodes and change the outcome , its cable. But as of right now Hugh Grant is locked up in his own mind , cause he has never showed remorse or grief for his own sister , who originally he stated was a dog and then proven to be his kid sister .

I knew from the get go that the killer was Jonathan. In fact the series never put much effort in convincing me otherwise. What I felt it was always about, and what in my opinion was executed well, is that Jonathan is a narcissist. The undoing was unraveling that for us, especially when he went to Fernando's house trying to restore the image the Alves family had of him but seemed to have no interest in caring for his own daughter. It's also about how Grace was so caught up in what seemed a perfect life that she, a psychologist, had no idea who her own husband was.

I think Hugh Grant played a narcissistic pathological liar extremely well. Haven said what I feel this series is actually about, I think the low ratings for this last episode is not founded. Plot twists of who the murderer actually is has been done so many times, especially in the 90s when good psychological thrillers kept coming our way, that if this series took that route it would have been bland & cliche at this point.

Okay.... that was definetely expected. i've been trying to convince myself the show was going to be great and full of final cliffhangers but it turned out being nothing more than a poorly adapted teleplay.

this could have been avoided if David E Kelley had been wiser and less lazy to alter the ending. for a book, this is a great finale and very fair. but, i thought kelley knew better than making it all psychological without showing any signs of it being psychological thriller for FOUR PREVIOUS EPISODES (i must say episode two was pretty psych). i kind of forgot kelley never shows the "what happened next" sequence at the end of his shows but here was fairly expected to know what the hell happened to grace, henry and even the grandfather. lily rabe's character was totally unnecessary. edgar ramirez character was unnecessary. elena's husband was irrelevant to the story. even the freaking LAWYER had nothing to do with the story. or the hammer. this is a rare mistake for a writer like kelley to do. but it is too simple to understand that making a psychological thriller about narcicism and a "who did it" mystery with lots of doubtful unnecessary characters don't fit together. for example: sharp objects did it fantastically. the writers knew the ending was about munchausen syndrom and a major cliffhanger so they didn't stick the attention to the whole pack of characters having their assumptions about who killed the little girls. they put their attention on amy adams and her relationship with her mother instead and the little sister (the actual killer) being a completely mystery to us. so this show should have actually centered on grace and jonathan's relationship and/or jonathan should have been the starring and not grace. but well, it was not a bad show at the end of the day. but it was not a good one either. about the acting, hugh grant did it great. the best of the cast (another reason to make him the starring instead of kidman's character). nicole kidman finally stopped whispering and entered the room as the actress we once saw on the hours or the others (or big little lies). lily rabe, edgar ramirez and donald sutherland were absolutely ROBBED. these roles were too small for them. instead, noah jupe was fantastic and the lawyer outstanding. fantastic directing and photography. stunning production design. poor writing. really hope they don't nominate this for outstanding writing for a limited series and i'm not sure if i wanna see it competing for the limited series category at the emmys. but hugh grant is a big yes. as is the lawyer.

A twist within the twist within the twist. Although I realize there are some holes in the plot (like how come no one ever asked about Jonathan's tuxedo from the night of the murder, or about the fact that he planned his escape and so forth), it was absolutely brilliant. The end was totally consistent in terms of dynamic and twists with the whole scenario. And the actors' play is terrific!

We had our our ideas but the twist was there is no twist

the end had us on the edge of the seat

Like a good wine Hugh Grant just improves with age. Nicole Kidman is beautifully thin and tragically stiff. Donald Sutherland's eyebrows are wonderfully expressive. The rest of this is a hot mess. I really wanted to like this mini-series, but it was just too transparent. Any thinking person knows early on who the killer is. The courtroom scenes were laughable. The judge must have been asleep during most of the testimony. Anyway, a mystery it is not. A suspense it is not. A thriller it is not. And the finale is absolutely the right ending note: flat and sour.

I liked hugh grant as the bad guy, but the story had too many implausibilities. How could elena's family afford an apartment, a studio, gym membership, beautiful clothes, etc. I'm not sure what her husband did for a living, but from the look of their apartment, i don't think they were wealthy. With a few changes, this could've been much better. Why did hugh keep the murder weapon? The drive to the beach house would've given him ample opportunity to toss it out the window, never to be found.

As all interesting episodes in this show, the last episode was truly wonderful. Everyone expected someone else to be the murder and in the whole show everything directed the twist to anyone expect the real murder. I think it's a wonderful series.