The Undoing: Drama delivers the best of David E Kelley
Sky Open viewers have another chance to catch one of the most compelling dramas of the past few years. One that should appeal both to fans of Big Little Lies (and all those other Liane Moriarty-inspired tales like Nine Perfect Strangers, Apples Never Fall) and those fresh from devouring Presumed Innocent on Apple TV+.
Not only does The Undoing (which screens on Sundays at 9.45pm from August 18) boast Lies’ Nicole Kidman, but it’s also based on a popular novel (Jean Hanff Korelitz’s 2014 tale You Should Have Known) and shares Lies’ and Innocent’s screenwriter David E Kelley.
It’s easy to see what attracted him to this story. Abundantly filled with twists and turns, it offers plenty of opportunities for Kelley, the former The Practice and Boston Legal showrunner, to skewer America’s “injustice” and class system, as well as to create memorable characters and shocking scenarios that will have you desperate for the next episode in this six-parter to drop.
“You can never tell we’re rich, it’s all so clever and understated.”
A somewhat reluctant attendee at the Reardon School Fundraising Auction, Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant) casts a cynical eye around an opulent room filled with Manhattan’s elite dressed in their finest. Wife Grace (Nicole Kidman) has persuaded the paediatric oncologist to be there, if only to support the educational institution their son attends and which her father Franklin (the late, great Donald Sutherland) helps bankroll.
However, tonight, Grace is also a little distracted. Among the crowd is Elena Alves (Matilda De Angelis), a young mother-of-two who recently joined the auction committee. Causing a stir at her first meeting when breastfeeding her younger child at the table, she further startled Grace with a provocative encounter at a local gym.
This evening, though, Elena is surrounded by men, but more interested in looking seemingly longingly towards Grace.
However, when the latter visits “the ladies”, she finds the former upset, “overwhelmed” and desperate to leave. Politely refusing Grace’s offer of her car, Elena plants a kiss on her lips before departing. It’s the last time Grace will see her alive; Elena’s son discovering her bludgeoned body the next morning.
Yes, like Innocent and Lies, Undoing is a murder mystery and an examination of the aftermath as the police and public begin their desperate search for answers – and a killer. Kelley does a superb job, aided by fantastic performances by Kidman and a never-better Grant and some magnificent tension-building direction from dynamite Danish director Susanne Bier (The Night Manager, Bird Box), of making you care about the Frasers, before completely pulling the rug from under you.
And we’re not just talking about one twist, there are multiple subversions of expectations, which makes for truly compulsive viewing (even if Kelley plays just a little fast-and-loose with police procedure and suspects’ rights).
The Undoing returns to Sky Open on Sunday nights at 9.45pm from August 18. It is also available to stream on Neon.