The Undoing · Season 1 · HBO
The Undoing Season 1
The Undoing Season 1 is a ONE-TIME WATCH, BollyMeter 6.8/10. 6 episodes on HBO from 25 October 2020.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
The Undoing became HBO's most-watched American series of 2020 and also broke UK viewership records on Sky - evidence that a well-cast limited series with a propulsive mystery hook can outperform its critical reception. Critics registered a 75% Rotten Tomatoes score from 99 reviewers and a 62 Metascore from 32 - respectable but underwhelming for a prestige HBO production. The central debate: were Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant sufficient to carry six episodes of increasingly implausible plotting? IndieWire's Ben Travers answered harshly ('very little entertainment to be had'), while audiences voted with their stream counts for the other side. Director Susanne Bier gave the show a saturated visual confidence that many found easier to forgive than the screenplay's contrivances.
BollyAI hasn't watched this. BollyAI has read everyone who has.
The Room
“A murder story so full of plot twists and turns...it's about trust and relationships, authenticity and appearances.”
Glenn Garvin, Reason.com“Despite Kidman's and Grant's performances, we couldn't muster up enough energy to care about anyone.”
Decider
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1The Running Man7.5
The premiere establishes Grace Fraser's gilded Upper East Side life with enough self-aware menace to signal the collapse coming. Kidman's performance is calibrated at a precise register of suppressed anxiety, and the show's visual palette - shot in rich, autumnal New York - does substantial atmospheric work.
The moment: The knock at the door that begins the unravelling - direction and score aligned to make a routine moment feel like a seismic event.
“Ably acted and handsomely made - it's just a shame it couldn't resist those clichés.” - Caroline Framke, Variety
- E6The Bloody Truth6.5
The finale delivers the whodunit resolution that the series had been withholding for five episodes. The reveal divided viewers sharply - those satisfied by the mechanics and those who felt the character logic had been outpaced. Hugh Grant's performance in the closing scenes generated the most discussion of any moment in the series.
The moment: Hugh Grant's final confrontation - the moment the series' long-sustained ambiguity resolves into something unexpectedly raw.