Susanne Bier’s new TV series, “The Undoing”, which premieres on HBO Nordic on October 26, receives a lukewarm reception from reviewers.
According to Filmmagasinet Ekkos reviewer, Niels Jakob Kyhl Jørgensen, the thriller series with film stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in the lead roles is routine.
– It is so routine that the drama feels a bit harmless, he writes in his review.
He praises both Kidman and Grant’s achievements, but that’s not enough to give the series more than three out of six stars.
The press has gained access to five of the miniseries’ six episodes.
Politics reviewer Joakim Grundahl is more enthusiastic about “The Undoing”, which “works right after the book as an exciting upper-class crime story about delicious people with disgusting secrets”.
The reviewer highlights in particular Nicole Kidman, “who looks like the perfect cast for Susanne Bier’s instruction”.
Bier herself has highlighted Kidman as one of the reasons why she agreed to direct the series, which is based on a book.
The policy reviewer gives the series four out of six hearts. He also praises the instruction and series pictures.
– These are beautiful images with a dark edge, delicious psychological thriller without psychological depth, and as such you have to take it, the reviewer writes about the series.
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, two of America’s largest magazines on the entertainment industry, are more critical of the new Bier series.
Particularly critical is the reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter Inkoo Kang. She concludes that the series is “a low point for almost everyone involved”.
– The stubbornly uninteresting drama is one of the most disappointing series I have seen this year, she writes.
She believes that the series is characterized by the fact that too many of those involved have expected that others would carry the heavy load.
Therefore, neither Kidman, Grant, nor Bier are able to lift the series, which is “generic, lame, and discouragingly bad.”
Variety’s reviewer Caroline Framke writes that the series “is not surprisingly well played and beautifully made”. But she is annoyed that the Bier drama too often falls into clichés. And therefore it does not live up to expectations.
Source: The Nordic Page