📺The Undoing (2020)
The Undoing (2020), created by David E. Kelley and directed by Susanne Bier, is a stylish, suspenseful psychological thriller that unravels like a beautifully wrapped gift hiding something venomous inside. Based on Jean Hanff Korelitz’s novel You Should Have Known, the series explores privilege, perception, and the lies we tell ourselves to maintain the illusion of control.
Set in the gleaming world of Manhattan’s elite, the series stars Nicole Kidman as Grace Fraser, a successful therapist, and Hugh Grant in one of his darkest roles as her charming, enigmatic husband Jonathan. Their life seems idyllic—until a brutal murder and a series of revelations crack that glossy surface wide open. What follows is a spiral of suspicion, media frenzy, and emotional chaos, as Grace begins to question everything she thought she knew about her husband—and herself.
Nicole Kidman is riveting: poised and luminous, yet increasingly frayed as her world collapses. Her performance is nuanced, walking a tightrope between composure and panic. Hugh Grant delivers a career-redefining turn—managing to be both deeply likable and deeply disturbing, casting doubt with every smile.
The direction by Susanne Bier is elegant and moody, turning brownstones and school functions into scenes of quiet menace. The cinematography, accompanied by a haunting score and the hypnotic opening theme (sung by Kidman herself), deepens the sense of dread and displacement.
While The Undoing doesn’t reinvent the thriller genre, it excels in atmosphere, performance, and the slow burn of psychological unraveling. It’s a story about denial and identity, and how easily the life we build can be undone—not by strangers, but by those closest to us.
A polished, chilling descent into doubt and deception—The Undoing is both a mystery and a mirror.