"It is clear from the very first shots—three women dancing, drunkenly but happily, laughing but not scream-laughing, as the camera whirls round their beautifully lit selves—and the first line—an earnest voiceover about a kinship from deep in our souls—what we're in for. That is, an overwritten, far-fetched, glossy but derivative murder mystery—a descendant of Big Little Lies, intermarried with touches of everything else Nicole Kidman has done in the last 10 years."
"We open, a la Big Little Lies, in the middle of a police interview after one of the dancing women has been murdered. But who? Kerry Washington—playing an intergenerationally wealthy philanthropist, Eleanor—is the one being interviewed, so it's not her. It's Kate Mara, AKA Nancy, the trophy wife of an intergenerationally wealthy non-philanthropist, Robert (Joel Kinnaman)."
"As a rich, short-tempered man who likes a drink and has a horrible, rapacious family that immediately hires a crisis-management firm to control the press narrative, Robert is first on the list of suspects for the police—and last on the list for viewers, because we know how these things work."
Imperfect Women opens with three women dancing before transitioning into a murder mystery centered on one of them. The narrative follows Eleanor, a wealthy philanthropist; Nancy, a trophy wife married to a short-tempered wealthy man; and Mary, a stay-at-home mother. After one woman is murdered, the investigation unfolds through police interviews and suspect analysis. The show deliberately signals its derivative nature from the opening, drawing heavily from Big Little Lies and similar prestige dramas. Despite featuring acclaimed actors Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara, the series relies on familiar tropes and predictable plot mechanics that viewers of similar shows will recognize immediately.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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