<>“The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe.” “The Undoing.”

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“The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe” (BritBox) British drama, based on real life. Dramatizes the John Darwin disappearance case in the U.K., where prison officer and teacher John Darwin faked his own death and reappeared, five and a half years after he was believed to have died in a canoeing accident.



       No plot twists or hold your breath suspense or coppers chasing Mr Darwin kind of thriller. The essential meat of this sad, cute, and silly miniseries is the understated intensity and compelling chemistry between leads Eddie Marsan (as John Darwin) and Monica Dolan (as wife Anne Darwin). Sure, you’d hate John for his sly manipulation of Anne, and maybe hate Anne as well for her hapless stupidity? But it is not hard to feel for their everyday people deadend existence: Simplistic, helpless, dumb, but naturally human. 

       The show tiptoes on predictability and immobility at times but Mr Marsan and Ms Dolan are such remarkable, experienced performers that you’d sit there, without even knowing you are already binge-watching. 🎥📺📹


“The Undoing” (HBO Max via Amazon) mystery psychological thriller, based on the 2014 novel “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, about a New York therapist who discovers that her beloved husband has a secret and unfathomable life and may have been responsible for a murder. 



       I don’t really like Hugh Grant although Nicole Kidman is fine with me. But I ventured into this series because of the name David E. Kelley, who produced these gems: Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Goliath, Big Little Lies, and of course, The Lincoln Lawyer. Press also says that “The Undoing” was the biggest American series to launch on Sky in the United Kingdom, beating the record previously held by “Game of Thrones,” plus it was the most-watched show on HBO in 2020. So there you go!

       A long time ago, while on my obsessive road traveling fire, I read Ms Korelitz's 1996 novel “A Jury of Her Peers,” a legal thriller about a Legal Aid lawyer who uncovers a jury tampering plot. It was a fine work but I only found that she also wrote “The Undoing” when I went to Wiki to check some info. 

       Well, be the judge. No spoilers. Mystery thrillers can be predictably languid sometimes and the pace is a bit static in some areas but performance, as usual, by Ms Kidman, gets the ball rolling to finish. 🎥📺📹


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