I was never a big Desperate Housewives fan, so I’m not quite sure why I decided to marathon both seasons of creator Marc Cherry’s current series, Why Women Kill. I could claim that since Craig’s been out of town over the last two weeks, I have the chance to watch all the bad TV I want, but the truth is, I watch all the bad TV I want even when he’s here.
I guess the reason is that… I just do this kind of thing sometimes. And honestly, I kinda enjoyed this show!
But first, a quick aside…
Just a reminder that if you don’t have a paid subscription to this newsletter, you’re missing out on bonus content AND on not-so-secretly being my favourite subscribers. This weekend’s bonus issue will be about a surprisingly sweet horror-comedy called Spontaneous, about a town where the high school seniors keep spontaneously exploding. Click below if you’d like to check it out!
And now, back to Why Women Kill…
Each season of WWK is its own self-contained story. Season 1 follows three different couples living in the same house in different time periods. We get Beth and Rob (Ginnifer Goodwyn and Sam Jaegar) in 1963, who have just moved into their new house, when Beth discovers he’s having an affair with a waitress. There’s Simone and Karl (Lucy Liu and Jack Davenport) in 1984, who have the so-called “perfect life” when Simone discovers that Karl is secretly gay. And then there’s Taylor and Eli (Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Reid Scott), a couple in an open marriage who end up moving Taylor’s girlfriend Jade (Alexandra Daddario) into the house, with disastrous results.
Goodwin is very good, and her performance gives a lot of depth to a character that would be difficult to understand if played by a less capable actress. Liu and Davenport have really excellent chemistry, and their characters’ relationship is great to watch. Liu especially is having a great time with this role. I like Reid Scott just fine, Alexandra Daddario is legitimately the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and I always like seeing Howell-Baptiste get work (loved her on The Good Place).
Each storyline has its ebbs and flows, with several points where you’re wondering, “It surely must be easier to just get divorced” and others where you’re like, “Oh, yeah, kill the bastard.” The 2019 story is probably the weakest of the bunch, as when things suddenly get dangerous, it doesn’t really feel in-character and seems to just happen because the season’s wrapping up and they needed a reason for murder to happen. And the ending for each story feels like a bit of a cheat for the show’s premise, really ending up as a “but it’s okay that they killed! It’s a good thing they did it!” thing for all of them.
Season 2 is certainly the stronger of the two, taking place completely in the ‘40s, as dowdy housewife Alma (Allison Tollman, who I loved on Fargo and in pretty much everything else) longs to join a social garden club headed by the beautiful-but-terrible Rita (Lana Parrilla), who is married to a rich, supposedly-dying-but-still-holding-on old man. In her quest to join the club, Alma discovers something shocking about her veterinarian husband, Bertram (Nick Frost).
Although Parrilla does a commendable job playing the “villain” (see: Once Upon a Time), the writing doesn’t quite explain exactly why Rita is so awful to people. Yes, she grew up poor and had to do anything she could to rise up in station, but we never really see what turned her from just a hustler into a truly cruel person. Obviously, the season wanted to see a reversal of fortune for both Rita and Alma, but I never quite got the sense of when or how Rita turned mean.
However, both the writing for Alma’s story and Tollman’s performance are very good, giving a gradual-but-believable depiction of how this drab, meek woman finds herself in a horrible situation, but then small step after small step, becomes absolutely ruthless. Tollman is so good that even as she does truly horrific things, you kinda keep rooting for her until the last episode or two. And at least this season doesn’t try to portray the killing as good or excusable (well, some of them maybe, but not really), which is honestly just a lot more fun to watch.
Both seasons have Cherry’s trademark opening and closing narration for each episode, just like on Desperate Housewives. For season 1 of WWK, each episode is narrated by a different periphery character, while season 2 has an unidentified narrator (it’s Jack Davenport, but I mean the narrator isn’t an actual character in the season). If the narration drove you batty on Desperate Housewives, just be aware that it’s still around on WWK.
Why Women Kill isn’t an earth-shattering, world-changing show, but it’s juicy and campy enough that I marathoned both seasons in less than a week. If you’re looking for a good way to kill some time while some women kill people, this might be a good one for you.
That’s all for me today, gorgeous! Talk to you soon.
Love,
Kat
Thank you for reviewing this - I LOVED season 1; I watched it twice. But I wanted to wait until all of season 2 aired before I started paying for the service again (not sure what you watched it on; in the US it’s Paramount+). It sounds like it will be worth the money! I thought all of the original women were incredible - Lucy Liu especially. And it was such a nice surprise to see Alexandra Daddario show up on The White Lotus playing someone with a little more depth beyond “hot temptress,” which was pretty much her character in WWK. I kind of wanted to see Lana Parilla as a good guy this time, but I’m glad to know going in that she’s not, so thank you.