A friend had recommended Why Women Kill, and since we have the same taste in TV shows, I was intrigued. I'm so glad she told me about this show because it was really good! I wish there had been more than two seasons though. The series was created by Marc Cherry, who also did Desperate Housewives. It definitely has a similar feel to that show, but it's a bit campier given the timelines.
There are two separate stories between the two seasons. Season one and season two are not connected at all, except by one actor from season one who narrates season two. (He even says "yes..." all the time like Mary Alice did on DH.) However, both are fabulous and so much fun to watch!
Season one is about one house that has three different couples living there over three different time periods. The first is Beth Ann and Rob, in the early sixties. Beth Ann is a housewife who finds out that Rob has been cheating on her and decides to take matters into her own hands, in a very satisfying way. Simone and Karl are living in the house in the early to mid-eighties. The fashion at the time reminds me of Dynasty or some cheesy soap opera. Simone finds out a little secret about Karl and tries not to let it ruin their marriage before her daughter's wedding. However, she has an interesting secret of her own. Finally, Taylor and Eli are living in the house in 2019. They have an open marriage and bring a very attractive woman into their home. Things only spiral from there... There is a star-studded cast for season one, which features Ginnifer Goodwin, Sam Jaeger, Jack Davenport, Lucy Liu, Reid Scott, and Alexandra Daddario (whose brother is in season two), just to name a few. The mayor from Ginny and Georgia even makes a few appearances (but as a completely different character). I also loved the opening bits of each episode. They were done in these fun and creative ways. One of the opening bits reminded me of Little Shop of Horrors.
Season two all takes place in 1949. Alma Fillcot is also a housewife and doesn't keep up with her appearance. She desperately wants to join an elite gardening club, run by the very wealthy and snobby Rita Castillo. (If Natalie from Girls Just Want to Have Fun was an adult, that would be Rita.) Rita belittles Alma, even when she earns the respect of the other women in the club. In the meantime, there are some twisted things going on in Alma's home and Rita becomes connected to her in a very strange way that sets off a huge rivalry. Things just get out of control after that, but I won't say anything more. As far as the cast goes, I've only seen Allison Tolman once, on The Mindy Project, but thought she was intriguing. She's a great actress, especially in her role as Alma! I vaguely recognized some of the other actors, but there was a fun side appearance from Rachel Bay Jones (Heidi in the Original Broadway Cast of Dear Evan Hansen). I also found out that Grace was played by the actress who was CJ on Fuller House (DJ's rival for Steve's affections). While everyone else was mostly new to me, it was a great cast.
If you haven't seen this show yet, it's available on Paramount Plus and so worth binge watching!
Spoilers are below the trailers for anyone who has already seen it.
Trailer for season one:
Trailer for season two:
Spoilers:
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It feels like forever since I saw season one, even though it was about a month or so. I will try to remember what I can to talk about it here.
Favorite characters from season one:
1. Beth Ann: She was by far the best from this season. I love how devious she was and how she went about living this double life in order to get Rob to admit he cheated on her.
2. Karl: I felt bad for him most of the time since he was living in an era where it was taboo to be gay and couldn't openly be out about it. And then when it was discovered, everyone shamed him for it. He was a genuinely good guy and it was sad what he was going through. I'm glad Simone came around and looked after him as a friend instead of as a wife.
3. Taylor: She was all-around cool and had her act together.
4. Tommy: I feel like a cougar just for liking him, even though the actor who plays him is obviously older than 18. He was really sweet to Simone.
5. April: She seems like she'd be a fun friend to have, and if you were Beth Ann, you'd almost have to forgive her for sleeping with your husband and getting pregnant as a result.
Least favorite characters from season one:
1. Eli: He was just annoying and self-pitying. I think Taylor could do better in the husband department. I am glad he improved a bit by the end, but I just wasn't impressed by him at all.
2. Rob: Um, obviously!!! It was bad enough that he cheated, but to blame Beth Ann for the death of their child, which happened as a result of him bringing a mistress into his house. No wonder she came up with the plan she did.
3. Ralph (the abusive husband): No one likes an abusive husband in general. I love how Beth Ann used the situation to get him to kill Rob so that he'd be put away. I just want to know what happened with Mary after that.
4. Naomi (Tommy's mom): She could have talked to Simone about what was happening with Tommy, but instead she decided to make everyone's life hellish and she used Karl's illness in the process.
5. Sheila: I don't think she was that supportive of a friend to Beth Ann. I know she didn't like what was going on, but given that Rob was the one who cheated, she should have been in cahoots with Beth Ann instead of pushing back all the time.
I liked how they transferred the house between people so you could see what everyone was up to after a certain amount of time. I got teary-eyed when Simone talked about the AIDS foundation she started. And finding out that Tommy became an artist. I was really happy for Beth that she made a new life for herself and stayed close with April and her daughter. It was also nice to see that Eli survived the stabbing and it seemed like he got his life together.
I also love how everything came together at the end of season one, where it looked like they were all in the house at the same time during the action. That was really clever. The transitions between scenes were also great. Like someone would get into a car in one scene and then you'd see someone else driving in the next scene.
Season two:
It's really hard to pick favorite and least favorite characters since so many had multiple layers. Dee and Vern were the constants for the story. They were reliable narrators but stuck in some messy situations. I liked them together a lot.
Alma had the Zack Morris effect going for her. She's obviously the protagonist, but when she transforms into one of the mean women, I still wanted her to win somehow. She had such an interesting story arc. I wanted to see if she could really get away with everything she did. I also wouldn't mind having her get revenge on certain people who are long overdue for their karma. She looks like a friend of mine (she has a similar face) whom I wish she would help the most in delivering karma to someone who has horribly wronged this friend.
While Rita was a beyotch most of the time, I also wanted to see her put one over on Catherine. I actually felt bad for her when her life fell apart and she looked so vulnerable after that. So I actually enjoyed some of her scheming tactics in regard to getting Catherine off her back. As I was writing about Rita, this came up in my Facebook feed:
Scooter seemed like a caricature in some ways. Like he was attractive but he could be really stupid sometimes. I found him to be annoying for the most part.
I also didn't like Catherine all that much. I wanted to like her sometimes, but she was just embarrassing. How did she not suspect Rita of the setup with Scooter? She knew Rita was cheating on her dad and Scooter's appearances seemed pretty coincidental. Maybe she just didn't want to see the connection?
Bertie is a mixed bag. He killed all those people but then was appalled when Alma wanted to do the same. I know he had different reasons, but he still killed people anyway. Maybe they could have gotten help for their suffering instead somehow. I didn't see Maisie asking him to kill her in the first episode. Also, what did he really tell Vern. It sounds like he pinned everything on Alma before he killed himself.
I really liked Dee a lot. I wish she had been able to get a new job though. It seems like she relied on Vern for everything as soon as she lost her job. She seemed like someone who could stand on her own, so I was surprised by that. It was also dumb for her to return Mrs. Yost's items without putting gloves on or something to keep her fingerprints off them. Especially after the nephew told her the items were missing. She should have hidden them or dumped them somewhere instead.
As for Vern, I was kind of hoping he'd let everything go after Isabel's "confession". I know he was trying to stay on the right side of the law, but it also would have been interesting to let Alma get caught in the act instead of confronting her first.
There were a couple of relationships that seemed interesting for 1949. The friend who introduced me to the show pointed out that no one seemed bothered by the interracial relationship between Vern and Dee. While I'm glad no one made trouble for them, it was surprising for that time period for people to turn a blind eye. I also wasn't expecting the lesbian affair between Grace and Joan. I kind of wish Joan had just confessed to it, but it was seen as taboo in that time period. Nowadays, no one would bat an eyelash.
Overall, season two was more farcical in nature, but I enjoyed every moment of it! I was hoping for more of a twist to the story, but I was surprised by a lot of what had happened.
What are your thoughts on Why Women Kill?
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