I know. It’s a superpower.

So I just watched all six episodes of HBO’s The Undoing (on Neon in New Zealand). It’s gripping and well executed, and I thought more about Nicole Kidman’s coats that most other things, so here are some stray observations. Nothing profound.

[Spoilers, but only vague ones.]

– It’s much easier to go through trauma when you’re rich. When you have a maid to cook and clean for you (Thank you, Irma!) while you’re processing family breakdown. When you can afford a fancy lawyer when you’re accused of a crime. When you don’t have to schlepp on the subway, ever, because you can hire a driver. To wait for you until you’re finished at the party!

– SHE HAS SO MANY LOVELY COATS! I have no lovely coats. I really must get one before next winter (ie, next week). And that cape thing she wore to the auction? Oh my goodness.

– It’s much easier to survive being a fugitive in a car chase if you’re white. Not that that’s news. (And please, if you haven’t yet, go and watch comedian Amber Ruffin’s short stories of her interactions with the police over the years.)

– So I guess hardly a single actor was speaking in their own accent? Poor things!

– There’s one scene where Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant are talking intensely while walking in a park together. Now, there are only three years between their ages, but their SKIN! The ‘age’ of their skin is about 40 years apart. We all know that women in Hollywood are expected to do all sorts of things to their bodies to look younger for as long as possible, but oh my goodness, the contrast here is so stark. Hugh Grant has clearly never seen a bottle of moisturiser – fair enough. Nicole Kidman? She presumably bathes in asses’ milk between takes.

– Henry’s violin playing improved about four grades over the course of a week!

– WHAT IS THAT GLASS OF WATER DOING ON TOP OF A PIANO, PEOPLE!? You don’t deserve nice things!

– Heavens, the HEIGHT of the rooms – especially the courtroom and the grandfather’s ‘lounge’. No wonder there’s a housing shortage.

– Was anyone else totally on Elena’s side when she whipped out her boob to feed her bubba? I have definitely been in the room with those judgey-pants people disapproving at the sight of me feeding my child. I could tell I was supposed to think Elena was a bit odd, but I was cheering for her anyway.

– Grey Worm as a dad!

– Did anyone else think that this was going to star Pierce Brosnan when looking at the publicity photo above? I turned my nose up at this show for weeks based on the thumbnail.

– Um, what the hell were those children doing in the courtroom?

– Of all the ‘messages’ of the show, perhaps the lightest and most effective touch went on the theme of trials as infotainment, from the throngs of reporters surrounded the school and homes, to the prosecutor’s horrendous use of graphic images in her opening.

– I just about choked when the $500,000 was mentioned. I’d just been hearing from a friend who has been trying to raise enough capital to buy her first house. The difference this kind of gift would make to an ordinary person!

Thanks for reading – and thanks for your support, as always.

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