The Widow - General Discussion

[ohjoy]

Season 1 premiered on Amazon today:

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A woman (Underworld‘s Kate Beckinsale) heads into the Congo in search of answers regarding her husband’s mysterious disappearance.

[NeenerNeener]

I'm up to Episode 6. This is brutal.

[Anela]

I watched the first episode yesterday. 

[ShellySelf]

I started watching last night and I’m halfway through episode 6. It is indeed brutal!!

[MzLiz]

Just watched the entire series in one day. Wow! Really Wow. I don’t even know where to start. It was fantastic! Really had me on the edge of my seat. Kate Beckinsale is awesome. 

[ShellySelf]

I just finished the last episode and wow! That was a crazy ride! Every time I thought I had things figured out, something would happen and I would realize I was way off! I know some folks didn’t like it but I really enjoyed it. 

[raven]

I binged this over the weekend and though there was a definite cringy white-savior feel and I felt like the ending was a bit too pat, I did really like it.  I thought Kate Beckinsale was really good in it, as was Shalom Nyandiko, who played Adidja, the little girl.  Actually all of the performances were good though those two stood out for me.   The shots of Wales were beautiful and it's always fun to see Charles Dance.  I was at first impatient with the story of the blind people and the surgery

Spoiler

but liked how it ended up tying in with things, with the man being on the plane and going to back to the Congo to help.  I thought his death was especially sad, with only Emmanuel's being sadder (because he truly had nothing to do with anything except helping Georgia).    I knew he would send the woman the Whistlers Mother painting but I was still affected when it actually happened.  It was really dumb of the Charles Dance character to bring him the the General's house!!  The CD character is supposed to be ex-military intelligence and should have known better. 

[bourbon]

I enjoyed it. It was good "turn off your brain" stuff I didn't have to think about too much. The blind story felt like it was from a different series, though. The tone, the look...way different, and for me it never really tied into the rest, although the actor playing Ariel was very good.

I would not have minded if Georgia had really given Judith Will's address, but I guess we had to have him step up and implicate the rest. Too bad, though, that Judith is the only one who really pays.

It *did* have a white savior feel there at the end, but it redeemed itself slightly with the last line when Adidja thanked her for giving her a home, and she said words to the effect that Adidja *did* have a home, but they were making a new one together. There was a feeling that they rescued each other.

[Jack Shaftoe]

I liked it. I think the main problem was that they overdid the plot twists.

Spoiler

Emmanuel's death was what really surprised me but now that I had seen it all, it just seems so forced for shock value. Why would Pieter want to kill Georgia at that point? The chances of her finding anything were infinitesimal and he seemed more of a pragmatic villain than a guy whose first instinct is to kill.

Will's survival and disappearance was also stretched credulity. There were only a few white people on that plane, surely the airport staff would remember that one of the passengers who was supposed to board the train didn't actually do so? I liked that he turned out to be a jerk, though, made for a nice twist.

Ariel's struggle with his guilt was maybe the best part of the show, the actor was magnificent. Killing him off (and off-screen, IIRC) was a mistake, IMO.

I love Kate Beckinsale, she was the reason I started watching in the first place but her character was all over the place. She kept rushing into danger without a second thought or a plan, as if knowing she had plot armor, something that really annoys me in TV characters. I mean, I liked her but she was more of plot vehicle than a character real depth. She killed those bandits and this didn't seem to have any real effect on her. And there were too many scenes of her behaving like some idiot foreigner, talking to people in English and expecting some villagers in the middle of nowhere to be fluent in it. Her connection with Adidja had its moments but at time felt too Hallmark-movie sweet.

Judith was more interesting, IMO, but her rise from the grave in the last episode was rather unnecessary.

The ending was a bit cringe-worthy - so this random woman managed to convince the relatives of the victims of the plane crash that Azikiwe was the terrorist who brought the plane down. With no evidence whatsoever. And this wasn't even necessary, they could have had Will come clean anyway, he must have seen all these relatives on TV back when the crash happened, why the sudden change of mind?

I might have overdone the criticism in the spoilers. Plot mechanics aside, it's so rare to see a TV show set in Africa and they did try to show the problems plaguing the DRC without offering some magical solutions. The acting was pretty good (the guy who played Azikiwe seemed to have a blast with his overly dramatic persona), some of the plot twists were good and it kept my attention enough to watch it in just a few days, which happens to me rarely these days. I just wish they had cut some of the more far-fetched twists and replaced them with character development.

[millennium]

I watched two episodes, then ran across an article about Kate Beckinsale dating Pete Davidson.

My interest in this series died on the spot.

[SunnyBeBe]

I watched the entire series in one week.  I liked it a lot, but, recognized some issues.  Still, there were things I liked, such as Georgia being able to handle herself.  It's nice to see a woman who can use some brains and brawn to defend herself and others, instead of throwing up her arms like she's helpless.  

I'm not a big Beckinsale fan and this movie didn't make me one either, but, I did enjoy her performance. 

There were crazy things like the guy leaving the blind man alone, even though, he was in danger.  Very odd. 

I read that Beckinsale was hospitalized during the filming due to heat exhaustion, but then, I read that DOC has rather mild to moderate temps.  ??   

I got a laugh lots of times in this series though regarding Georgia's hair.  They often curled and styled her hair like she had just left a salon, at the most inopportune times.  Like, the morning her husband is running late and she rushes him to the airport.  No way, she took time to put hair in rollers and style hair so carefully.  lol  Same goes for how they have her looking after a long day at work and she goes to the bar with her girlfriends . It was like she just walked out of salon.  Another time was in DOC when she went to meet Judith and the two guys chased her.  Would she really have taken the time to roll and style her hair for that meeting?  The child was missing......Why wouldn't they have thought of that?  Odd.  

Another question I have is what was the POINT of the neighbor who came, under the pretense of looking for his dog?  What kind of man would have made such a request?  He was weird from the get go.  I didn't get the point of those scenes at all.  Then, they show the roaming dog in the end.  She said that he wasn't lost......I didn't get what they were going at.  

Edited March 23, 2020 by SunnyBeBe

[norcalgal]

On 3/4/2019 at 4:37 PM, raven said:

I binged this over the weekend and though there was a definite cringy white-savior feel 

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On 3/6/2019 at 3:59 AM, bourbon said:

It *did* have a white savior feel there at the end, but it redeemed itself slightly with the last line when Adidja thanked her for giving her a home, and she said words to the effect that Adidja *did* have a home, but they were making a new one together. There was a feeling that they rescued each other.

I too had that cringey Great White Hope/Savior feeling and dreaded Georgia adopting Adidja, but @bourbon I like your explanation so I’ll go with that. 

On 3/23/2020 at 1:45 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

Another question I have is what was the POINT of the neighbor who came, under the pretense of looking for his dog?  What kind of man would have made such a request?  He was weird from the get go.  I didn't get the point of those scenes at all.  Then, they show the roaming dog in the end.  She said that he wasn't lost......I didn't get what they were going at.  

Maybe the dog is a metaphor for Georgia…?  People feel Georgia is “lost” but she’s not. 
Some twists I didn’t see coming, but I knew from the beginning that 

Spoiler

Judith would turn out to be a baddie. She just gave off that nefarious vibe to me.