The Undoing HBO

[smwhorn 483]

Finished Episode 4 last night.  Definitely worth the time and effort.  Will watch 5 before 6 airs tonight.

[strangulation! 1,716]

Through 4 also. This show is slow as fuck. I don’t necessarily mind slow, but it should lead up to something.

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

Goddammit.

I want my six hours back.

[Js1 85,602]

That was intense at the end. 

Otherwise meh on the whole thing in hindsight 

[htown85 159]

Ugh, this was packaged as something else. Enjoyed the ride but the ending was not as good as Sharp Objects (similar type show).

[wild_turkey 3,185]

I’m impressed that we knew who the killer was from the beginning and then spent 5 weeks coming up with alternate suspects and explanations. HBO told us the answer but because this is a TV show and, as TV viewers, we are conditioned to expect the unexpected, therefore our minds didn’t let us believe what was obviously true. Bravo.

[bschoolprof 6,273]

That was awful. Just dreadful. 

[Queen Bitch 1,692]

lol that was fucking terrible

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

I guess I’ve sat through worse. Can’t remember what, but it must be true. 

[Bama Chick 28,596]

Ohhhh, Grace got him good.

She used his confirmation bias of her against him. He thought he had her fooled, as usual, and assumed her need to fix and heal him won the day. That “I know who and what I married.” was ice fucking cold.

And during his escape attempt the real Jonathan finally showed himself to his son. That look of pure rage on his face as Grace’s father flew her and Henry away from him said it all. He never really loved them as people - he loved that they loved and worshipped him.

I see some people are mad because there was no big twist but I’m not even though I was expecting a twist myself. I like the way this went much better.

Once Grace found the hammer and realized even their son (who has obviously always revered his dad and saw him as a hero) could see his guilt, she knew she couldn’t let him get away with it. But she couldn’t turn in the hammer because it would put Henry in jeopardy. She couldn’t let Jonathan remain free to be an influential part of their son’s life.

So she used what she had available - Sylvia’s relationship with the prosecutor, the information about Jonathan’s reaction to his sister’s death, the 911 call, and, most importantly, Jonathan’s blind spot about her and his arrogance.

Grace Fraser is what many women wanted Skylar White to be.

[4th&Five 41,599]

 

[wild_turkey 3,185]

Most posters seemed to like this show up until the finale but now some of you are clearly disappointed, frustrated, or angry. Is that because y’all were expecting an ending with a twist and they didn’t deliver?

[Chet Steadman 940]

Count me in as someone who really enjoyed the finalé.  Interesting take that the ‘twist’ was there was no twist.  

The short courtroom conversation between Hugh Grant and his attorney after everything fell apart was fantastic.  

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

In case it matters in the sea of nonsense this waste of 6 hours spewed, the liberties that last courtroom scene took with evidence and objections were over the top by L.A. Law standards.  The plot simply doesn't work.  That Capital One ad with Jennifer Garner in the courtroom is closer to accurate.

Edited November 30, 2020 by Liquor and Poker

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

42 minutes ago, Chet Steadman said:

 Interesting take that the ‘twist’ was there was no twist.  
 

Sorry, but what?  The interesting thing was that nothing happened?

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

For a guy with a law degree who has made a killing with legal dramas, Kelley's courtroom stuff kinda sucks.  Always has.

I halfway expected the no-twist twist, but was aggravated with all the slow-burn character development and red herrings.  That could have been done in two eps, easily.

[wild_turkey 3,185]

Sorry, but what?  The interesting thing was that nothing happened?

What do you mean nothing happened? A guy murdered his mistress, tried to convince his family and the public that he was innocent, and ultimately got the outcome he deserved when his wife realized him for being the monster he is.

[bschoolprof 6,273]

44 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

Most posters seemed to like this show up until the finale but now some of you are clearly disappointed, frustrated, or angry. Is that because y’all were expecting an ending with a twist and they didn’t deliver?

I didn't mind Hugh Grant being guilty.  The execution felt lazy and pointless, like we had just wasted 5 hours of viewing (which we did).  As an alternative (just spit balling here as this not my day job), we could have seen him acquitted, only later to find out he's guilty (i.e., the hammer is found).  Or we could have seen him convicted, playing up the wrongful conviction angle, only later to find out something that seems incriminating and we're left to wonder and debate whether he really was guilty long after the show is over.  

Instead, the resolution was "haha, the guy that looked obviously guilty from the get go was guilty and the good woman won and the bad guy went to jail. Made you look"  

For me, that type of resolution ranks right up there with "it was all just a dream."  

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

4 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

I didn't mind Hugh Grant being guilty.  The execution felt lazy and pointless, like we had just wasted 5 hours of viewing (which we did).  As an alternative (just spit balling here as this not my day job), we could have seen him acquitted, only later to find out he's guilty (i.e., the hammer is found).  Or we could have seen him convicted, playing up the wrongful conviction angle, only later to find out something that seems incriminating and we're left to wonder and debate whether he really was guilty long after the show is over.  

Instead, the resolution was "haha, the guy that looked obviously guilty from the get go was guilty and the good woman won and the bad guy went to jail. Made you look"  

For me, that type of resolution ranks right up there with "it was all just a dream."  

Possibly worth pointing out that we never actually saw him get convicted.

I dunno, he's the obvious suspect from ep 1.  There were some half-ass red herrings that never really established a good alternative suspect.  A lot of noodling around and half-ass character development leading to nothing.

Really kind of feels like six episodes was a waste of time.  Just a bunch of scenes strung together, some with pretty high drama, leading ultimately nowhere.  Sort of epitomized by the Donald Sutherland "I'm a cocksucker" scene.  Wtf was that other than some kind of Actors Studio short?

Edited November 30, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[wild_turkey 3,185]

I had a growing concern that Jonathan would get acquitted or there would be a mistrial, then the series would end with us never actually knowing who did it. The ambiguous lack of an ending would’ve sucked.

I’m glad they gave us a conclusive outcome, and given the list of characters/suspects, I can accept Jonathan as the killer more than anyone else. I had already grown to hate him as a liar and cheater, so it’s easier to find out he committed the murder than to have a reveal where Grace actually did it and her mind blocked it out, or that their son did it, or Elena’s husband, etc.

[bschoolprof 6,273]

I think the key takeaway is HBO just can't do endings very well. 

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

3 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

I think the key takeaway is HBO just can't do endings very well. 

John from Cincinnati begs to differ.

[Nolacycling 893]

My ending. H. Grant and husband were having a gay relationship.  

Yada Yada Yada. She dead.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,740]

I didn't mind he was guilty, but I do think the "kidnapping" and suicide attempt was off putting.  

[htown85 159]

Yeah, I don’t mind the final answer...it was more of a failed execution.  Reveal that it’s Hugh Grant earlier in the series and make the drama around if Nicole Kidman is going to figure it out, rather than make the audience look for twists the entire time and distract the focus of the actual pivotal plot line.

[HouTex 1,894]

No way Hugh Grant’s bad ass lawyer puts the wife on the stand. She would have read the 911 transcript as well as her police interview. The mother in law story about the death of the sister might have been new but the rest of the cross examination would have been foreseen. The lawyer would not have risked the waiver of the spousal privilege.

[Nolacycling 893]

I wanted to see Oddball ef over the school, just because.

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

1 hour ago, HouTex said:

No way Hugh Grant’s bad ass lawyer puts the wife on the stand. She would have read the 911 transcript as well as her police interview. The mother in law story about the death of the sister might have been new but the rest of the cross examination would have been foreseen. The lawyer would not have risked the waiver of the spousal privilege.

Troof.  The whole issue of waiver of spousal privilege would have been a complete no-go.

[CooterBrown 18,032]

5 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

I had a growing concern that Jonathan would get acquitted or there would be a mistrial, then the series would end with us never actually knowing who did it. The ambiguous lack of an ending would’ve sucked.

I’m glad they gave us a conclusive outcome, and given the list of characters/suspects, I can accept Jonathan as the killer more than anyone else. I had already grown to hate him as a liar and cheater, so it’s easier to find out he committed the murder than to have a reveal where Grace actually did it and her mind blocked it out, or that their son did it, or Elena’s husband, etc.

I kinda hoped that he would get convicted based on some really dubious evidence while there's plenty of evidence that makes the other 3 main characters all look guilty.  Last scene could've been the hammer half buried in the sand at the beach house. The show would've been fine with a ambiguous resolution.

[Brandywine 1,317]

13 hours ago, wild_turkey said:

Most posters seemed to like this show up until the finale but now some of you are clearly disappointed, frustrated, or angry. Is that because y’all were expecting an ending with a twist and they didn’t deliver?

Yes!

[royiv 9,375]

9 hours ago, HouTex said:

No way Hugh Grant’s bad ass lawyer puts the wife on the stand. She would have read the 911 transcript as well as her police interview. The mother in law story about the death of the sister might have been new but the rest of the cross examination would have been foreseen. The lawyer would not have risked the waiver of the spousal privilege.

This is what pissed me off. I expect legal dramas to take a lot of license when it comes to criminal trials. The liberties taken in the last episode were so, so far from the reality of any criminal trial that it just irritated me and felt lazy.

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

https://www.vulture.com/article/the-undoing-finale-the-bloody-truth-review-analysis-grace-fraser.html

Pretty spot-on analysis.

As wild turkey mentions, part of the story was to invoke our own confirmation bias so that we become, in effect, Grace Fraser.

That potentially clever device is ruint by the other stuff complained of here.

Edited December 1, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[smwhorn 483]

9 hours ago, royiv said:

This is what pissed me off. I expect legal dramas to take a lot of license when it comes to criminal trials. The liberties taken in the last episode were so, so far from the reality of any criminal trial that it just irritated me and felt lazy.

This.  I also recall that in one of the earlier episodes, the lady lawyer said Jonathon had contacted her about charges being made against him at the hospital for his relationship with Elena.  If that's the case, my thought is that she couldn't ethically learn information from Grace and then go tell the DA to help convict her own client on the same issues addressed in her representation of him.  Setting that aside, I was fine with the ending.

[jimmyjazz 46,225]

LMAO at a bunch of people buying into a stylish crime drama and then getting pissed that it didn't have some kind of "gotcha" at the end.  And then, the "legal details didn't add up".  Think of that the next time you see someone typing on a keyboard with the "clack clack clack" or other tech bullshit.

It wasn't great, but the lack of a bizzarro plot twist wasn't the reason it wasn't great.  It just wasn't great.  I enjoyed it enough.  Nicole Kidman has turned out to be a fairly formidable actress.

[4th&Five 41,599]

I didn’t need a gotcha to be happy. The execution was shit though. 

[Js1 85,602]

Agreed 

[HillaryFan420 121]

On 11/30/2020 at 1:03 PM, HouTex said:

No way Hugh Grant’s bad ass lawyer puts the wife on the stand. She would have read the 911 transcript as well as her police interview. The mother in law story about the death of the sister might have been new but the rest of the cross examination would have been foreseen. The lawyer would not have risked the waiver of the spousal privilege.

Yeah, that part was really silly.  Also, who fucking cares if he's a narcissist?  So what?  Although the show tried to sell it as of being paramount importance to his guilt, nothing the wife said was material to his guilt or innocence.  

[henrygandorf 29,195]

ok, this is going to be one of my self-indulgent longwinded reviews, so as always, i'll put it in quotes to make it easier to ignore...

and with that, here goes.

we waited and watched the pilot on saturday night and finished up the show last night.  this is how i prefer to watch limited series (6 or fewer) just because i hate to let cliffhangers control or dictate what i'm supposed to think or feel about where the plot is going.  i understand (and appreciate) manipulation by television writers, but this isn't breaking bad or lost, and they haven't earned my trust yet.  i'm not going to sit around for a week wondering if the kid did it.  not happening.

overall i liked it ok.  it had enough good acting (mostly from grant and sutherland, some from kidman) and the story was linear enough (i don't like excessive flashbacks, or starting a story in the middle and then adding the card "3 months earlier" as if the tease will convince me to watch a show i'm already sitting down and watching.  i'm not a child.  when i press play to watch a series pilot, i'm at least going to finish the episode.  that device rarely works, always annoys me, and i'm so fucking tired of it.  it put a bad taste in my mouth on "the right stuff", but that's another conversation.

good setup.  strange acting hot foreign wife, overly aggressive, snotty group of gossips, rich kid school, rich family, two doctors, uber wealthy and mysterious in-laws, high profile murder.  cool, i'm in.  from the beginning, they provided a lot of background, typical for a book, which has the real estate to expand into backstories of people that are unimportant to the primary plot.  this was a little touch and go, likely accidental, but it helped with the mystery.  having some familiar faces like janel maloney heavy in the pilot then essentially disappear was fine with me (along with the gossips from the benefit committee).  there's no way to provide color and depth for 14 characters and still have a living, breathing plot. 

unfortunately, there were also a lot of "loose ends" or "red herrings" (giving themselves credit) that i believe worsened the story and experience as it unfolded.  i'll get to some of those later.

so from the beginning, we had our theories.  either he did it, and he was going to manipulate his wife and others around him to help tell his story, and nicole kidman would likely become "undone" because of it, or someone else did it (kidman, sutherland, the husband) and we'd have to watch a smug, rich, white man try to squirm his way out of a prison sentence he did not deserve.  i voted for theory #1 because this just seemed like a nicole kidman vehicle from the start, and would give her a chance to flex her acting muscles, although my initial theory was that her performance as the good wife would set him free, and we'd find out afterwards that he was guilty, much like a "primal fear" type of ending.  "god damn marty, i couldn't have done that without you, that was great."

i thought the first 5.5 episodes were good, and would've preferred my ending, where he's found not guilty, accomplishes his goal of repairing his family, only to find the mallet in the violin case, and the wife/kid having to live with the notion that he's a murderer, and now thinks he can get away with literally anything (which he already thought, obviously).  which brings me to some stuff i did not like, or that just didn't work for me.  god complex, hero worship, narcissist personality disorder, confirmation bias.  this is...a lot to throw at us.  choose one, go with that, have it be a thread all the way through.  i know the venn diagram overlaps, but it was overkill.  we get it.

sidenote - while they didn't go the "primal fear" route, i was also picking up some not-so-subtle notes of "gone girl".  guy goes on tv and admits to being a shitheel liar and cheater but not a killer.  win sympathy by admitting embarrassing and damning flaws, gain some points in the court of public opinion.  there was also some "malice" which is one of my favorites.  in fact, at the benefit in the pilot, hugh grant aggressively grabs a champagne flute (tells the waiter "i love you"), then later gets paged, and i thought this was going to go that route, where baldwin was boozed up when he operated on....nicole kidman.  "you say i have a god complex, i am god."  and so forth.  glad they didn't go that way, but anyone on-call can't be drinking i wouldn't think, but clearly that was kidman and her confirmation bias, not noticing, or at least not saying anything about it.  either that or it was plain sloppy, but i'll give them the benefit of the doubt there.

and here are some scattered thoughts and i don't have the energy to properly arrange them.  first, the accents.  i don't know susanne bier very well, but i liked "the night manager" an awful lot, and then she did bird box.  before that, nothing really of note.  she's european, and that's fine.  but when accents slip, i look at the director.  the defense attorney was british, then south african, then american (i think she's south african in real life).  in her first scene, i thought she was intentionally british, like grant.  but she wasn't.  the state's attorney, she's also european, you could tell with her shitty bronx accent or whatever she kept slipping in and out of.  and the public defender was the worst one, i think he's english or irish, but was he doing boston?  i couldn't even tell, because he slipped in and out so many times.  i know that shit is trivial, but it's distracting and it bugs me.  even kidman let her australian out a few times for someone as seasoned as her.  that's on bier.

the second thing, and my main gripe (and i know it's been mentioned) but the attorney's decision to put kidman on the stand.  i'm not an attorney, but i've seen enough tv and film trials to know a cursory amount of common sense and logic.  first, she said her job is to create muck.  i love that.  treat it like he's guilty, muddy the waters, fuck with alibis, impeach witnesses, go after the nypd, etc.  none of that involves calling biased character witnesses (his fucking spouse) on his behalf.  also they didn't plan to call her, and hadn't run-through her testimony (something i would assume at least gets a rehearsal or three in real life). 

oh, and right before she decided to call her, she said "i like where we are right now".  i agree, i thought they had it won.  also, there's typically a rhythm to witnesses being called.  a sequence that tells a story.  i'm not a lawyer, but i can tell a story.  it makes no sense to call hugh grant, then surprise the courtroom with an effective questioning of the kid (to which the state didn't even cross), then take a day off, then call kidman.  no sense.  if i'm one of the best attorneys in nyc, i finish with the kid, look at the jury with confidence, and say, "we have nothing further", and basically have my eyes tell the room, like val kilmer in real genius, "i aced this."  this was obviously the central plot turn of the story, and it was based on a foundation that was horribly flawed - the attorney never would've done that, and certainly never would've done it like that.

which brings me to my 3rd critique - the loose ends.  circling back to kidman's testimony, i have no idea what is and isn't admissible, and once we saw the facetime, we both said "oh shit, this recording is going to end up in court", but the string of questions and entering of certain evidence didn't seem at all realistic.  "his mother, who i've met once, who he's completely estranged from, who never returns any of my calls, called me a few days ago on facetime at 4am and said really damning things in a 10 minute call."  if it was anyone else, it would sound made up.  if i was the attorney, i would need some evidence that it even happened, or i would accuse kidman (her own witness) of having a change of heart and trying to fuck over her husband.  whatever, the central part of the show, and that's how they did it.  once that happened, the nonsensical kidnapping and foiled suicide attempt didn't even bother me.  the show was over.

another loose end - the 2nd affair.  how did this not come out?  was it with lily rabe?  they kinda implied it may have been.  she represented him in the complaint at the hospital, which, uh, yeah, another loose end.  he got fired 3 months ago because of a complaint she filed.  the woman he's accused of murdering.  there was a whole (long?) process of complaints, hearings, then dismissing him, and none of that comes up at all (i'm sure there's some confidentiality, but it would've come up in some form during a murder trial).  but no, once she finds out he got fired 3 months earlier, we never really hear about it again. 

so what did he do all day?  hang out with her?  did he pay for her studio?  why did he need the $500k from his father in law?  where did that money go?  they made several references to how much kidman charges for a session and how successful grant was (before his dismissal).  i know reardon costs $50k per year, but am i supposed to think 3 months of unemployment is putting them in the poor house?  they didn't seem to live that lavish of a life either, for being rich nyc people.  they had a nice, not crazy apartment, and the beach house was her father's.  they could've and should've clarified that a little, but instead used it as a half-ass plot device to make his decision about bail that much more strained. 

also rabe, again, there were two different times she walked into the courtroom late and made eye contact with the state's atty.  the second time was after her walk with kidman, so we get it, but what was the first time?  again, nothing, or at least nothing that i noticed or nothing that mattered.  i get the feeling rabe's character was a lot bigger in the book, and they just did what they could with a streamlined version.  another nugget was the benefit and the elevator kiss.  they made several mentions that the wealthy couple who lived there was not home.  i thought for sure the multitude of cameras they must've had set up (including one in the elevator) would come into play since that whole thing went down, you know, the day she was murdered.  i assumed the two cops (who i enjoyed, btw) would've had a tick-tock of every major player for that entire day.  nope.

maybe it was the writers who specialize in muck, because that's what much of this was. 

it was shot well, acted fairly well by the main characters (i'm sure there will be emmy noms), and told a good enough story.  lots of lies and deceit to throw us off the scent, and as television viewers in 2020, we're so conditioned to think there will be 3 separate twists, i guess no twist is its own twist.  could've used a slightly better plot resolution, and better execution of what they had, along with a tighter story.

also the whole thing with his family dog, that ended up being his sister - don't have it be a dog, then have it be a sister named katie that you nicknamed katie the kitten, because that's needlessly confusing.  if i put that in a script, my manager would circle it and just write "no" next to it.  which is pretty much the most insulting thing i can see on a finished page.

it was better than defending jacob, but not as good as the night manager.  and nowhere near as good as malice or primal fear or even gone girl.  also somewhat similar to "fracture", which is also a lot better version of a ~similar story.

sorry that was so long (title of my sex tape).

[Billy Pilgrim 1,984]

The whole trip to Cleveland thing didn’t make sense. What was he going to do for a few days while “on a business trip” but actually unemployed? Sure was coincidental that he was supposed to be out of town the day after he unexpectedly murdered his lover so no one missed for the first 24 hours.

[lateshow 1,308]

11 hours ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

The whole trip to Cleveland thing didn’t make sense. What was he going to do for a few days while “on a business trip” but actually unemployed? Sure was coincidental that he was supposed to be out of town the day after he unexpectedly murdered his lover so no one missed for the first 24 hours.

Well, he made up the whole Cleveland thing as an excuse for his whereabout to his wife, who didn't know he was unemployed. 

[TwiceHorn 31,554]

20 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

ok, this is going to be one of my self-indulgent longwinded reviews, so as always, i'll put it in quotes to make it easier to ignore...

 

 

That's pretty good.  Your analysis of the defense attorney nonsense was spot-on.  At least the plan would have considered seriously whether to put Grace on the stand and that likely would not have been a spur of the moment decision.  Plans do, of course, change, but overall, that "sequence" pushed credibility.

Another thing:  having the kid, the wife, and the FIL in the room while discussing gory details of the case puts attorney-client privilege in severe jeopardy.  Most especially when you  are discussing what to do with the ostensible murder weapon.  Not credible.

What second affair?  I was a little checked out there at the end, so I may have missed something.

[Billy Pilgrim 1,984]

15 minutes ago, lateshow said:

Well, he made up the whole Cleveland thing as an excuse for his whereabout to his wife, who didn't know he was unemployed. 

He mentioned the Cleveland on the way to the school auction before he even thought about killing Elena. Was he just going to fly to Cleveland and hang out?

[Billy Pilgrim 1,984]

2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

That's pretty good.  Your analysis of the defense attorney nonsense was spot-on.  At least the plan would have considered seriously whether to put Grace on the stand and that likely would not have been a spur of the moment decision.  Plans do, of course, change, but overall, that "sequence" pushed credibility.

Another thing:  having the kid, the wife, and the FIL in the room while discussing gory details of the case puts attorney-client privilege in severe jeopardy.  Most especially when you  are discussing what to do with the ostensible murder weapon.  Not credible.

What second affair?  I was a little checked out there at the end, so I may have missed something.

The attorney asked him if he ever cheated on his wife before and he said one other time. Never mentioned that detail again. I thought it was going to be the wife’s lawyer-friend too.

[royiv 9,375]

12 minutes ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

He mentioned the Cleveland on the way to the school auction before he even thought about killing Elena. Was he just going to fly to Cleveland and hang out?

That's the timeline I recalled as well and wasn't going to go rewatch to confirm. Didn't understand why he would have some sort of premeditated cover story for going on the lam after killing his side piece.

[strangulation! 1,716]

31 minutes ago, lateshow said:

Well, he made up the whole Cleveland thing as an excuse for his whereabout to his wife, who didn't know he was unemployed. 

yeah, he was on the run from johnny law. ain't no trip to cleveland.

[lateshow 1,308]

38 minutes ago, Billy Pilgrim said:

He mentioned the Cleveland on the way to the school auction before he even thought about killing Elena. Was he just going to fly to Cleveland and hang out?

I took it as he was going to get away for some naughty time with the sexy Italiana. Then she threatened to break up his family and he snapped. I mean, the show as a whole wasn't exactly airtight anyhow. 

[henrygandorf 29,195]

1 hour ago, lateshow said:

Well, he made up the whole Cleveland thing as an excuse for his whereabout to his wife, who didn't know he was unemployed. 

yeah, i just assumed he went on several "work" trips over the 3 months, just as an excuse to see her and kill time.  yeah, it was coincidental that this particular fake one happened when he really did need to skip town, but it really only bought him 8-12 hours at most.

side question, maybe something only a criminal attorney would know about - but i thought the whole argument that he "fled" could've been attacked more by the defense atty.  they used it as evidence of his guilt, and to blow his bond up.  yeah, he was gone about 24-36 hours (i think), but did show up at his own family beach house.  when the cop was on the stand, he said something like, "well, there was his dna, and he fled."  

if i was cross examining him, i would've been like, "oh, did you find him in south america?  europe?  singapore?  oh, you found him at his own house a day later when his wife called 911."  to me this would've presented more in line with his story of "i was in shock, knew i'd be blamed, and i freaked out and needed to see my family."  going upstate for a minute then going to the beach house doesn't really paint him as a guy looking to lam it the rest of his life.

also i'm sure in real life (and maybe in the book) the cops would've tracked his credit cards, passport, whatever they would normally do, but it kinda bothered me that they never even mention it in the show.  they thought he was at the apartment because his cell phone was there.  then they were like, oh well, hope he turns up.  they didn't even go search the beach house (which i would assume maybe wouldn't be in the original warrant if it's his father-in-law's place).

he also stated that he went to see her, got into a fight, then went to a bar to think things over, then went back and found her dead.  were they planning on even checking on that alibi?  cctv near the bar?  finding out the name of the bar?  asking the bartender questions about him and what state he was in?  checking his credit card statement?  nah, we got our guy.

i know it all worked out for the cops, but they seemed pretty sloppy the way they had tunnel vision for him.  and if the attorney didn't fuck up, he walks.

[Jerry Callo 8,734]

11 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

i know it all worked out for the cops, but they seemed pretty sloppy the way they had tunnel vision for him.  and if the attorney didn't fuck up, he walks.

I think the jury would have found him guilty even without the wife's damning testimony.  Assuming he did get convicted, I think it gets overturned on appeal because of the ridiculous rulings by the judge during the wife's testimony.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,740]

He said he had taken Elena to the beach house before so I assume she may have been meeting him there at some point.
Cleveland was just a cover story.

[Js1 85,602]

I'd buy that.

No one would actually go to Cleveland.