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CBS All Access
CBS All Access’s Why Women Kill feels a little unstuck in time, and not just because it flits between three timelines at once. The show, which is Desperate Housewives‘ mastermind Marc Cherry‘s take on murderesses, has a campy detachment that feels retro. Its tone would have been at home in early ’00s television, the landscape that Cherry dominated. Now, though, in a time where women are at the vanguard of reinventing the crime drama, the show’s insipid vibe feels passé.
Why Women Kill is a show about the women you hear about on Snapped. We’re told that three women who seem to be living perfect lives (in different eras, but in the same exact Pasadena mansion) will be driven to commit murder. First, there’s Beth Ann (Ginnifer Goodwin), a downtrodden 1950s housewife who devotes her life in service of her husband. Then we meet the fabulous Simone (Lucy Liu); a spoiled and pampered ’80s princess. Finally, there’s the almost sociopathic Taylor (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), a feminist lawyer who rules the roost and pushed her beta male husband into an open marriage.
Why Women Kill might star the women, but its pilot opens on the husbands. Beth Ann’s domineering husband Rob (Sam Jaeger), Simone’s cosmopolitan spouse Karl (Jack Davenport), and Taylor’s adoring screenwriting husband Eli (Reid Scott). They get to explain to the audience why they first fell for their wives, and then over the course of the first episode, we learn all the ways in which they have betrayed them. Rob is carrying on an affair with a sweet waitress close to work, Karl is hiding his homosexuality, and Eli…well, Eli is on the cusp of stealing Taylor’s own pretty side piece Jade (Alexandra Daddario). As the episode ends, the women finally get the floor. They confirm that, yes, all three will attempt to commit murder, but the question is who they will off, why, how, and most importantly, if they will get away with it.
As this is a Marc Cherry project, the script is full of darkly decadent bon mots. It’s also almost horribly predictable. The sheer “okay-ness” of the show is a shame because Goodwin and Liu are doing great work here. Goodwin imbues Beth Ann with a true sorrow that seems to have no rock bottom, while Liu is vamping her way through a tour de force satiric turn. (GET LUCY LIU A COMEDY PROJECT STAT!) Why Women Kill just made me wish the two of them had better projects to show off in. At least Kirby Howell-Baptiste also gets to star on a show that is really delving into the homicidal part of the female psyche with some gusto: Killing Eve.
In a world inundated with tremendous television, Why Women Kill is merely fine. That’s why it kind of died on arrival for me. It’s pretty to look at, fine to follow along with, but it says nothing new about crime storytelling or relationships. The best part of this show about murder is the killer fashion. It needs more bite to really slay.
Why Women Kill premieres on CBS All Access today.
