The creative team of Nicole Kidman, HBO, David E. Kelley, and Academy Award-winning director Susanne Bier (also an Emmy winner) screams high-end prestige TV project. The limited series, “The Undoing,” a pulpy melodrama mélange of ‘90s sex thriller intrigue and nail-biting courtroom drama, is decidedly not high end in the prestige-y, awards-winning sense. Granted, it’s not campy or necessarily too silly (mostly), but theatrically soap-opera-ish and bingeable in the same way Kelley’s “Big Little Lies” was. Exploring similar ideas of privileged social strata, wealth, and deceit through a female lens, “The Undoing” simply doesn’t have the cast, soundtrack, or woozy directorial style to match the overall confident élan of “Big Little Lies.” That said, this new series’ aims are different and Kidman, her co-star Hugh Grant, and Bier’s sturdy craft make for an entertaining, compelling show even when the writing veers towards the melodramatic and, in the penultimate episode twist, the ridiculous.

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