New vintage-set crime show – Why Women Kill

 

Lucy Liu in Why Women Kill. Lucy has her hair up and is wearing a cocktail dress with padded shoulders.

A lot of the people I follow online seem to enjoy a good crime drama. Trailers for Why Women Kill, which starts tomorrow (Fri 11 Sep) on Alibi here in the UK have really intrigued me. I kept seeing a woman in midcentury dress popping up in the trailers between episodes of Father Brown and couldn't work out if the advert was for one programme or several. Well, it turns out this show follows three American women in three different time periods: a 1960s housewife, a 1980s socialite, and a modern lawyer. All are 'dealing with infidelity in their marriages' according to Alibi's writeup, and from the trailer CBS made, they all lived in the same house. It's a very nice house – big enough to fit about four of mine in, I think.

Ginnifer Goodwin in Why Women Kill. Ginnifer is sitting at the dinner table and has a thoughtful expression on her face.

The actresses are Ginnifer Goodwin as Beth Ann Stanton the housewife, Lucy Liu as socialite Simone Grove, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as lawyer Taylor Harding. To be honest, they had me at Lucy Liu. That woman looks good in any clothing and can act up a storm... and Jack Davenport's playing her husband! He's been a favourite of mine since This Life and Ultraviolet in the 90s and I don't care if he made a lot of silly pirate movies too. 

Kirby Howell-Baptiste in Why Women Kill. Kirby is wearing a bright yellow dress and gold jewellery.

It's on Alibi, which I do feel has kind of a patchy track record when it comes to historically-set dramas; while some of my favourites are on there (Father Brown in particular), it's got the odd really ropy one (Frankie Drake Mysteries, a show that feels so not-20s to me it's completely jarring). But this show was made by CBS so the production values should be good. I really like the costumes for the 60s pieces in the glimpses we've had. The clips of the 80s make it look like the programme makers really embraced the idea that More Is More for that era. Maybe a little much? There's that faux-Warhol in the shot of Lucy Liu at the top of this page, for example. But who doesn't like a bit of 80s excess? And I like the fact the female leads aren't all white women. Too many crime dramas have very similar leads. 

Anyway, I'm going to be watching – it looks like being good, glossy, silly fun. Does it look like your sort of thing too?

A scene from Why Women Kill. Ginnifer Goodwin and her husband's mistress are in a cocktail bar.


Comments

  1. I don't know if we've got Alibi but it looks interesting. Jon likes Father Brown when they show it on BBC, although I can take it or leave it. x

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    Replies
    1. It's not a terrible channel, though most of what it has is fairly unchallenging - I don't think it'd replace Walter in your affections.

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  2. I'm not sure we have Alibi either but I love the clothes in this series. That was the title of my MA Dissertation: 'Why Women Kill'!!

    Hope you're well and staying safe.
    xxx

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    1. Wow! I had no idea you had an MA. What did that fall under - psychology, criminology or something else?

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  3. I love any show that has great clothing - and frankly, not many of them do!

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    1. Yes, and if stuff's *too* inaccurate it boots me right out of my suspension of disbelief. I know things are never going to be accurate (for example, the makers of Poirot stated they deliberately used as much furniture etc from the 1930s as possible even though people living then would've possessed plenty of things from earlier decades), but as soon as they start giving flappers cleavage and a waist - Frankie Drake, take a bow - I'm right out.

      The Avengers even inspired its own clothing line here in the 1960s, and not many British shows can say that.

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