Red Widow revolves around a suburban housewife and mom whose husband is killed after he steals from the Russian mob. The mobsters don’t consider the debt paid however and the widow must now do their bidding — while she tries to protect her children and dodge the FBI.
The show’s cast includes Radha Mitchell, Clifton Collins Jr., Luke Goss, Sterling Beaumon, Suleka Mathew, Erin Moriarty, Jaime Ray Newman, Jakob Salvati, Lee Tergesen, Wil Traval, Rade Serbedzija, and Goran Visnjic.
Sound interesting? Sound kinda like FOX’s (cancelled) Mob Doctor? Here’s what some of the television critics think:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “It’s hard to understand why anyone, in March 2013, would opt to invest in a dark, violent, overly complicated network TV drama populated by generally unlikable people. We’ve been there already this season, with such shows as the quickly canceled Do No Harm and Zero Hour and the struggling Cult. ABC hopes Red Widow, making its debut Sunday, will break the pattern. But that seems unlikely.”
LA Times: “Successful antiheroes own their dark sides; what draws us to them is their acceptance of who they really are. If Rosenberg wants Marta to outsmart the mobsters, that’s fine, but she has to stop whining about it. Nobody likes a whiner, even if she is a widow.”
Boston Herald: “After watching two hours, I’m left wondering how far Mitchell, who calls to mind a young Jessica Lange, will go to headline a series. This show is beneath her.
Red Widow might leave you feeling blue over the waste of time and talent.”
Washington Post: “In another midseason of some parallel TV dimension, Red Widow, ABC’s new Sunday night crime drama, would be easily panned. But with show after show belly-flopping into the mud pond these days, Red Widow comes across as having relative depth and a stylish instinct for family intrigue, if you can get past its mildly outlandish premise.”
Boston Globe: “If Red Widow were more psychologically twisty or more excessive and over-the-top, it could be more engaging. As it is, the show is ludicrous and not much fun.”
USA Today: “If you thought Mob Doctor was bad, meet Mob Mama… Good dramas have been made from much less, but Widow’s indifferently performed, dishwater-dull opener give us no real clue as to who Marta is or what she wants — or why anyone would want to watch her pursue it.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Broadcast networks have had little luck launching midseason shows this year, and ABC’s Red Widow is unlikely to change that trend. Bland and toothless, this drama, about a woman who ends up working in organized crime, attempts to meld suburban mommy drama with a mob story but fails to come up with anything that’s remotely interesting to watch.”
NY Post: “One minute, her husband’s dead in the driveway and the next minute she’s making deals with the mob. What really rankles, though, is that to be very PC, the Russians here are more WASPy than the Bush family. Mob shows about Italian mobsters always make them look like slobs with foul mouths, jewelry-laden tacky wives and tacky houses — but when it’s about Russian mobsters, they live in Architectural Digest homes, the women are all chic and the drug-kingpin men are in bespoke-suits. This would have been a better show if it were just about the Russian mob period. With actual Russians.”
What do you think? Does it sound like Red Widow is worth your TV time? If you’ve seen it, will you watch again?
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