Critical response On
Rotten Tomatoes, the miniseries holds an approval rating of 75% based on 90 reviews, with an average rating of 7.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "
The Undoing is a beautifully shot mystery that benefits greatly from Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant's performances—if only its story was as strong as its star power." On
Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Kristen Baldwin of
Entertainment Weekly gave the series a 'B' grade and wrote, "Through all of the misdirects, the characters' dumb decisions, the dreamy detours,
The Undoing kept me guessing—and, of course, gloating over everyone's misfortune." Reviewing the miniseries for
Rolling Stone,
Alan Sepinwall gave it 2 out of 5 stars and said, "It's all extremely rote, like an expanded version of the mid-budget Nineties movie that would have starred Kidman and Grant at their respective heights of celebrity." Assessing the series as a whole following the finale, Roxana Hadadi of
Vulture unfavorably compared
The Undoing to David E. Kelley's previous series,
Big Little Lies (also starring Kidman), stating, "Kelley re-created the elitism of
Big Little Lies when adapting
You Should Have Known into
The Undoing, but neither its introspective spirit nor its curiosity about the inner lives of women." Hadadi particularly criticized the series for its inconsistent and shallow characterization of its protagonist, Grace Fraser, compared to Kidman's
Big Little Lies character, Celeste Wright: "In prioritizing unbelievable twists rather than steady character development, Kelley re-creates Grace as a shell of Celeste, making her the hollow center of
The Undoing. Grace wears the same kind of clothes as Celeste, and has access to the same powerful allies as Celeste, and lives in the same sort of mansions as Celeste. But Kidman's performance here is mostly one of wide, shocked eyes and blank, inexpressive despair; her Grace rarely, if ever, talks about herself, her emotions, or her decisions." Eve Gerber of
The Atlantic criticized the series for glamorizing
domestic violence, noting that critical discussion about the series largely avoided the subject and instead focused more on the series' production values, makeup and costuming.
Ratings Audience viewership The show was HBO's first original series to gain viewership every week over the course of the season and the finale was the most-watched night on the network since the Season 2 finale of
Big Little Lies. It became HBO's most-watched show of 2020, surpassing the audience of "Big Little Lies". It also became the biggest U.S. show to launch on
Sky in the U.K, beating the record previously held by
Game of Thrones. ==Awards and nominations==