'Why Women Kill' paints infidelity as the prime marital crisis women deal with through the generations
Featuring Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu and Kirby Howell-Baptiste might seem like reason enough for CBS All Access' upcoming dark comedy 'Why Women Kill' to be an immediate hit with the viewers, but the show has a lot more going on to draw you in. The biggest highlight being how it aims at highlighting one of the biggest marital crisis that has been prevalent through generations: infidelity.
Created by Marc Cherry, the show comes off as a soap you would tune in for some much needed deadly guilty pleasure. That and the fact that Cherry also helmed 'Desperate Housewives', works as a benefit too. But 'Why Women Kill' manages to stand apart because of its narrative that expands through three different generations. Set in the 1960s, 1980s and in 2019, the show follows three different women living in the same household, undergoing the same marital issues. Regardless of the time periods they belong to, their common problem is infidelity, its entire essence is exhibited with just one scene in the trailer, where Goodwin's 60's homemaker character tells her husband (Jack Davenport) over meatloaf: "I was wondering when you'll die. You could be hit by a bus or have a stroke or get stabbed in the chest!"
Given the character's premise, it might make sense for her to be still married to a man whom she feels such obvious resentment for, but the show is also able to highlight that time period and significantly different cores of individual characters have nothing to do with how likely they are to be a victim of infidelity. Take, for example, Liu's character; she is a socialite nestled in the lap of luxury in the 80s, going through the same ordeal that Goodwin's 60's housewife does. And the same thing happens with Howell-Baptiste's lawyer persona set in modern-day: being a successful, strong, independent woman in 2019 doesn't exempt her from unfaithfulness from her husband either.
The story showcases these three women set in three vastly different decades and involved in three extremely different marriages. But while the common problem of infidelity persists in all three of their lives, what sets them apart is the reactions they have, individually, to the different affairs their husbands indulge in. The affairs are also not the stereotypical ones we have seen in signature romcoms; if anything, they are real scenarios that go hand-in-hand with the contemporary world. In that, the husbands are not secretly sleeping with a younger aspiring model. Sure Goodwin's character's husband is having an affair with a diner waitress (Alexandra Daddario) to appeal to fans of classic romcoms, but then we have Liu's character's husband, who is gay. As or Howell-Baptiste's character, she and her husband are in an open marriage, so the lines are extra blurry and grey.
And if at all that doesn't appeal to your drama-cravings, Sam Jaeger plays Liu's husband on the show, while Reid Scott plays the same role for Howell-Baptiste's character. The show also stars Sadie Calvano, Leo Howard, Alicia Coppola, and Katie Finneran.
'Why Women Kill' premieres on Thursday, August 15, only on CBS All Access.
