PILOT REVIEW: Red Widow

RED WIDOW

Starring:  Radha Mitchell, Sterling Beaumon, Clifton Collins Jr., Luke Goss, Suleka Mathew, Erin Moriarty, Jaime Ray Newman, Jakob Salvati, Lee Tergesen, Wil Traval, with Rade Serbedzija, and Goran Visnjic

Developed by Melissa Rosenberg
Written by Melissa Rosenberg, Directed by Mark Pellington

Red Widow is a new drama based on a Dutch series. It centers on Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell), a housewife whose husband is murdered in their driveway due to his involvement in organized crime (something she has a family history with). When she discovers that he was attempting to move them to Witness Protection, she gets involved and must work for the mob in order to protect her family. The supporting cast consists of the usual suspects in a show like this: her family, the mob, and the authorities.

THE GOOD: I'm trying to think of something here...

THE BAD: Honestly, I found this to be one of the worst pilots of the whole season. I only watched the first hour (Part 1) because I couldn't take another hour. It wasn't that it was laughably bad in the way that some bad sitcoms such as Work It and Animal Practice have been. Instead, it was just extremely boring. I felt like literally nothing had happened in the first 30 minutes when her husband was finally murdered (something we all knew was going to happen because of the promos). I can't even begin to describe how terribly boring that first half hour was. Then when they finally had the "big moment," it was terribly done with a slow motion run and hysterics that didn't connect with me because I felt so unconnected to the characters. After being incredibly boring, the show then turned into a convoluted plot that felt like it had no real direction. This is a worse version of The Mob Doctor, which was a pretty bad show in its own right. You know its been a bad show when I can't even begin to describe any of the characters. They were so badly drawn and acted with no life in them at all from the lead all the way down to every supporting character.

BOTTOM LINE: ABC had some seemingly promising pilots that didn't make the cut last year such as Americana, Gilded Lilys, and Devious Maids. Now I have to wonder how bad those shows were when yawners like 666 Park Avenue, Zero Hour, and especially this show made the schedule. What a bad development year for drama. I don't think Red Widow will be around for long. There's nothing appealing about it and I can't imagine this show getting a lot of buzz if any. I think it'll be gone pretty quickly in a timeslot that's turning as troublesome for ABC as Thursday 8pm. This is why viewers go to cable for good dramas. Shows like this just hurt network TV by being so unbelievably bland.