Red Widow

If this great cast of actors can't make Red Widow work, then they weren't given much to work with. I watched every episode, and aside from the fact that it's just not believable that the intelligent, involved, loving Marta would not know more about the source of her family's income - it's also not believable that she emerged from her horrific childhood as this confident, balanced, ordinary soccer mom...not to mention her sweet sister. The brother was believable as an egomaniac twisted with anger and a need to prove himself to be the top dog, and make his father proud. Schiller's character never did anything bad, but we were supposed to be afraid...very afraid. After the 3rd episode I only watched the show to see how on earth the actors were going to make the plot twists seem believable because the writing was terrible. With the excellent cast, this show had a chance, but even this cast of great actors couldn't sell this limp biscuit.

The series has some intriguing possibilities. The core cast of Radha Mitchell and Goran Visnjic is very solid - and Radha's (Marta's) family also has a range of better possibilities. The sleeper in this series might be Luke Goss' character, Luther. At this point, he is underused.

At present, the writers have too many illogical sub plots that allow potentially good characters to dangle. A good example of a misused character is Colin's portrayal of James Ramos. Even though the plot wanders, the acting is good. It's also refreshing to see some new talented faces rather than simply recycled actors.

If the writers would tighten up both the plot and characters, Red Widow has the potential to be a real winner.

As an aside, I think this franchise would have a much better chance on CBS rather than ABC. CBS manages its drama franchises much better, including time slotting and lead-ins. Red Widow could be a great fit with this network's lineup. However, with more focused writing, Red Widow might help ABC find its way back to prime time ratings success.

A nice based-on series with good acting, well-flowing development, beautiful photography and a good score. It is not on par with the original NL multi-season show, but well-done nevertheless and I would have liked very much a second season.

The cliffhanger deserved that much!

I have been forced (by my wife) to watch every single episode of this turkey. The scenario is preposterous, the acting mediocre, and the casting is absurd - don't they think we know what a Russian accent sounds like? Could anyone look at her father and find him threatening? Sunday night, Marta - who is living in a multimillion dollar house in San Francisco and has no income, no skills, no work history, and no prospects - gives away a $100 thousand necklace and in a fit of stupidity destroys $75 thousand worth of stolen cocaine, knowing that several people have been killed (including her late husband) over it. Then when Schiller says he wants it back...she is surprised? WTF? If there were a death penalty for bad writing, the writers of "The Red Widow" would be in big trouble.

I was glad that one of our public broadcasting networks in my country (the Netherlands) was finally able to produce a darn good drama TV show.

The tone, atmosphere, casting, dialog, pacing and direction were to a very high standard and helped tell the intriguing story. For the first time in history a dutch drama series was able to measure up to the quality of production of the first season of "the Wire"! It's really a shame that this show got in the wrong hands with ABC. It was a really misguided decision to adapt a foreign TV show that has only 1 solid story (first season, effectively an extended mini-series) and no real reason to tell the story after that. HBO is the only US channel I know, that could do a story like this right.

What we end up with is ABC and Melissa Rosenberg? I've read that Melissa Rosenberg, the developer of the US adaptation planned to fill 7 seasons! The production team clearly doesn't understand how to effectively tell this story. Why choose San Fransico as a location for telling a drug smuggling mafia story, most credibility is lost right there. Some roles have been grossly miscast. The tone is too lighthearted and is at times even campy. The pacing is so far off that you're not able to follow the story, let alone connect with the characters...

...It's a shame that the US has been robbed of a good TV show by ABC and Melissa Rosenberg.

...It's a shame that this bland mess is now associated with my country.