The Widower

Like others, i was sceptical of predominantly dark comedian Reece Shearsmith being the lead and the series being taken seriously but as it progresses its a good fit because he excels at playing the mild, quiet, almost comical but extremely creepy characters which many serial killers are.

The only weakness is the actresses cast as the wives are a bit too attractive to seem a credible match for such a nerdish character, especially the last wife who also seems incredibly naive for a professional doctor and not delving deeper into his fraudulent cancer diagnosis as well as moving a complete stranger into her house against her boyfriend's wishes.

I have been viewing this story as a TV mini-series here in New Zealand, where it made significant news due to relevant local connections.

Whilst I cannot fault the work of the principal actors/actresses in the story, I do feel that a number of liberties have been taken in its production, leading it somewhat askew from the details of the events as they actually occurred.

I refer here to the attempted murder of Ms. Drumm - Webster's second wife, in New Zealand, in 1999. From my recollection of the incident, the couple were driving in to the bank at which point Webster veered the car over two or three lanes of motorway before the car left the road as he pretended to be having a heart attack, not as the movie portrayed it, which involved parking up at a forest park where Webster was intending to torch the vehicle with Ms. Drumm inside.

A further anomaly here is the funds Webster misappropriated from Ms. Drumm's account. The story clearly portrayed the amount of funds in the account as $240,000, yet in historical news reports this is stated as $140,000.

I recall reading somewhere that some of the key witnesses were consulted prior to the making of this drama, so why did the production team find it so necessary to distort the facts in a case that will be remembered by so many for the events portrayed on-screen moreso than those given in the distantly remembered media coverage?

We were fascinated by how oblivious this man is. The first half of the film is pretty slow, so we ended up watching it on 1.5x which helped a bit. The actors did really well and the cinematography isn't dark, which is always great. Also, except for a couple of slips, the vocab, sex, and violence are PG, which is fantastic!! Loved seeing John Hannah. Wish the story had brought the investigation in sooner and had spent more time on it. Among the few things that are unbelievable are that they couldn't get some sort of word, even anonymously, to the third victim. Would have given it 7/10, but are so grateful that they left out the gunginess that most shows include these days, we gave it 9/10.

I knew nothing about this case before watching The Widower. I found it to be compelling, yet appalling viewing. I found myself rooting actively for the victims, including speaking out loud to the second and third ones. I also found myself having very strong, visceral reactions to Webster which made me realize what a fantastic acting job Reese Shearsmith did. He was PERFECT, nailing the part of a man playing a victim himself, appealing to the empathic, care-taking natures of many women. Yes, he was charming, as Victim #2 says, and he was also smarmy. Even writing this I'm grimacing and feel like throwing something! One of the other reviews here complained that the TV version was not really like reality. Well, there often is a big difference between fiction and non-fiction. And, having read at least one article about what happened (Wikipedia) I realized that much had been left out, including Webster's involvement with several other women, and changed, for the sake of a dramatic thread in the show. I also learned that there is a book that the show was adapted from and I'd guess that anyone who wants true-to-life details should read it, including yours truly.

True life story which follows a mans hunger for greed ! Great acting & because it's a true story it'll leave you stunned at what lengths he will go to , to get what he wants .