User reviews

Maybe not as good as the really good UK series, but it is up there with some of the good ones and short enough to spend the time in one sitting binge watching it.

The only name actor I recognised is Janet Montgomery and she does a great job as usual, most of the other actors also dod did their job well. It was a tad predictable in places, but with some really good twists keeps you guessing as the story unfolds.

Flashbaks give the story a more depth and help explain some of the less understandable part of why things happened the way they did.

My only gripe was that the lack of police involvement, this made the whole thing a bit unbelieveable.

Still gets a 7/10 for me although I dont think I would watch it a second time round.

The reviewers who struggled to warm to Jack and Jen have no idea how clinically wired Narcissists are.

Jack's control methods,gaslighting,abuse of Tasha are accurate. His acting portrayed how calibrated they are and how they use their prey for supply. Supply of whatever they need. They are brutal and most are psychopaths.

If they are revealed they often turn to violence,withhold food,freedom etc and snap. Snap meaning ,if their ego is no longer massaged they go into blind rage ,murder and/or injuring the innocent.

The weaknesses are in editing and mismatching music scores. The theme of Narcissism is accurate and informative. Jack uses sex and mental trickery and gifts. Textbook.

The ex- wife is a 2022 British mystery thriller drama featuring 4 episodes.

Tasha's married life is disrupted when Jen, her husband's ex wife refuses to leave them alone.

After seeing the trailer thought it looked pretty decent for a channel 5 drama.

The storyline was quite good little slow in the first episode but if you persevere with it does get better.

Was gripping and was not quite sure how the story was going to plan out.

The ex wife is more of a mystery drama than a thriller it does not really have twists and turns that much but it's a good watch.

Acting is not to bad Celine Buckens is good and played the character very well.

A little disappointed with the ending but who knows what will happen next.

If you like dramas like the affair, and the heat featuring Danny dyer. Then you will like this.

Overall a fairly good watch don't go by the negative comments/ ratings watch it for yourself then decide.

Streaming on on paramount plus and My 5.

A somewhat uninteresting production, though nicely made "a la British", with good sometimes unrealistic acting, a weak storyline with average plots.

The series is not interesting story-wise cause it's unrealistic, watching it I just liked the acting and the score, beautifully setting the mood for it's worth.

It was better to film the two seasons together and offer it to viewers as one complete 8-part mini-series.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 5.5
• Production value/impact: 6
• Development: 7
• Realism: 6.5
• Entertainment: 6
• Acting: 7.5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7.5
• VFX: 7.5
• Music/score/sound: 7.5
• Depth: 6
• Logic: 3.5
• Flow: 6
• Psychological thriller/drama/mystery: 5.5
• Ending: 4.5.

Jack hits a cyclist named Tasha, the pair instantly fall for one another, and promptly marry, Tasha seems to have everything, the perfect house, a lovely child, and a great husband, one thing she hadn't reckoned on, Jen, The ex wife.

Once again, I find myself at odds with several of the reviews here, I just can't apply some of the criticisms to the show, hand on heart I would say this one of Channel 5's best drama series to date.

A good drama series is supposed to get under your skin, and that's exactly what this does, there's plenty of mystery and intrigue, but you will feel totally frustrated by and for Tasha.

It doesn't lull at any point, it's very consistent throughout, you will slowly get to put the pieces together, and learn exactly what's going on, there's a big twist in Episode three that will make you want to watch the concluding episode without delay.

It's well acted, Celine Buckens and Tom Mison are very good, loved Janet Montgomery, who played Jen.

Full of twists and turns, The Ex Wife is well worth seeing.

8/10.

One of the most unbelievable and stupid shows I've ever been forced to watch by my girlfriend. The general story could have worked well - but with all of the characters lacking any sense of realistic emotion/likeability meant I spent half of the time laughing at the comical plot twists.

Pretty much everything that happens defies both logic and sense (unless you live an alternate hell like universe full of sociopaths) with the story moving from one travesty to another.

By the end of it you have to accept all the characters have no redeeming qualities and you couldn't care less about any of them.

Avoid this unless you like an accidental comedy or are extremely gullible.

The Lord of the Rings is probably more believable in terms of realism.

Intense psychological drama with a narcissistic sociopath at its center, lying, manipulating, and gaslighting everyone else for one singular selfish purpose. I have been in a relationship with someone exactly like this, so maybe the negative reviews are from people who have either been lucky not to know that this character is believable or see something of themselves in this psycho.

I have to write 195 more characters without giving anything away, Plenty of twists and turns that I didn't expect, and I'm usually the one to predict even the most unpredictable of plots, so I would recommend this short series.

Loved this series. Four episodes was just perfect - not dragged out. Great acting from all the main actors, great story line and all round great drama series. I loved Celine Buckens in Show Trial and she was just as fabulous in this.

I hadn't watched Tom Mison since Sleepy Hollow and he brought such a believable darkness to this role. Chilling.

I'm thankful that I have a Paramount+ subscription so I could watch it. If you don't, you are missing out on a show like this one. 4 words - 7 day free trial!

People should definitely take the time to watch this one. It's well worth it, and you won't be disappointed.

Spent most of my time muttering "nobody talks/acts like that" or "nobody would ever do that" script is terrible to the point I can only imagine the writer has never actually dealt with real people and just 'imagines' them to be like this. Characters seem to go from happy to insane with motivations that would make most people just be annoyed or curious and I had to wonder if I missed scenes or even a whole episode.

The Incredible Hulk being real is more believable than the characters in this program, gave up mid way through episode 3 and it's 4 episodes, it wasn't even worth caring about how this would end or what the "twist would be" because the people were acting like puppets doing things no one would ever do and it's hard to care about them.

I honestly can't get over how badly written these characters were, some of the people like this just don't exist apart from perhaps in a mills and boom book.

... for me, there are two productions to date that exemplify the top notch acting ability of Celine Bunkens.. 'Showtrial' and 'The Ex-Wife'... she's just got that camera-grabbing-gaze.. and when she's on-screen she-dominates... this series is short at only four episodes, be sure to give yourself opportunity of time, so all episodes can be watched in a single viewing

... storyline follows the genre, and is well produced-directed-scored... it is Celine Bunkens show from start to ending, with exemplary turns from all-other-supporting-actors... ending gave a slight hint there could be more coming in the future, sure hope so... it's really one of the best mini-series of '22.. (and-hopefully '23)

During the first half hour I almost turned it off.

After the first episode I thought I would say a little longer.

Episode 2 was a bit interesting, so I stayed decided to go on, but with low expectionation.

However, in Episode 3 The Ex-Wife becomes one of the best television thrillers ever.

The number of twists and surprises in the last two episodes surpassed any Harlan Coben or Jed Mercurio show.

The acting is great throughout, though Janet Montgomery and Celine Buckens should get special praise for navigating complex character arcs with a grounded reality.

You might be tempted to stop....but stick with it. It is well worth it!

Recommended by my wife's friends, I actually managed to last through the first episode, just. Hard to explain why I found it so unwatchable, possibly the characters. A smarmy husband, the new wife whose smacked bottom of a face made her the most unlikely new version of the attractive ex wife. Annoying script, that seemed to wander around with forced scenes, Generally terrible acting, I suppose the fact that I had never seen any of these people in anything else is for a reason. Perversely the only time I actually enjoyed a 20 second segment, was when she thought she her baby had gone missing. It shows how unlikeable the characters are when you are wishing them ill. Do yourself a favour and avoid this, unless you want your evening spoilt by frustration that you could be watching anything else.

Watch the first episode, and you should easily be able to predict the rest. Naive pretty girl encounters nasty rich people behaving badly. Everybody is jealous, the dialogue is terrible, you can actually shout out the next line before they say it, nine times out of ten (could make a good drinking game, I guess?).

The whole thing is just frustrating to watch, because you know it's just going to drag on and on and on with people not trusting each other, being creepy, trying to make it all work one more time, rinse and repeat ... especially once hubby's true colours are revealed at the end of episode 1.

So this was the sort of thing that I thought would be a good watch with my wife. We often struggle to find something that fits both our tastes but in the trailers it all seemed to be just the thing....

And then we sat through it. By the end of the first episode by wife had threatened to turn it off four or five times as a shouted at the screen over the the absurdity of plot and dialogue. What I was most struck with by the end of the first episode was how little I cared for any of the characters. They all deserved their own misery - and that's just by the end of the first episode.

I did however watch to the end solely on the request of my wife, hoping that there would be some redeeming plot twist. The character of Jen, the Ex referred to in the title, changes allegiances back and fore with every other scene. Jack the husband remains overly friendly and happy throughout apart from one or two scenes towards the end and the main character of Tasha appears to have been written and played as just a smug, easily annoyed student. No one is likeable. You don't root for anyone.

Script terrible, acting terrible and direction was missing. Have to say the one character/actor that was a pleasure to watch was the sister of Jack, played by Clare Foster. Even with a two dimensional character to play with, she created real interest and believable responses. You get the feeling that the director spent most of their time giving the actors illogical reasons for why their characters were doing what they were doing, the way they were doing it.

I could just end it there, but it is worth saying that the final scenes of the final episode are so unbelievable that they are worth watching to see just how far the insanity and absurdity can be pushed. During a flashback to a previous scene, one character appears to move into an alternate universe for about five minutes during which time all the tens of people that were seen earlier in the episode just don't exist. The character just strolls around during what was previously chaos to deliver the final and obvious twist to the plot. To top it off they seem to have added a James Bond theme to the final scene to what is the least imaginative and most illogical way of tidying up all the loose ends.

Truly an awful spectacle. Although I have stopped short of giving spoilers in case there are those of you who want to see how something should not be done.

Would give this a zero if possible. Gave up after episode 2. I thought, is it me or all the characters really annoying. I wouldnt have cared what happened to anyone except the baby. The plot was ridiculous. I knew what was happening from the first episode, and no one would behave the way they did, unless they were all really dim witted, which apparently the mother of the child was. Oh can i just leave my baby with you, a total stranger, while i go chase someone. Yeah right. And the husbands excuses were ridiculous Anyone with half a brain would have told him to sod off, packed up, and taken their baby as far away as possibke Total waste of time . Why do they keep churning out these boring ridiculous so called dramas.

Bad things happen & I empathize. If bad things happen to good people, I empathize more. However, when bad things happen to someone who is so incredibly lacking in common sense or logic or intelligence or the ability to learn from her mistakes ... well, it's impossible to empathize. It's just frustrating, until I was outright angry that someone wrote this character, someone thought it was OK, and others thought it was OK to make a miniseries around it. I made it a few minutes into Ep3, then couldn't even be in the same room with it. I can't think of the last time I was so repulsed by a main character, that I wanted so much for the villain (who was so insane that there's no way he could have been so successful in business) to finish off the main character once and for all. Put her out of her misery ... and me.