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 had no idea this was based on a true story - I thought it was fantastic, I love Pemberton, 3 episodes was the perfect length. The dynamic between the families, police, and law enforcement agencies was sufficiently believable (albeit, it is based on a true story), the performance of Pemberton was also pretty Lex Luther-esque.

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've seen a documentary about the real life story, so I was interested to see how it was portrayed in a fictional series. They did well, obviously there were quite a few things different from the real story but the basic gist is there.

The main actor did a great job - he was perfectly creepy, frustrating, believable when talking himself out of situations and pathetic all at once.

The acting in general by everyone else was well done. I do wish they'd used actual New Zealand actors (or even aussies) as I could still hear the English accent from the actress, but she did do a good job at a hard accent! (I'm Australian).

Some parts were glossed over or rushed, but I enjoyed the show and 3 episodes is just enough for a mini series.

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.