Mrs. Wilson (2018) isn’t just a three-part miniseries about a woman who discovers her husband has been leading multiple lives with multiple families for the entirety of their two-decade marriage … It’s also inspired by Ruth Wilson’s actual grandmother and grandfather. We gave a nod to the show a while back in our ongoing series, Oh, the Bad Movies & TV You’ll Watch in which Kendra accurately described it as “FACSINATING” but “not terribly shiny.” And while I could leave it there, I thought it actually deserved a bit more of a spotlight because it is just that good.
Costume designer Lorna Ó RÃordáin (also credited as Lorna Marie Mugan) is great at depicting the everyday fashions of regular people in whatever period she’s working in, as evidenced by her previous work on Peaky Blinders (which despite being too violent for even me to get excited about, does have incredibly good costuming), as well as glamming it up as seen in Vita & Virginia. That said, the two periods that this series is set in, the bulk of which takes place in the 1960s with a few flashbacks to the 1940s during the Blitz, aren’t exactly notable for their flashy clothing for the middle classes. However, non-shiny can still be interesting and I think that Mrs. Wilson achieves that balance between “normal people wearing normal clothes” and “make it interesting.”
Have you watched Mrs. Wilson (2018)? Share your thoughts about it in the comments!
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I very much enjoyed the series. It was a compelling story, well acted, and the costumes and sets were “spot on”.
Oh, and the talented cast!
Oh–now I have to watch it! I had a boyfriend who had 7 wives before I met him (what was I thinking?) and his second wife at one point found out he wasn’t even divorced when he married (and had a daughter) by her. I only hope that in this age of digital records and the internet, these sort of sleezebags won’t be able to get away with this sort of shit anymore!
Wilson has such a wonderfully ambiguous face that it’s always fun to watch her play someone who’s not a little strange or “different” (or an outright sociopath). And thanks for the phrase “the muddy mid-century aesthetic.” Sums up everything I dislike about the era.
Yes, I have seen this and enjoyed it. Ruth Wilson was wonderful and the cast was outstanding. Time to watch it again, I think.
I haven’t seen it, but as a person of mid-century vintage that “muddy mid-century aesthetic” they accurately capture is partly a desperate attempt to make the tobacco & coal smoke less obvious. That horrible gray-green wallpaper (well I remember it) didn’t start out that color, but it had these vertical ridges that trapped grime & grease … brrrr. Looks really authentic, can’t stand spending time w/people like Mr Wilson, no thank you. Going to re-watch Sense & Sensibility …