If you’re a fan of murder mysteries, then you know the all too familiar drill. A dead body drops, then a cool detective shows up to try to figure out who’s responsible. Soon enough, you’re Sherlock Holmes on your couch squinting at the screen, guessing, pointing fingers, and building your own suspect list like you’re part of the case. It’s all fun, and frankly, one of the reasons we all love watching them. But the best murder mysteries aren’t really about the murder. Also, you won’t find many shows that nailed that vibe quite like Apple TV’s Imperfect Women.
Imperfect Women makes you sit down with your popcorn and notebook, thinking you’re about to solve a homicide. But something sneaky happens. About twenty minutes in, you realize you don’t even really care about who did it anymore. Instead, the show sucks you in, making you sweat over conversations between the people involved. Conversations that have very little to do with the murder and more about what kind of friendship they had.
The Murder Is Just An Excuse To Open Old Wounds
So, Nancy (Kate Mara) is dead. The tragedy drags two of her closest friends, Eleanor (Kerry Washington) and Mary (Elisabeth Moss), back together after years apart. Normally, they’d be hugging it out, grabbing tissues to stem the waterworks, and teaming up to figure out who offed their friend. But nah, the whole thing spirals down memory lane, where all these emotional landmines are buried.
Yet, it’s not as big and dramatic as you see in most shows. Instead, we get quieter moments; like hanging out with an old friend, and they mention a memory, and you’re like, “That’s not what happened at all,” but you just smile and nod because you don’t want to start a fight. That’s the whole vibe of this show.
Eleanor’s version of Nancy is completely different from Mary’s. And because Nancy is not there to set the records straight, she keeps changing depending on who’s telling the story. The whole thing messes with your head. But you also pick up fast on the fact that nobody here is the villain or the hero. They’re just… people. The kind who let a bunch of little grievances stack up for years until something bigger eventually brings it all crumbling down.
By the time the cops show up to ask the actual questions about the murder, you’ve forgotten there’s even a police investigation. Because honestly, it stopped being about “who killed Nancy?” about 15 minutes in. It became “what exactly was this ‘friendship’ even based on?” And frankly, answering that question is just as hard as going hiking on a cold winter morning.
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The Real Crime Isn’t the Murder, It’s the Lie They Were Living
Once you get used to the idea that the real crime here isn’t really the murder, the show starts uncovering all the messy parts of each woman, especially since neither of them is who they claim to be.
Eleanor, for instance, comes across like she has it all figured out at first glance. You know, the kind of… posh lady who has a color-coded calendar and probably alphabetizes her spice rack. But the truth is that she’s just winging it like the rest of us. This truth becomes even more apparent when you watch her around Robert (Joel Kinnaman). And the moment you realize she’s just better at hiding her flaws, her “control” starts to look a lot like fear.
Then you’ve got Mary, who seems like the “stable” one in the group. She’s holding everything together. Still, you only need to notice the tension in her jaw and shoulders to see that she’s one bad day away from snapping. It doesn’t help that she’s constantly comparing herself to Eleanor and Nancy, and you just… get it. It’s that feeling of being the “less successful” one in a friend group. Nobody wants to admit it, but everyone knows how it stings.
As for Nancy… whew. Even in death, she runs the whole show. Every time they learn something new about her, it forces Eleanor and Mary to rethink their own lives. Kind of like finding out your friend secretly hated a band you guys saw lots of times. It’s not exactly a lie. But it makes you go back and question every road trip and playlist you made together. And in the end, it’s a reminder of how messy, complicated, and undeniably human people are.
‘Imperfect Women’ Dissects Curated Lives and the Illusion of “Being Fine”
The show also explores something we all do but hate to admit: pretending we’re fine. Nobody raises their hand to be that friend with a messy marriage or shaky finances. So, what do you do? You smooth things over, post the good photos, laugh off the weird comments, and show people the version of your life that is easiest to digest. Do that for ten, fifteen years, and you don’t even really know who you are anymore.
There’s also this quiet tension about money. Eleanor has a nice house and the confidence that comes with never having to worry about a credit card bill. Nancy had the social status and the connections that came with it. Mary is always playing catch-up, and you can feel that gap in every conversation. Consequently, when things finally crack open, it feels less like some wild TV moment and more like something that was bound to happen.
That’s why Imperfect Women sticks with you. The murder is just the excuse to get everyone in a room together. The real story is all the stuff nobody said for years. The secrets that felt too small to mention. The versions of the truth they told to keep the peace. That’s the crime scene worth looking at.
If you love murder mysteries that uncover deeper issues, then Imperfect Women is for you. You can stream the show on Apple TV.
