Widow (series)

The Widow is a 2019 series about a widow who goes to Africa after she sees her dead husband on TV.

10 out of 10 stars. I enjoyed this series. Kate Beckinsale took a lot of flak for this role. She was awesome.

This series is very similar to the Andie MccDowell/Liam Neeson/Viggo Mortensen film Deception (aka Ruby Cairo). The location has moved to the Congo of Africa and centers around the illegal export of Coltan to Rwanda to avoid Congolese export duties.

There are three time periods in this film:

• FIVE YEARS AGO — This time period starts showing in about episode 6 and reveals how Will Mason came to be a coltan smuggler.
• THREE YEARS AGO — This is the year Will died in the plane crash.
• PRESENT DAY — This is the time period when Georgia sees Will on TV news footage of a riot in Kinshasha and flies there to find out if he’s really still alive.

In addition to the three time periods there are multiple subplots that are only brought together in episodes 7 and 8. So you have to have some stick-to-it-iveness to see it through to the end and enjoy the plot.

Georgia Wells has been through a lot in the past five years. She lost her three month old daughter, tried to kill herself, then lost her husband in a plane crash. She moves to the family cabin in the frigid, barren, and empty northern part of Wales to heal and happens to be in a hospital lobby when TV footage of a riot in Kinsasha, Congo is shown on the news. In that footage is her husband Will with his distinctive red baseball cap.

Georgia embarks on a journey to Kinsasha, Congo to dig into the life Will led before he died. Everyone who helps her seems to be dying around her, but she keeps plugging on as one betrayal after another doesn’t seem to discourage her.

I’m not particularly a Kate Beckinsale fan. But I have to admit she looks pretty good for her age. Kate is like a British Sandra Bullock, only Bullock never puts her hair up, wears pounds of makeup and fake eyelashes, and faux tans to the extreme. Kate, on the other hand, is refreshingly makeup-free for large parts of the film. She wears her hair in a ponytail most of the time and wears the same jeans and t-shirt. She’s not a prima donna like Bullock, which I appreciate. For that she gets my admiration. At a time when people are bashing women who look their age anyone who pans this film for that reason is a moron. (And there are plenty of morons on Amazon.)

10 out of 10 stars. Stick with it to the end and you will find a well-crafted plot with tragic overtones. After all, this is Africa. When you use your cell phone think of the coltan in it and how it got there.