Summary
“I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I Just Washed My Hair” is good for the odd zinger, but its weak present-day story and reliance on thin stereotypes still hurt it.
This recap of Why Women Kill Season 1, Episode 2, “I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I’ve Just Washed My Hair”, contain spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
The soapy shenanigans continue in Why Women Kill Episode 2, the annoyingly-titled “I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I’ve Just Washed My Hair”. As a whole, the show continues not to work as well as it thinks it does. But it’s certainly good for the odd snappily-written line; there’s a moment-to-pleasure here that ensures the show is never boring, even when it isn’t very good. But it still isn’t very good.
I wish I liked it more. But the teething troubles of the premiere are still present in Why Women Kill Episode 2: the 80s storyline is still the best of the three by a significant margin; the 60s stuff has really great production design but feels weighed down by its adherence to cliche; and the present-day Millenial melodrama remains awful, despite the angelic presence of sneaky MVP Alexandra Daddario. “I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I’ve Just Washed My Hair” at least makes efforts to flesh out how its marriages and leading ladies are being tested across its three parallel timelines, but — thus far, anyway — none of the show’s feints at real mystery are actually landing.
Beth Ann (Ginnifer Goodwin) spends all of Why Women Kill Episode 2 making an effort with Rob (Sam Jaeger) in the naive hope that if she’s less sexually repressed he won’t feel the need to spend his evenings with April (Sadie Calvano) at the diner. Every attempt backfires; being nude at dinner becomes a full public display, and a sexual act in the shower ends with a trip to the hospital. In spite of it all, Rob needs to attend to his “work commitments” anyway, which must be depressing for Beth Ann, especially since she keeps visiting the diner while Rob’s at work and getting on with April quite well.
In the 80s, Karl (Jack Davenport) is still gay, which is the least of his problems. He also faked his suicide attempt and continues to be rather smug about the whole business, which is fine for Simone (Lucy Liu), because despite his being her best friend’s son and his idea of a romantic date being the back of a catering van, she has been won over by the young, virile Tommy (Leo Howard). Simone remains a clear highlight in “I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I’ve Just Washed My Hair”, with all the best lines and easily the most interesting dilemmas, given the social shame of having a gay husband, the moral risk of sleeping with such a young man, and the meddling busybody who alerted her to Karl’s homosexuality in the first place.
As with the premiere, Why Women Kill Episode 2 is let down by its 2019 open-marriage storyline, which came to a bit of a head in “I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I’ve Just Washed My Hair” with Eli (Reid Scott), Taylor (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and Jade (Daddario) engaging in a threesome. While, at first, it seems like this is exactly what Eli wants, all it really does is highlight that Taylor evidently cares for her fling more than her hopelessly accommodating husband. This timeline differs by being primarily framed in the male point of view, but that doesn’t add enough to stop the whole thing feeling like an aimlessly woke timesink.
There’s still potential in Why Women Kill; it’s a handsomely-produced show with its share of stylistic flourishes, and the timelines feel suitably distinct. It also has its fair share of great individual lines and moments. It’s in bringing it all together where the show lets itself down, and “I’d Like To Kill Ya, But I’ve Just Washed My Hair” doesn’t really give any indication that the problem won’t persist going forward.
