The Looking Wives is a brand new homicide mystery-drama that simply hit the 2025 TV schedule. Following within the footsteps of different deliciously scandalous female-led cleaning soap operas, the brand new Netflix sequence stars Brittany Snow as Sophie, who feels misplaced after relocating to Texas, till she meets Malin Akerman’s Margo. Strap in for an surprising saga of intercourse, medication and debauchery — all resulting in homicide — that critics appear to suppose is a visit down South value taking.
I’ve to confess, The Looking Wives wasn’t actually on my radar; as a Texas transplant myself, I don’t want to fireplace up my Netflix subscription to expertise pink state social politics. I’ll have underestimated simply how juicy the sequence will get, although, as a result of after studying what critics must say in regards to the book-to-screen adaptation, it sounds just like the binge I didn’t know I wanted. Angie Han of THR calls it “pure over-the-top enjoyable,” writing:
The sequence is much much less involved about making us really feel or suppose very deeply than it’s with satisfying our voyeuristic yearning for stunning wealthy individuals behaving very, very badly — as these do in spades, oscillating with lizard-brain impulsivity between unbridled lust and white-hot fury. Whereas The Looking Wives has some respectable jokes, I extra usually discovered myself guffawing at its utter outrageousness, and its complete disinterest in taking part in something coy.
Saloni Gajjar of AV Membership provides it a B, saying The Looking Wives “screams responsible pleasure with its ludicrous characters and conditions,” providing nothing however escapism. Gajjar continues:
A typical consider such sudsy thrillers is feminine protagonists (versus solely males) partaking in reckless, harmful habits. The eponymous wives right here go their time capturing weapons, getting excessive, and partying into the late hours of the evening, full with physique pictures and flirting with dudes (or, maybe, entangling in an affair or two). Penalties are the very last thing on anybody’s thoughts—till a brutal killing that would carry their shenanigans into the limelight.
Lacy Baugher Milas of Paste charges it a 7.0, writing that there’s one thing propulsive a couple of present that so unabashedly delights within the worst excesses of its characters. It exists solely to entertain, which it does with “completely outlandish shock twists.” The critic says:
Dramas about Wealthy Folks Issues are a dime a dozen today, however in contrast to lots of its ilk, The Looking Wives by no means takes itself too critically. It brazenly acknowledges that almost all (if not all) of its characters are pretty deplorable individuals in a method or one other, and by no means asks any of them to be any higher than they must be. As a substitute, it revels of their worst excesses, cattiest habits, and overt social energy performs, seemingly anticipating that viewers will do the identical.
Nick Schager of the Day by day Beast says all the things’s larger in Texas, together with this sequence that’s “full of intercourse, homicide, betrayal, duplicity, and deep, darkish secrets and techniques that threaten to destroy the lives of its well-off characters.” Schager enthusiastically recommends this story of secrets and techniques and scandals, writing:
Arriving shortly after the streamer’s Sirens (with which it shares quite a lot of similarities), it’s an eminently watchable seashore read-y affair that makes up for its lack of originality with daring, brash red-state angle. … A mixture of luxurious, lust, deception, and deviousness that’s scored to nation ditties and paced so swiftly that its vitality by no means dips, the sequence will get its hooks in early and infrequently loosens its grip.
Alison Herman of Selection calls The Looking Wives a “very zany, very homosexual” red-state homicide thriller, whose political tradition conflict stays its most attention-grabbing factor, regardless of the hovering homicide thriller. Herman says:
Twist after twist retains the story continually in movement, on the expense of each texture and fundamental coherence, till the season ends on an oddly open be aware — much less hanging over a cliff than trailing off into the ether. It’s too dangerous although. Loads of exhibits function a killer. Not so many mix Trump supporters with lesbian trysts.
From what critics are saying in regards to the sequence taking part in into our voyeuristic cravings, its outlandish plot twists and ladies behaving badly, The Looking Wives appears primed to turn out to be probably the greatest exhibits to binge on Netflix. All eight episodes can be found to stream now.