Your eyes play tricks on you throughout Showtime’s hypnotically dangerous and emotional limited series, The Woman in the Wall. It is a series about a collective past that is acknowledged but has yet to be confronted, and it carries the enormous themes of forgiveness, trauma, and freedom at its core. Led by Ruth Wilson’s fearless performance (she also serves as Executive Producer) The Woman in the Wall is a larger-than-life mystery with historical horrors waiting in its wings.
The Woman in the Wall promises a juicy story, but never did I believe that we would plunge into the emotional turmoil and aftermath of the Magdalene Laundries. For decades, women were abused and subjected to harsh physical labor by the Roman Catholic Church as punishment for claims made against their moral character. Wilson’s Lorna Brady has the memory of her baby being taken from her arms shortly after childbirth awakened when she discovers the dead body of an older woman in her home. Did Lorna’s history of sleepwalking lead to something violent, or is it the key to unlocking her deeply held secrets?
The Woman in the Wall mashes together horror motifs with a police procedural to marvelous effect. Halfway through the series’ six episodes, the show entirely changes gears with Wilson joining forces with Daryl McCormack’s Detective Colman Akande to solve this mystery in an entirely unexpectedly way. They have an earnest chemistry as these two characters, who meet under stressful circumstances, learn to respect each other’s difficult pasts.
Horror has the ability to enlighten us about our own personal rage and tragedy while making us jump out of our chairs, and Wilson’s performance, so bare and accepting of truth, brings a jolt to this year’s Emmy race.
The Woman in the Wall is streaming now on Paramount+.
