Succession fans should lower their expectations for Matthew Macfadyen's latest role. The actor, who played the memorable Tom Wambsgans in Jesse Armstrong's hit series, stars as a scientist who accidentally shrinks his wife to six inches tall in the new sitcom The Miniature Wife. Despite a promising premise and a strong cast, the show fails to deliver.
Macfadyen plays Les Littlejohn, a genius scientist who shrinks his wife Lindy (Elizabeth Banks) before inventing the technology to restore her. Lindy, a Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, is forced to move from New York to St Louis for her husband's career. She ends up confined to a dollhouse replica of their home, screaming at him through a loudhailer. The setup hints at a dark comedy about power dynamics in marriage, but the show quickly abandons this fertile ground.
Instead, the series leans into a screwball tone that rarely lands. Showrunners Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner seem to forget the central conceit, failing to develop its potential for satirical commentary on misogyny. A B-plot about a short story published under Lindy's name feels similarly underdeveloped, gesturing at themes of authorship and power without exploring them properly.
The supporting cast includes O-T Fagbenle as a romantic colleague, Zoe Lister-Jones as a lab overseer, and Sian Clifford as Lindy's agent, but their characters remain flat. Banks is given little to do until late in the series, mostly talking to a dollhouse astronaut or screaming in frustration. The show's set pieces, involving escapes from high places and exploding vegetables, fail to generate laughs or insight.
Macfadyen, known for playing weak and morally questionable characters, is wasted here. His performance as Tom Wambsgans was a masterclass in subtlety, but The Miniature Wife offers him nothing to work with. The show is a pointless comedy that squanders its talented cast and intriguing premise.
