I think I'm going slightly mad trying to analyse red widow as good media. I could write up a whole thoughtful post about how moreau and schiller are similar characters seen with very different framings because red widow glosses over the gritty reality of the world the protagonist is born into and gets dragged into after her husband's death, and it would have some merit, OR I could just accept that red widow is just very bad and best watched with one's brain entirely disengaged until a nicholae scene pings as interesting.

(which some of them really are. genuinely, nicholae and moreau make the same "there are assets and liabilities" and "please be an asset" points. nicholae gives a lovely little villain speech about money and trust being the only things that matter in business. his casual murder of a poor sod that I and the protagonist had actually come to like, shrugging it off with "there are many [name]s" like that's some consolation, was delicious. the torture joke he made while someone was trapped in an elevator with him, reminding them that they probably shouldn't be wasting his time, made me clap with joy - and the way the actor can differentiate between genuine warmth and the kind of smile that is 100% a predator's warning with, as far as I can tell, only his eyes, is just so good.)

(I just need to avoid falling into the trap of treating the whole thing, or even just nicholae's character as a whole, as something that stands up to good analysis. no matter how much the creators' love for the story shows in some of it. and no matter how much a talented actor clearly thrived in the role.)

(folks I'm going through the five stages of grief about this fuckin show.)