Is Imperfect Women Based on a True Story?

Apple TV+’s murder mystery series, ‘Imperfect Women’, follows the story of three friends whose lives are unravelled after a shocking murder. Eleanor, Mary, and Nancy have been friends since college. They have known each other for so many years that they know the ins and outs of one another’s lives. Or so they think. When Nancy is murdered, a den of secrets and lies comes out into the open, which leads to more questions than answers. Created by Annie Weisman, the show explores the mystery from the perspective of the three friends, delivering a fractured image of what perfect seemingly means. The heightened sense of realism makes the characters and their trials highly relatable. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Imperfect Women’s Fictional Premise Touches Upon Real Issues

‘Imperfect Women’ is a fictional story, based on Araminta Hall’s novel of the same name. The author started with the idea of a friendship that has more to it than appears on the surface. However, before jumping into plot details, especially surrounding the central murder, she wanted to know who her characters would be. She knew that no matter how many twists and turns are put in a story, no one would care about it if the central characters didn’t feel authentic. The reader needed someone they could root for or hate, depending on the course of their actions. As she started developing the core three characters, their backstories came into the picture, which paved the way for future conflicts.

Hall knew something incredibly devastating had to happen for the women’s years-long friendship to suffer a strain strong enough to break them. This led her to the part about Nancy getting murdered, which is where the story took off. While Hall didn’t specifically draw upon any particular person or case to write the story, she did borrow elements from things and people she’d come across in general, especially during her time as a journalist. She has talked about paying attention to people and listening to them intently, which gives a lot of insight into their minds. This eventually feeds into her characters. This approach allowed her to ground the three protagonists in reality.

The Actresses Added More Layers to the Characters and Their Friendship

When Elisabeth Moss came across the novel, she was taken in by its mystery, as well as the multi-perspective structure in which it unfolds. Her interest eventually drew in Kerry Washington and Kate Mara. The adaptation also meant tweaking a few details. For example, the novel is set in the UK, but the show takes place in the US. All three main characters in the book are white women, but in the show, Eleanor is a Black woman, which means that the dynamics see a noticeable shift, particularly regarding the character’s friendships with the other two women. The actresses also brought their own touch to the characters, informing their performances with their lived experiences, highlighting the struggles that the protagonists face.

At the end of the day, they wanted to present a realistic portrayal of friendships, especially the ones that have evolved over several years into something that is too complicated to unravel in one fell swoop. The idea was to show that no one is perfect, and the idea of being perfect in the eyes of others is what often leads people to create a web of secrets and lies through which they eventually end up hurting others and even themselves. For Moss, Washington, and Mara, the fun was in playing with the story’s structure, which allows each of their characters to tell their own story, leaving it to the audience to decide who they believe the most. All of these factors work incredibly well to give an air of realism to the show, making it a deeply compelling watch.

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