Full Spoilers comply with for all episodes of Netflix’s The Beast in Me. All eight episodes of the collection debut November 13.
There’s a scene within the premiere episode of Netflix’s The Beast in Me by which uncooked sewage erupts by the pipes of the protagonist’s house plumbing. Gross? Sure. However apt. The present, a brand new thriller/thriller starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys, is all about protecting repulsive secrets and techniques hidden away and what, if any, penalties come up when these secrets and techniques see the sunshine of day.
Danes, reteaming right here with Homeland co-creator Howard Gordon (who serves as showrunner and government producer together with fellow EPs Gabe Rotter, Jodie Foster and Conan O’Brien) stars as Agatha (Aggie) Wiggs, a once-successful author who’s been caught in a spiral of grief and unproductivity because the loss of life of her younger son. Aggie spends her days in a stately, run-down house on Lengthy Island, pretending to be enthusiastic about finishing her subsequent ebook, an uninspired tome in regards to the friendship between Supreme Court docket justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Aggie’s private life is a large number, her work has stalled, and she or he’s usually struggling to make it by every day.
Enter: Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), an uber-rich actual property developer who could or could not have killed his spouse. Making an attempt to flee the media glare that adopted his spouse’s disappearance, Nile strikes in subsequent door to Aggie and the 2 strike up a slow-burning not-quite-friends however not-quite-enemies relationship. Aggie convinces Nile to be the topic of her subsequent ebook, a narrative she’s actually enthusiastic about, and Nile finally agrees. From there, the collection accelerates right into a hodgepodge sport of cat-and-mouse with each jaw-dropping thrills and eye-rolling story decisions which might be continuously irritating.
The Beast in Me is nothing if not compellingly watchable. Creepy wealthy man who could or could not have killed his spouse? Test. Grieving author takes on mentioned creep as the topic for her newest novel? Test. Broodingly gothic locales and plot twists galore? Effectively, you get the image.
The appearing right here is excellent. From the second Danes reveals up on display, she brings the warmth in each scene she’s in. Aggie’s grief is palpable all through the season due to Danes’s capacity to painting seemingly dozens of conflicting feelings . Anybody who’s misplaced a beloved one, been caught in a dead-end job, or endured a failed relationship is aware of how grueling any a type of circumstances may be. As Aggie, Danes is consistently coping with all three directly. From the feelings on her face to the nervous sense of dread she carries all through the collection, Danes imbues Aggie with a tragic sense of longing that colours practically each scene of the present.
The remainder of the solid is top-notch as effectively. Brittany Snow is a standout because the icy new spouse of Rhys’s character, who could or could not know greater than she lets on. Natalie Morales performs Aggie’s ex-wife Shelley, and an underused Jonathan Banks performs Nile’s father Martin.
Rhys, for his half, performs the proper foil to Danes. For the primary half of the collection, you watched that Nile Jarvis PROBABLY killed Madison, his first spouse, however Rhys performs him simply charming and slippery sufficient that you simply’re not 100% satisfied. That’s till the present reveals 3/4 of the way in which into the season that Nile is 100%, surely, a stone-cold killer.
And that’s the place The Beast in Me (sort of) misplaced me. Look, I do know that not each collection is usually a completely constructed homicide thriller the place all of the playing cards are revealed within the final episode and also you assume to your self “A-ha! They actually obtained me there!” However I can’t assist however really feel that The Beast in Me loses most of its momentum the second that Nile is revealed to not simply be a assassin, however possibly sort of a serial killer.
After Aggie admits to Nile that she’s met a number of occasions with an FBI agent (performed by David Lyons), Nile’s guard is up. So when the agent confronts him whereas making an attempt to glean details about a attainable corrupt deal between Metropolis Corridor and Nile’s actual property firm, Nile bludgeons the agent to loss of life in a match of rage. Later, we uncover that the drunk driver accountable for the loss of life of Aggie’s son was kidnapped and finally murdered by Nile as effectively, who in flip (in some of the stunning and efficient moments of the complete collection) makes an attempt to border Aggie. Within the penultimate episode, a flashback outlining the occasions surrounding Madison’s disappearance, we see Nile – you guessed it – bludgeon his spouse to loss of life, thus resolving the central thriller of the complete present.
The Beast in Me pulls off a irritating feat of getting the viewers to care in regards to the central thriller however fumbling its execution: A handy macguffin within the type of an unearthed diary proves to Aggie that Nile is a killer; continuously clunky dialogue (“All he had left to kill was time”); a too-neat ending by which Nile will get his simply desserts within the type of a knife to the gullet within the jail widespread space after Snow’s character rats him out; and so forth. All seemingly innocuous peccadillos that congeal to forestall the present from being the elevated thriller it desperately needs to be.
Nonetheless, there’s a lot to like about The Beast in Me. Sensible performances, among the most heart-pounding psychological thriller scenes this facet of Silence of the Lambs, and a few actually stunning cinematography (there’s a scene in Episode 7 lit fully by Christmas lights that I’ll most likely always remember) make the present a worthwhile binge.
In case you are in search of a thriller that’s so twisty and artistic as to go away your jaw on the ground for days after you end, this present most likely isn’t for you. However if you wish to see Claire Danes, Matthew Rhys, and a gifted ensemble act the hell out of some fairly gripping materials, The Beast in Me is price a watch.
