Behind Her Eyes is a genre bending mini-series from Britain. Whether you love it or hate it will depend on how you feel about the surprise reveal at the end. It’s streaming on Netflix.
Part psychological thriller, part mystery, and part high-flown mysticism, Behind Her Eyes tricks and hides its secrets.
David Ferguson (Tom Bateman), a psychiatrist, and his wife Adele (Eve Hewson) move to London. They are starting over after some unspecified problem in their last location. Their marriage is peculiar and inscrutable at first.
He micromanages her and prescribes a whole cabinet full of psychological drugs to keep her in line.
Louise (Simona Brown) is David’s secretary. When they meet they don’t know they will work together. You can tell from the minute they meet cute, they will have an affair.
Adele, on the other hand, also manages a meet cute with Louise. She befriends her and grows closer and closer to her.
The triangle created by these three forms the majority of the action and creepy suspense. There is one more major character.
The wild card character is Rob (Robert Aramayo). Adele and Rob met when they were both institutionalized for mental health issues. Rob is gay, a heroin addict, a petty thief, and a grifter. Adele loves him as much as he loves her.
They both suffer from night terrors. Rob teaches Adele how to get control of her dreams. A quite handy plot point is that Louise also has night terrors. Adele passes on her knowledge from Rob, to help Louise conquer her dreams as well.
Through 6 episodes we learn more about these characters. Their stories are revealed slowly and their relationships shift like smoke and air. Who loved who, and what would they do to keep that love?
I found the series fascinating. I knew there were surprises ahead and I kept puzzling at them. There were clues, but I didn’t recognize them. Each time I thought I had it, something changed.
The acting was brilliant. This cast really clicked and worked. The costumes were like signposts. Adele always in white. Louise in bright yellow in her dreams but working class drab in her waking life. She was a single mom with a 7 year old (Tyler Howitt).
Erik Richter Strand directed all 6 episodes. The series was based on a novel by Sarah Pinborough, who also worked on the script.
Check out the trailer.
If you watch this one, I’d like to know whether you loved or hated the ending.
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I thought the ending was a little “rushed” structurally. I got whiplash from Rob loving Adele to him murdering/occupying her. But once I accepted that premise, I thought the ending was fascinating and haunting!
The actors were so good at making it seem real.