Behind Her Eyes (Netflix series)

[Icehaven]

Anyone seen this? I wouldn't usually go for glossy thriller/suspense type shows at all, but I was drawn in partly because I'm a sucker for twisty things, partly by all the talk of the love-it-or-hate-it ending which has 'divided the nation' (i.e. divided a few Guardian journalists) and partly by my Mum telling me to watch it.

Well it was absolutely ludicrous.

(Warning - the spoilered bits really are massive spoilers)
It's not just the mad concept (

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Astral projection

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) that gets introduced halfway through (which makes it feel quite clumsy) which then leads to the big twist ending (

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Adele has had the consciousness/soul of Rob in her body all along, for over a decade.),

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I found the performances hammy as fuck too. The only thing I do have to admit that because of the end it made me want to go back and watch parts of it again, in a

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Sixth Sense

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knowing what you know now type way. And that was just out of curiosity, and I haven't actually done it so I'm clearly not that curious.

Wouldn't particularly recommend, but if you want some very daft indeed brain chewing gum for a few hours and can suspend your disbelief somewhere north of the sun then you might enjoy it.

[mjwilson]

Stupidest show I've ever seen.

[holyzombiejesus]

I might watch it so haven't read the spoilered bits but was put off by the fact that one of the lead females is Bono's daughter.

[Icehaven]

I might watch it so haven't read the spoilered bits but was put off by the fact that one of the lead females is Bono's daughter.

I didn't know that! Lucky for her there's little resemblance.

[olliebean]

I don't know if the people writing in their IMDB reviews that they never saw the twist coming are especially stupid or if I'm especially clever, but I saw it coming a mile off (well, a couple of episodes off, anyway - pretty shortly after

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astral projection

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entered the picture). Clearly the writer came up with the twist first, and reverse engineered the rest of the plot from it, so it wasn't difficult to inkle[nb]I know that isn't the right word for what I'm saying. But it should be.[/nb] what was being set up. (Although I initially dismissed the inkling as being too obvious and stupid.)

[Icehaven]

It crossed my mind as one of the many potential twists, along with

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various other consciousness swaps or murder scenarios

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, but that's the problem with things that are sold on twists, once you're familiar with the setup you automatically think of as many outcomes as possible and it's almost inevitably one of them. Reece Shearsmith would have a field day with this!

[cacciaguida]

One of the stupidest shows I've ever seen.

I enjoyed aspects of it, but the change of gears once you introduce the "twist" halfway through the season is batshit.

Went from a psychological thriller to a children's show

[Blinder Data]

Yes, total nonsense and with a very uneven tone throughout. Bono's daughter delivers a performance in keeping with the programme's heightened atmosphere, while the lead feels like she's in Hollyoaks. Her character had zero agency throughout too.

Also, how the hell

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did Adele/Rob know that Louise would rescue her from the fire and enter her body?

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A very risky ploy.

I do not recommend watching this load of bollocks.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Loads of rufty tho

[cacciaguida]

Also, why the fuck does

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David marry first Adele and then Louise after they get inhabited by Rob. I can buy the Adele one maybe, but Louise is shown to be a completely different person once Rob's inside her. The son calls her out on it, but David's just game to marry this bit of skirt he's been rattling?

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Bonkers.

[ZoyzaSorris]

I think my critical faculties, which were never especially well-developed in all honesty, can be chalked up as another casualty of my long-COVID, as with the last episode still to go I've been enjoying this (see also my recent appreciation of Greenland vis a vis tolerance of trashy on demand), whilst also fully acknowledging it to be absolute raging nonsense (and certainly did go super silly with the effects used in the

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astral projection

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bits). Might be a sign of my cognitive decline but I have found it genuinely quite creepy, though some parts do look and sound like Eastenders. I think Adele as a very odd and unique (such a weird mix of very pleasant and friendly and terrifying) performance carries it to a certain extent. I guess as someone who regularly has vivid and fucked up dreams and sometimes wakes up feeling like theyre screaming some aspects were somewhat relatable. I think this could have been genuinely objectively good rather than just a guilty pleasure without the El Dorado  / Howard's Way elements holding it back. As I say though, not seen the end.

[ZoyzaSorris]

Ok, no, this was cobblers. even having accidentally caught some of the spoilers I thought there were some freaky possibilities of telling that kind of story, and I genuinely found Adele's character and performance quite mesmerising and disturbing but it just went a bit simple and stupid with it all and without really selling any of the character motivations at all. Thought they could have gone much deeper on all the doors and dreamworld stuff but they seemed to cop out on all of that.

[olliebean]

Ok, no, this was cobblers. even having accidentally caught some of the spoilers I thought there were some freaky possibilities of telling that kind of story, and I genuinely found Adele's character and performance quite mesmerising and disturbing but it just went a bit simple and stupid with it all and without really selling any of the character motivations at all. Thought they could have gone much deeper on all the doors and dreamworld stuff but they seemed to cop out on all of that.

Yeah that stuff wasn't really fleshed out at all, it seemed to be there purely in service of the twist ending. Perhaps the book goes more deeply into it, but I don't feel inclined to read it, amongst other reasons because it apparently contains some extreme cruelty to cats.

[Icehaven]

Perhaps the book goes more deeply into it, but I don't feel inclined to read it, amongst other reasons because it apparently contains some extreme cruelty to cats.

What? Why? Is it integral to the plot or just gratuitous?

[ZoyzaSorris]

I was imagining some phillip k dick-ish idea of being able to

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trap people in their sort of maze of doors so you can take over their heads or something

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which would also have been totally hokey and ridiculous but potentially in a great creepy way if done right.

As it was it was like they set up quite a few creepy ideas and a well-crafted disturbing atmosphere, that could have gone in a few interesting ways (all of them inherently trashy of course), but then just thought fuck it, let's just make the characters behave in bizarre incomprehensible ways and hand wave a solution with

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funny floating willo the wisps like something out of a kid's fantasy series.

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Especially Louise -

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why would she astral project to help Adele when that wouldn't conceivably help save her in any way? Surely she didn't actually give much of a shit about Adele at this point anyway? And certainly was well aware of her being a manipulative sociopath? Why wouldn't she just ring the police when she first got the message and the fire brigade when she got to the house?

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- amongst many other stupid unbelievable activity - and they just didn't sell

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Rob's sudden turning on Adele either

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). All of these behaviours could have worked if we'd been sold the reasoning beforehand. But we weren't. Overall a big waste of some good elements that could have made for a genuinely unsettling and interesting psycho-thriller.

[olliebean]

What? Why? Is it integral to the plot or just gratuitous?

Just to underline the character's psychopathic vindictiveness, I think. Here's where I read about it: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/behind-her-eyes-book-detail-netflix-show/

[phantom_power]

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Sounds like a less interesting and more woo-filled Altered Carbon

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