She would not appear to have any pursuits past writing pretentiously in her journal (“I’m misplaced after which I’m discovered… I’ve a way of symmetry. That someway I’ve conquered two sides of a mountain on the similar time”) and a bit of sunshine BDSM. By the point we do find out about her previous and why she is the best way she is, we’re completely bored to tears by her.
However we do not actually know something about William both. He is barely two-dimensional. His character description in a CliffsNotes for this present would learn merely: “Profitable surgeon. Likes olives and lightweight BDSM.” It’s laborious to really feel something for both him or Anna.
The bestselling 1990 novella on which that is primarily based – Harm by Josephine Hart, made right into a 1992 movie of the identical identify, starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche – is narrated by the William Farrow character so there we’ve got entry to, not less than, his ideas and emotions in a method that we merely do not right here.
The eventual ending left me with loads of questions, none of which was “Will there be a second season?” But when it additionally fails to get your juices flowing, do not despair. Though Nicholas Barber has argued on BBC Tradition that the 1992 film Fundamental Intuition represented each the apogee and the tip of the erotic thriller, Obsession is merely the primary thrust in a veritable orgy of upcoming productions making an attempt to revive the style. Amongst others, we are able to stay up for Deadly Attraction, which has been repurposed as a TV collection and arrives on Paramount Plus on the finish of this month, starring Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson. Peacock is remaking the 1996 transfer Worry (“Deadly Attraction for teenagers,” the unique movie’s producer referred to as it), whereas Apple TV+ has introduced Presumed Harmless with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga, tailored from the 1987 Scott Turow novel of the identical identify, which was beforehand filmed with Harrison Ford.
It appears to be like as if, after a prolonged restoration interval, the erotic thriller has lead in its pencil once more. Let’s hope, not like Obsession, these different new exhibits are extra “Moans softly” than “Exhales sharply”.
★★☆☆☆
Obsession is launched on Netflix internationally on 13 April
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