by Kathleen Langan
My flatmate and I were looking for a new series to watch together and as I scrolled past Behind Her Eyes, she stopped me and said that we had to watch it as she’d heard so much about it on social media. At first, I was sceptical. A psychological thriller would never be my first choice, but nevertheless I grabbed our weekend takeaway and clicked “Watch Episode One”.
The limited series, which was recently released on Netflix, consists of six episodes each around fifty minutes long. It follows the complicated marriage of David (Tom Bateman), a psychiatrist, and his wife Adele (Eve Hewson). Louise (Simona Brown), a single mother and receptionist at David’s practice, befriends the lonely Adele while also becoming sexually involved with David. All three have secrets, some bigger than others, that are eventually brought to light as the series progresses.
There are many twists, turns and anticlimactic moments which left me wanting more. This series had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. If we weren’t trying to fill up time in lockdown, we would have watched it all in one night. Whilst watching, we were trying to avoid any articles, posts or frantic googling of the ending and we were not disappointed. The series came to a dramatic and unexpected close, throwing up even more questions alongside many conclusions. The storyline has many layers, and we were pausing to discuss what had actually just happened.
It is definitely not a light-hearted, easy viewing to relax after a long day of uni. However, it is a captivating, cleverly written series.
One of the few that is entirely unpredictable and any solutions that I came up with were totally wrong. The characters have depth, complexity and are relatable as well as displaying some abnormal and superhuman qualities. However, if you want to immerse yourselves in the convoluted lives of David, Adele and Louise you are going to have to overlook Tom Bateman’s questionable attempt at a Scottish accent. We found ourselves stopping in the middle of an episode to have a good giggle at some of his pronunciation and intonation. Apart from this, Behind Her Eyes is an excellent watch that will make you feel on edge and a little freaked out at times, but above all it will have you shouting at your screen in anticipation of what will happen next.
