CAST: Richard Armitage, Rish Shah, Indira Verma, Anil Goutam, Charlie Murphy, Sonera Angel
CREATED BY : Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Benji Walters
Based on Josephine Hart’s 1991 erotic novella Damage – the 50 Shades of Gray-style runaway success of its day – this adaptation stays fairly close to its source material. Yet after a dark and twisty romp that doesn’t shy away from its more agonizing moments, the final scenes of the Netflix show leave us on a mysterious note.
William is acclaimed in his job as a neurosurgeon; the operation on the twins was hailed in the news media. His wife, Ingrid (Indira Varma), is a respected barrister; the two of them still seem to be hot for each other after years together. Their adult kids Jay (Rish Shah) and Sally (Sonera Angel) are family-oriented overachievers. And, in a visit to Ingrid’s family’s country estate, Ingrid’s father Edward (Anil Goutam) reiterates that he’s going to propose to the House of Commons that he become health czar.
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William meets Anna at a cocktail party and she introduces herself as Anna Barton (Charlie Murphy), Jay’s new girlfriend. She’s fascinated with William after hearing about his brilliance in surgery, and she makes no secret that she’s attracted to him. She spies his number on Jay’s phone and puts it in hers; she calls him to warn him that she and Jay are coming to “meet” the family. Even at their meeting at the country estate, Anna and William can’t tamp down the fire between them when no one else is in the room.
Then starts the story of two people who shouldn’t be together are intensely attracted to each other and act on that attraction.
William isn’t just entranced by Anna; he’s crestfallen with passion, and Armitage lets you see it in every scene as he becomes a sex zombie.
Anna sets the rules and dictates the terms. She’s a lot better at compartmentalizing than her older paramour, which means she can make goo-goo eyes at the strapping, sensitive Jay moments before sneaking away with his dad.
Obsession understands that the most devastating forms of passion are completely irrational, all-encompassing, even nonverbal, and certainly amoral. The mutual assured destruction here is as inevitable as that in any film noir.
The cliffhanger leaves hope for a second season if the views for this one get it to one.
One big applause for Indira Verma who deserves far better meaty roles than this. Jay Shah ( Miss Marvel) is a cutie.
The show’s ending is subtly different to that of Hart’s novella, which largely ignores Anna’s story once it no longer overlaps with William’s.
In the book’s chilling final scene, William’s character (who’s called Stephen and is an MP as opposed to a surgeon) lives a solitary life abroad as a haunting Norman Bates figure. He’s last seen staring at oversized photographs of Anna and his son hanging on his walls.
