The Beast in Me Review: The Secret Lives of Others

The Beast in Me | Creator: Gabe Rotter | Cast: Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys | Netflix | English

 Homeland’s Carrie is back and so is her quivering lower lip and unkempt hair. But as always it is difficult to look away from Claire Danes, as she plays Aggie, an author suffering from writer’s block. Matthew Rhys, always inscrutable, plays her neighbour Nile who may or may not have murdered his first wife. She is grieving her son’s death in a car accident and is plotting revenge on the boy she believes is responsible. Nile is more than interested in her rage.

When the boy turns up dead, naturally Aggie is an obvious suspect. Could it be that Nile killed the boy? As a whodunit, it is quite obvi­ous, especially when Nile is given to saying things like, ‘we have sharp teeth and eyes in the front, we were made to be predators’. Like most pulpy novels made into pres­tige television, The Beast in Me has a great cast given to saying profound things like “vengeance birthing vengeance is just a wound that never heals”, and “karma is the seeds we plant, karma is our inheritance and birthright”. What separates the human from the inhuman, the good from evil and kind from cruel is essentially what The Beast in Me explores. If Danes is a compelling survivor, Rhys is a powerful villain, the madman next door.