Yahoo Movies Obsession: Netflix's newest show slammed by critics
The erotic thriller stars Richard Armitage and Charlie Murphy
Netflix's latest show Obsession is not getting good reviews from critics.
The erotic thriller stars Richard Armitage, Charlie Murphy and Indira Varma and follows a surgeon who begins an affair with his son's fiancee.
The show is based on the book Damage by Josephine Hart which was previously adapted into a movie which starred Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.
Premiering on Netflix from 13 April, Obsession has so far not received the warmest of reviews by critics.
Jessie Thompson in The Independent gave Obsession one star and said: "Obsession has been hailed as the successor to Fifty Shades of Grey, but instead it gives us an overload of shlock, foreboding string music and some depressing, grunty shagging."
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The Guardian also gave the show a negative two star review which said: "The first episode is only half an hour and the rest barely make 40 minutes. Hart’s actual plot is slight, and it is possible that there was a tacit decision to keep all the parts that depend on unspoken sexual tension as brief as possible."
The BBC also panned Obsession: "The actors are doing their best with the material they've been given but the problem is that we just don't care about any of the characters."
Den of Geek also gave the show a two star rating and concluded their review by saying: "The pity is Obsession’s overall blankness, which confuses ambiguity with profundity. By its end, when a plot finally shows up, nothing much is concluded or provoked."
Conversely, the Evening Standard went with the full five stars and said: "Directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa, the entire series operates with a stately sophistication which boils few bunnies but instead hits notes of Hitchcockian suspense.
"Most obviously, the show is reminiscent of Vertigo, as one man’s obsession with a woman destroys his mind and his life. The difference here is that, the implicit misogyny in Hitchcock is replaced with a degree of understanding: the male protagonist destroys himself, but it’s hardly just this treacherous woman’s fault."
Obsession is streaming on Netflix now.
