Obsession

"A member of Parliament falls passionately in love with his son's fiancée. They pursue their affair with obsessive abandon despite the dangers of discovery and what it would do to his complacent life and his son...." Sound familiar? This is the plot of the fabulously erotic 1992 film "Damage" starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche. (Based on the novel by Josephine Hart.) Change MP to Dr. And you have "Obsession." Both even have the initial moment of locking eyes across a crowded room. Don't get me wrong-- I have a crush on Richard Armitage, and he's a worthy successor to my all-time heartthrob Jeremy (who, let's face it, is getting too old for this sort of thing). And who doesn't love a good, all-consuming erotic obsession that wrecks a bunch of lives? I'm no killjoy.

But check out the 1992 film, too, and the novel while you're at it.

P. S. In "Damage," the fiancee is also Anna, and the wife is also Ingrid.

Normally I wouldn't even bother writing a review over such a monstrosity.

However it's worth noting why this series failed so spectacularly: Because 1. CASTING MATTERS and 2. SCRIPT MATTERS.

In this particular case, Armitage looks like he landed the role by accident. He plays one thing and one thing only: the confused mature male. He doesn't express anything else throughout the first episode except confusion. He looks confused even when he is looking out the window. Until it's all explained: he wasn't confused, he was "passionate".

What utter crap.

But he is overshadowed in lack of conviction by Ms Murphy.

She is an actress who has played some roles in the past where she was vaguely erotic, but in this particular series, her forced and artificial transformation to femme fatale who simply looks intensely at a father twice and convinces him to fall in love with his son's girlfriend is just ludicrous.

She looks like a stalker or a person with some serious mental disorder, and not for one scene does she manage to justify or explain why an older man and especially a doctor would read her behavior as seductive or sexual.

So basically this all comes down to one simple thing: if you have such a weak script that fails miserably to explain the process through which two people fall in love, like for example the script of "the English patient", one needs to rely on the chemistry, appearance and acting skills of the two main characters.

If you cankot cast people who look the part, and on top of that you can't even give them the semblance of a decent script to express it, why even bother to film one scene?

Let alone a whole series.

This is a complete failure that should have been shelved and not released.

I find it odd that the description for this series doesn't admit to being a 100% remake of the mesmerising film starring Juliette Binoche & Jeremy Irons from '92. I mean there is dialogue ripped from it verbatim. Its not a bad series but could've been better. And nowhere near as psychologically demented, captivating or shocking. If you want to watch a true fkd up psychosexual drama/tragedy, with two huge indie stars from the 90's in one of the true indie cult film favourites of the 90's ? Go watch "Damage". The movie is legit. Not this watered down, Adrian Lyne lite version. And although Charlie Murphy (Anna) does an admiral job, NO ONE does that watery, luminously mysterious, sucking the soul out of you brown eyed stare like Juliette Binoche. NO ONE.

This was a very unsexy letdown, due to completely lacking writing and plot. I watched this for Richard Armitage who is, frankly, too good of an actor for such a lame script: 2 stars for him alone. If you want sexy Richard Armitage, stick to the safe-for-work North & South miniseries.

I understand that it's labeled a thriller but for such ominous music to be playing during supposedly passionate scenes is just bizarre and a huge turnoff. Am I gonna be jumpscared? It's confusing. Blue Velvet, Cruel Intentions, and Handmaiden are good examples of movies that successfully toe the line between sexy and unsettling; this wasn't it.

The female lead came off as super creepy due to the unrealistic and lacking writing of the show, so it was hard to want to watch past the first episode. On top of that, there was just very little chemistry between the leads. The man had more onscreen chemistry with his wife than on the woman he was supposed to be cheating on her with.

Don't really know where to start with this steaming pile.

The premise was interesting (though not very believable), but the actual series just gnaws at your gut like a thousand rats devouring you from the inside. The lead characters were not just despicable, they were something from a nightmare.

I do have to give it credit for one thing; I actually laughed out loud... a lot. The whole plot, dialog, and story line were so preposterous that it could easily have been a dark satire. Who knows; maybe it was and I'm just too dense to have realized that.

In any event, this is a complete groaner from start to finish and never even comes close to redeeming itself.