Echoes review: Two of Michelle Monaghan does not make the bland thriller any better

2.5/5

STORY: Two sisters—both cutthroat, both conniving—who are tied by an objectionable bond that borderlines shared psychosis or 'madness of two', as they call it, are about to experience a massive loss. On that fateful day, one goes missing and the other is ripped away from her LA life and thrown back in to the lanes of Mt. Echo (hence, the name). Echoes has a plethora of sentiments to choose from: it has sex and seduction, love and rivalry, madness and mystery, but it opts for emotional bankruptcy instead. Too bad a thriller that could have acquired a cult following in due time, will now be remembered as 'blah' content. 

REVIEW: Anyone who's ever watched, or religiously followed, family thriller-mysteries knows that twisted spin to the classic blood-is-thicker-than-water adage works wonderful well with the audience. Take Netflix's far more polished You, for instance. What would Love not do for love, yes? But, other than Mission Impossible star Michelle Monaghan's formidable presence and Matt Bomer's piercing blue eyes (again, Netflix mystery vet from The Sinner saga), here's nothing substantially new for you. 

Set in today's materialistic world, Gina is a flashy car-driving writer with a hottie of a husband, Charlie (Daniel Sunjata). Lena has her own quirks but the girls' committment towards one another is commendable, untill it's not. Like some identical twins, the duo does every little thing together or keeps the other informed—in painfully long details—about their lives through these private virtual entries. Naturally, Lena's sudden dissapperance pushes Gina to leave her life of luxury and follow the trail of her troubled twin. 

Echoes was tailormade for Netflix's diabolical twins-loving streamers, but Australian writer-director Vanessa Gazy drops gravitas for fluff material that does not even land where it's supposed to. The hooks and the overall 'suspense' aspect of the seven-part show is a feeble attempt at conjuring up something remotely related to the word 'thriller', we reckon, and the tools implemented for achieving the same is a worn-out narrative disguised as a mystery of some sorts. EPIC. FAIL. 

Michelle Monaghan tries, I mean really tries, to park this story someplace decently respectable amongst a long list of 'woah' family mysteries. However, despite her determination to come off as sweet and docile and cunning and calculating all at once, Monaghan is, honestly, stuck in a highschool drama between two dubious grown-up kids who have no other friends to turn to.

Echoes is no path-breaking material in any genre—and they have tried out quite a few during the course of the show—but the allure of touch-base cynicism is hard to pass up on streaming sites. Bite me!  

VERDICT: If you have watched far more suspenseful content such as You or even Gone Girl, then Echoes is not going to ring in your ears.