Obsession review: Netflix’s erotic BDSM thriller refuses to go beyond a kinky affair

3/5

STORY: Everything is running smoothly in the Farrow household, until a femme fatale gets embroiled in an intense affair with her future father-in-law. Although her troubled past makes her seek some sort of sanity in her present life, all she causes is chaos and pain to others.     

REVIEW: It isn’t only Fifty Shades Of Grey that you are quickly reminded of by Netflix’s new erotic BDSM thriller, Obsession. There are hints of the 2021 psychological thriller miniseries Behind Her Eyes too. The narrative is peppered with chaos and uncertainty, yet it’s also awfully predictable. Do we need to mix troubled past with uncontrollable sexual urges, everytime? Well, it looks like Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Benji Walters’ screen adaptation of Josephine Hart’s 1991 novel Damage fails to do that.   

You meet the brilliant and not to mention very handsome surgeon William Farrow (Richard Armitage), who has just successfully separated conjoined twins. He seems to be happy and perfectly compatible with his hot and successful barrister wife, Ingrid Farrow (Indira Varma). But it doesn’t long for the things to change when he meets his son - Jay Farrow’s (Rish Shah) - slightly older lady love - Anna Barton (Charlie Murphy). A femme fatale, Anna doesn’t hesitate a bit to give sex eyes to her future father-in-law the moment they met. Interestingly, William doesn’t waste time to respond to her - by popping an olive into her mouth. 

Not very long after that, the two secretly start indulging in passionate sex at an apartment, which is owned by Anna’s friend Peggy (Pippa Bennett-Warner). She “surrenders” to him, but there are “rules and restrictions” that William cannot break, come what may. Okay, so instead of Jay, Anna is now getting married to William? Not really, she still wants to tie the knot with Jay, because he is the “only normality” in her life. But, at the same time, she can’t keep her hands off the old man. 

So yeah, nothing can stop this trouble in paradise. But in the words of Anna’s mother, Elizabeth Barton (Marion Bailey), like earlier, “she will run away again”. 

Dubbed the successor to Fifty Shades of Grey, Obsession lacks depth in storytelling and characterisation. There’s hardly any detail about Anna’s backstory that has apparently caused her inner damage. Obsession is erotica with a little sense, and sometimes even funny. The string music that constantly plays in the background only adds to the anxiety in the script. The mindless shagging and somewhat forced sense of passion come across as a bit overbearing. Honestly, the steamy affair does not even translate to William’s supposed obsession with Anna, as all you get to see is melodrama and grunty sex. 

VERDICT: This four-part series could have been a story punctuated by some nuanced and credible psychological details about people and relationships, but all you get are smouldering looks. The chemistry between Anna and William could do with a little more depth and honesty. You can watch Obsession once, if you want to. Oh yes, there is a scene in which the surgeon is trying to have sex with a hotel cushion. I would rather unsee it!