Director: Erik Richter Strand

Cast: Simona Brown, Eve Hewson, Robert Aramayo, Tom Bateman, & Tyler Howitt

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I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I decided to take this viewing journey. My initial interest in the film came from seeing clips with this still of Eve Hewson looking so gorgeous in this white top and bob. Then, I noticed that it was #2 on Netflix last weekend and figured I needed to check it out to see just what was causing the popularity. 

Is it bad? Nah, it’s not. Was I satisfied? A little… I preferred the last 3 episodes over the first 3, but even without reading the book I could tell that something was neglected that could have definitely strengthened the overall experience. 

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Below are my grades for key components in #BehindHerEyes that I find to be key in any story/series—Theme, Plot, Pacing, and Character Arc/Development. I think it is also important for me to add that moving forward, I will not include a plus-rating in my breakdown, but will continue with minus-ratings.

Additionally, I have added an entertainment factor scale to help you determine whether or not the film is something you’d be interested in taking time out of your weekend, evening, or day to watch. The scale range consists of: Worth the Binge, Interesting Enough (if looking for something new to start), & Don’t Rush.

I have also added a few non-spoiling thoughts, wonderings, and comments as I watched the film to help give some rationale for my grades and entertainment scale. 

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Theme: C

Plot: C

Pacing: C

Character Arc/Development: C

Entertainment Factor: Interesting Enough

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Takeaways: 

1. You know, I wasn’t as much of a fan of Tom Bateman as a love interest. He gave awkward/odd with a tinge of creep from the very moment he hit the screen…I just wasn’t feeling him at all. 🥴🤷🏾‍♂️👀

2. As mentioned in the introduction to these takeaways, the first 3 episodes DRAAGGED for me. There wasn’t anything “coherently” interesting about Louise to just watch her and her friend smoke and chat as an attempt to use conversation to subtly weave parts of the plot together, and there was too much unnecessary mystery with Adele and Dr. Ferguson that actually came off boring—it was just a long, uneventful, low level shock value exposition. 🤦🏾‍♂️👎🏾

3. The nightmare sequence was eerily stunning. I loved that yellow, draped attire that Louise wore. 👍🏾

4. The child character Adam was adorable. 😩👍🏾

5. Baby, Ian!👀😍😍😜

6. To piggyback off point #3, these moments quickly started to feel random for the sake of plot movement vs real intentionality. 🤦🏾‍♂️👎🏾

7. And THEN, to continue with point #6, we are never given a proper understanding as to why  these 2 “were the same” (as one character told another in conversation) which allowed for the aide to support the nightmares. 🤨👎🏾

8. ALSO, what made her SUCH the expert on the nightmares from jump!? 🤨

9. I liked the way Rob’s character was developed.👍🏾

10. To piggyback off of point #1, I also wasn’t as interested in seeing any of the intimate scenes with Bateman. Not only because I didn’t find him to be an appealing love interest, but also because his mystery created this air of trauma that made his relationships all feel awkward, which made the sex scenes lack a certain level of chemistry…like them late night Cinemax—Skinemax LOL—sex scenes. 🥴🤣👀

11. Maybe it was just me… but Anthony was hot! 👀😜Hell, actually, I wonder what this film could’ve looked like with Anthony as Dr. Ferguson, and Dr. Ferguson as Anthony. 🤔🤔

12. Also to piggyback off of point #11, The short scenes between Anthony and Dr. Ferguson were the only moments where I liked seeing Tom Bateman’s character. 👍🏾    

13. As mentioned in my introduction, I enjoyed the last 3 episodes the most because we started to get more into Adele which added some much needed flavor to this story—she pretty much saved the series. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

14. However…the “element of surprise” that is revealed in these final episodes caused the story to begin teetering on childishness for me. It was so sudden/randomly added for, again, what seemed to be another need to move and connect parts of the plot. To be honest, this should have/could have been known from the jump, and used to elevate the earlier parts of the series. 🤦🏾‍♂️👎🏾

15. And, to piggyback off of point #14, that “element of surprise” could have definitely been known from jump because it wasn’t the most “revealing surprise” of the entire series… the last episode of the series held the biggest shock value. So why not use the beginning to give more background to the “element of surprise” even existing? 🤷🏾‍♂️👎🏾

16. Awww…Adam. 😔😔

17. Although I would cringe and worry every time she chopped vegetables, I also realized these were some elementary thriller tactics. 🤦🏾‍♂️😅

18. Oh, unless I missed something, I didn’t know that “smoking” was something you were dealing with… 🤨👎🏾

19. Louise’s character started to just be annoying in the last episode, especially with the information she had, and her apparent anger and disappointment, the final moves she decided to make made no sense. Like why, girl… WHY!?  I would’ve rather the “element of surprise” been used to give more of the initiation and control to Adele.🤷🏾‍♂️👎🏾 

20. To just throw in the “Scottish stereotype…” eh… not sure how I feel about that for the sake of moving the plot. 🥴

21. The acting, overall, was well done! 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾

22. Was it just me, or did Simona Brown give you an English Issa Rae—both visually and also in terms of how she delivered some of her lines. It was very “Awkward Black Girl.” 🤷🏾‍♂️🤣

23. The last 20-30 minutes or so… 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

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Overall, #BehindHerEyes had a lot of potential to be an amazing mini-series from start to finish. There’s definitely an experimental vibe about the series, and I feel that the exposition really messes up the pacing, which could ultimately impact the viewing experience for many people due to its slowness. I just started getting into the beauty of Japanese style plots with #Parasite last year (and the most recent #SpaceSweepers), and I remember having a moment where I said to myself, “A Japanese style plot would do this story justice…”