Obsession review: cringeworthy Netflix adaptation of Josephine Hart’s Damage
This four-part series has all the subtlety of a US soap opera
Josephine Hart’s 1991 novel Damage was the Fifty Shades of its day, “only much darker and much more elegantly written”, said Helen Brown in The Daily Telegraph. It was made into a film starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche, and now Netflix has turned it into a four-part TV series – with “disappointingly cringeworthy” results.
Richard Armitage plays William, a brain surgeon who lives in a beautiful home with his “sexy barrister wife” (Indira Varma). At a party, however, he “locks eyes” with his son’s girlfriend Anna (Charlie Murphy) and “wordlessly inserts a rather small, grey cocktail olive into her open mouth”. And thus “the romp begins”. The two leads turn in “admirably committed performances”, but the series has all the subtlety of a US soap opera.
Anna and William’s affair is meant to be torrid and tempestuous, but it mainly looks like “a chore”, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. When they first get together “on the fabulous polished floor of a borrowed flat”, they clamp each other “like erotic Lego”. Later, “they sombrely copulate in toilets”, and rut “mechanically” in alleyways. Even when they dip their toes into bondage, it’s like watching “AI sex robots attempt to play strip Twister”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The “grunty shagging” is ultimately quite “depressing”, agreed Jessie Thompson in The Independent; the script lacks “insight”; there’s too much “foreboding string music”, and “the thinly drawn, two-dimensional characters leave the actors helplessly stranded”. It’s deeply unerotic, but sometimes unintentionally funny.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Rishi Sunak's legacy: how the PM will be remembered
The Explainer 'Accidental prime minister' started with the 'weakest hand' of any British leader in the modern era
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
State 'should fund weddings to combat loneliness', says report
Speed Read Married people are the least lonely, but report suggests the poorest are priced out
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
'Most see a guilty verdict for Trump'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Tom Crewe's 6 favorite works that challenge societal norms
Feature The novelist recommends works by Margaret Oliphant, Patrick White, and more
By The Week US Published
-
On the trail of India’s wild lions at Sasan Gir National Park
The Week Recommends The sanctuary is a 'roaring' conservation success
By The Week UK Published
-
Recipe: almond marmalade cake
The Week Recommends This syrupy cake can be toasted for brunch
By The Week UK Published
-
Properties of the week: houses with enchanting gardens
The Week Recommends Featuring pretty homes in Hampshire, Devon and West Sussex
By The Week UK Published
-
Venice Biennale 2024: from the good to the bad to the downright 'bizarre'
The Week Recommends Central exhibition features the work of some 330 artists
By The Week UK Published
-
Sunset Song: gripping theatre that's 'close to magic'
The Week Recommends Morna Young's 'first-class adaptation' of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's classic novel
By The Week UK Published
-
Challengers: 'the most purely pleasurable film of the year so far'
The Week Recommends Zendaya plays a former tennis player turned coach in this 'almost ridiculously' sexy drama
By The Week UK Published
-
Baby Reindeer: a 'compelling and unforgettable' series
The Week Recommends Comedian Richard Gadd's disturbing Netflix drama about stalking
By The Week UK Published