Netflix's Fleeting 'Obsession' is Only Worth a Glance
In case you forgot that Brian De Palma doesn’t make movies anymore, Netflix has produced an erotic thriller called Obsession, and it ranks somewhere above 365 Days and somewhere below – well, maybe nothing; erotic thrillers aren’t exactly Netflix’s specialty. The psycho-sexual adultery tale unfolds in four brief installments, tracking a wealthy, successful but ennui’d surgeon’s fall from comfortable family life into uncontrollable devotion to a complicated redhead seductress – who happens to be dating his son.
It’s the kind of delightful trash with a softcore visual style that the 90s were known for, and while Obsession never rises above being disposable lust programming for the Netflix crowd, the miniseries’ attempted commentary on the Body Doubles, Fatal Attractions, and Basic Instincts of yore makes it an object of legitimate, if fleeting, curiosity.
William (Richard Armitage) barely has a moment to decompress from life-saving conjoined twin separation surgery before he locks eyes with Anna (Charlie Murphy), and he’s soon fixated on her breathy, gaspy demeanor. Armitage’s version of romantic obsession seems remarkably similar to how he played Thorin’s madness in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies; Murphy fares a lot better thanks to some well-observed and pronounced eye, lip, and neck acting.
