TV Review: The Beast in Me

Miniseries, The Beast in Me created by Gabe Trotter is a crime/thriller show which follows a struggling author, Aggie, Claire Danes, after her son's tragic death. She needs to get out of her writer's block and Nile, Matthew Rhys is the person for it. He is a billionaire who is under scrutiny after his wife has gone missing. When he buys the house next door secrets and questions start to open up about what could be led to a murder. A fascination that unravels but is it enough to put her career on the line?

For those viewers who love a suburban twisted thriller, this is up your street. Literally. This is a driven filled watch, it made you have conflicted feelings throughout. You are made to believe that Nile is a killer, then in some scenes you couldn't see his potential to be one. Being a warming friend and Dad.

Especially as their friendship and alignment grows you start to see who he is and it isn't what you would picture to be a murderer. It wasn't till the end where you could finally make the decision he is or not.

One thing I didn't expect the most was the ending, as this is a standalone series. It had a clear ending and you were given the full story. It gave the satisfaction of no ifs or buts but an ending that answered all the questions throughout.

It felt almost like a game of cat and mouse as Nile takes a liking to Aggie and becomes motivated to prove to her that he isn't a murderer. From climbing over house fences and being literally chased on runs it felt like a game.

When it came to pushing the narrative that he could have killed his wife, they put things in place to make you feel like she was. He was aggressive within society when no one was watching and most of all towards the end he started dancing to ‘Psycho Killer’, Talking Heads. This made a mockery of all the rumours and also everything the TV show wanted to make you. This was funny and made you feel even more on edge. Your imagination took you to places without the show doing it, which I thought was fascinating. 

One thing I didn't particularly enjoy about the show was the background context to Aggie's life. As much as I like to get to know all the characters, I felt the backstory of losing her child, didn't add anything to the story for myself. As much as it is touching and is an important subject, I felt her being a struggling author was enough. With their being so much depth into the backstory of Nile’s life it felt unnecessary. I couldn't understand the connection between the two storylines. If the aim was for it to be a moving story it definitely achieved this. 

I would rate this 3 ½ stars.