'Obsession' works itself into knots trying to be interesting

Erotic thrillers and dramas died off in the '90s, when every other movie doing the rounds was described as such.

You had Paul Verhoeven's double-shot of sleaze with 'Basic Instinct' and 'Showgirls', you had Adrian Lyne's 'Fatal Attraction' and 'Indecent Proposal', and the unbelievably daft 'Disclosure', starring Michael Douglas (of course) and Demi Moore. It's telling that in recent years, only a handful of productions - be it movie or TV series - have ever effectively caught hold of the allure. 'Normal People' neatly captured and unearthed the rich inner workings of physical attraction and sexual connection, while 'Deep Water' with Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas was a damp and sodden effort that had little to entice audiences beyond the behind-the-scenes drama with its costars.

'Obsession' is the third adaptation of Josephine Hart's 'Damage', the first being a stuffy British drama in the '90s with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche, directed by French journeyman Louis Malle. The other was an opera. This time around, it's a four-part series on Netflix with Irish actress Charlie Murphy taking the role played by Juliette Binoche, and Richard Armitage assuming the role played by Jeremy Irons. There's a few cosmetic changes to the story, but it's largely as before - a wealthy Englishman with a beautiful wife, happy children and all the rest of it finds himself intensely drawn to his son's fiance. She, in turn, feels the same way and the pair of them engage in a series of increasingly elaborate sexual escapades until, wouldn't you know it, the whole things begin to implode.

While the story itself might have been shocking in the early nineties, the idea of affairs involving a father and a son's girlfriend in 2023 is more tabloid fodder nowadays than anything else. Just ask Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music. Likewise, the sexual component in 'Obsession' isn't particularly new or exciting either. Netflix themselves have cranked out plenty of saucy material in the past, such as the woeful '365 Days' trilogy of movies and the recently cancelled 'Sex/Life'.

We're shown Richard Armitage's character as having everything, but still wanting to place himself in danger by having an affair. Was he bored, was he unhappy with the safety of it all, or was he simply just following the small brain in his pants? It's completely underwritten from his perspective, while all of the emphasis is placed on Charlie Murphy's character to explain things and consequently holds the balance of power in both their relationship and the series itself. As much as erotic dramas and thrillers were predominantly made with the male gaze and 'Obsession' tries to counter that, it still needs balance in order to be effective. If it's supposed to be about how two people are drawn to each other and begin to obsess over one another, how they're able to completely fool themselves into being OK with what they're doing, you need to be able to understand both of them - not one of them.

As much as erotic thrillers are enjoying a comeback (no pun intended) of late, with the likes of 'Fatal Attraction' getting a TV remake with Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson, there needs to be something more than just pasty, grim sex scenes with lots of heavy breathing like 'Obsession' offers. There has to be a passion to it; a willingness to embrace its outrageousness and the campiness that goes along with it, rather than simply drowning itself in austere drama.