After the colossal success of Game of Thrones, every streaming platform and production house invested heavily in the fantasy drama subgenre, and the outcome was really inconsistent. Some shows made it big, while others were forgotten within a month of their release. But, all in all, nothing really became “the next Game of Thrones,” not even the franchise’s own prequel series. Hence, as per recent reports, producers are going back to basics and greenlighting or renewing shows that don’t cost a lot to make but are rich in terms of the writing, direction, and acting. As far as I know, one of the TV shows that has really motivated this shift in attitude is The Pitt. I suppose Slow Horses, Only Murders in the Building, and The Bear have also contributed to this movement, because their showrunners have been able to make multiple seasons while stuff like Stranger Things struggles to finish even one. Although it’s difficult to gauge the impact right now, since they are currently on air, I think The Chair Company, Down Cemetery Road, and Pluribus will push the needle in the right direction. And despite being limited by Netflix’s binge model, I feel that The Beast in Me will further this really positive trend.
Created by Gabe Rotter, with Howard Gordon serving as the showrunner, The Beast in Me tells the story of Aggie Wiggs, a novelist living in Oyster Bay with her dog, Steve. Aggie used to be married to Shelley, and they had a son named Cooper. But after Cooper died in a car accident, Aggie and Shelley divorced each other and went their separate ways. Prior to that incident, Aggie had written a novel, Sick Puppy, which was immensely successful. And, in the present day, she’s struggling to write a single word for her latest project, which is a biography on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, because she can’t figure out who she should blame for her son’s death: Teddy Fenig, the drunk kid who was in the other car, or herself. To make matters worse, Nile Jarvis, a real estate mogul with a murder accusation on his head, moves into the house next door with his wife, Nina, his uncle, Rick, and their two dogs. Why’s that an issue, though? Because his dogs terrorize Steve, his security system is louder than that of a prison siren, and he wants to make a paved path through the woods, which is something that Aggie is against due to environmental concerns. To appease Aggie, Nile arranges several meetings with her. She doesn’t mind it all that much, but when FBI Agent Brian Abbott arrives at her doorstep with a warning about Nile, her interest is piqued. So, instead of maintaining her distance from Nile, she decides to make him the subject of her next book.
The Beast in Me’s writing is brilliant. From the first scene to the last, it keeps you absolutely hooked. I’ll admit that the first 4 episodes are much more intriguing than the last 4, largely because you don’t know what to expect from this conflict between this novelist with writer’s block and this real estate mogul with an insatiable bloodlust. Furthermore, every single supporting character is as confounding and complex as the central characters. You relate to Aggie’s inability to figure out if she is putting her trust in the right person or not because you can’t get a proper reading on him either. You understand Abbott’s desperation to get the guy who has eluded him for years. Councilwoman Olivia Benitez coming apart at the seams because on one hand she wants to stay true to her socialist ideals, and on the other hand, she wants to keep her political career alive by siding with the capitalists feels all too real, especially in this day and age. And the list goes on. However, once you have grown acclimatized to this world, the narrative does get a tad bit predictable. Thankfully, the dialogue-writing is so sharp that even though you know where a certain plotline is going, you are compelled to look forward to the prickly interaction between the characters in question. In my opinion, that’s a win, because at this stage you can’t reinvent the proverbial wheel, but you can spin it in an engaging way.
The visual storytelling in The Beast in Me is as good as its writing. For example, in the scene where Aggie and Nile meet each other for the first time, they are shot through the gaps between a translucent mock-up of a real estate project. You are free to interpret the subtext of that creative decision in any way you like, but what’s important to me is that there are artists out there who are still willing to shoot a conversation-heavy scene in an unconventional way. For some, that might sound like the bare minimum. But after watching one over-budgeted show with abysmal cinematography and editing after another, you kind of start to yearn for said bare minimum. To be honest, Gordon and his team have given me more than the bare minimum. Without spoiling it too much, there’s a scene where you know a character is hiding in a house. We don’t know where that guy is initially. However, when another character almost enters a room in that house, we finally find out where he’s hiding. That could have been done with a simple medium shot and then a wide shot. What Gordon and his team do is that they mount the camera on the door so that when it swings open, we get the reveal. So simple and yet, so splendid. In addition to all that, of course, there’s a split-diopter shot to illustrate the tension between Nile and Rick, which made me stand up and applaud (in my room).
Coming to the performances in The Beast in Me, oh my god! Believe it or not, I sat down to watch this without seeing the trailer, the Netflix About page, or even the bloody poster. And then, as some of the best actors to have graced our small screens kept arriving one after another, I began levitating. The casting is overwhelmingly White, but sure, I’ll take it when they are all so good. Claire Danes absolutely knocks it out of the park. Matthew Rhys is insane. Every time Danes and Rhys are on the screen together, I swear, you can’t look away even if, I don’t know, the building next to you is on fire. Initially, it’ll seem like Brittany Snow’s role is insignificant. You’ll start to feel that she isn’t getting enough screentime. Trust me when I say that, as always, she is going to bowl you over by the end. David Lyons is excellent. He seems to have walked out of a hardboiled noir movie and straight into this miniseries. A few months ago, Hettienne Park appeared as a detective in Black Rabbit, and here she is as an FBI agent. I was afraid she was being typecast, but the way she got to flex her acting chops dispelled all my fears. Veterans like Tim Guinee, Deirdre O’Connell, Kate Burton, Bill Irwin, and the one and only Jonathan Banks are all awesome. The entire supporting cast deserves a deafening round of applause too.
If it’s not clear already, yeah, The Beast in Me is a slam dunk of a show. But the question is, will it contribute to the shift in television or not? You see, the issue with Netflix is that its catalogue is filled with drama-thrillers and murder mysteries like this. I am not saying that they are as good as this one; I am saying that a lot of them are good at cosplaying, especially those based on Harlan Coben’s books. In doing so, Netflix has saturated its own market, and now it’s looking for cheaper options. Therefore, while every other production house is looking for their next The Pitt, The Bear, or Slow Horses, Netflix will be looking for their next Emily in Paris. If stuff like Adolescence, Dept Q, and the topic of today’s discussion would have been put out anywhere else other than Netflix, I think it would have been a more significant part of this shift. Right now, despite having such a stacked cast that’s bolstered by such amazing writing and direction, I’m afraid it risks getting lost in the streamer’s oppressive algorithm. I desperately hope that my analysis is wrong and instead of greenlighting another season of Nobody Wants This or The Circle, we get more shows like The Beast in Me.
