by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
Imagine being a detective and investigating a crime scene that is — for all intents and purposes — odd, to say the least, only to discover that you are not the first person to investigate it, just the most recent person to take on the case. The new miniseries, Bodies, now streaming on Netflix — based on the 2014 graphic novel of the same name — takes several detectives across many different years and has them solving the same crime scene in their respected times.
The series starts with Detective Sergeant Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) doing security detail for a far-right protest with the rest of her squad. The street experiences a power surge, and she is forced to pursue a potential shooter through the streets of London. She follows the suspect all the way to an alley called Longharvest Lane, where she comes across a naked dead body on the alley floor. The body has a gash on his forehead, a strange symbol marked on his wrist, and a gunshot wound in his eye, with no bullet and no exit wound. It then cuts, and we are immediately taken back in time to the year 1941, where we follow Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), a suave Jewish citizen living as a detective in London. His force is investigating corruption internally, and unbeknownst to his lieutenant, Whiteman is guilty, seen having suspicious phone conversations with a mysterious woman, who tells him to arrive at a given location and to dump the body at the docks. After experiencing an odd power surge in their office, he discovers the same body as Hasan does at the same location and begins to dispose of it, but is seen by a young girl, who flees immediately.
The viewer is brought back in time once more to 1890, and we follow Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller), a detective inspector who also encounters a power surge on the busy, bustling market streets of old London, and is called to the scene of the crime by other officers, seeing yet again the same body discovered by the others in the exact same location. He also questions a young man who has taken a photograph of the body upon his discovery of it. In the photograph, Hillinghead sees the face of a mysterious man in the window. The first episode then begins to switch back and forth between all of these periods in time, as each detective begins to try and unravel the mystery of this strange body, when we are brought into yet another time period — but this time, we are taken to the future.
In 2053, detective constable Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas) is driving through a futuristic London street when a power surge disrupts her futuristic vehicle and the surrounding technology. When her car reboots, the car detects an electromagnetic anomaly in the alley on Longharvest Lane. When she goes to investigate, she discovers yet another body with all of the same afflictions on it, but upon further observation, then the body jerks awake and gasps for air.
I will say no more about the plot of this series so as to spare the reader from any potential spoilers. Instead, I want to start by saying that the premise of the series alone was enough to pull me in to watch it, but after the first episode, I was in fact hooked. This series is quite a joy, being that it has a crime thriller and mystery aspect, but also a supernatural element on top of it. All of these elements serve the story quite well, and make it super compelling to watch the story unfold. All of the acting is serviceable, and each character has each of their own interesting storyline and problems to deal with, on top of trying to solve the mystery of this mysterious dead body.
If I were to assess some negatives, it would have to be that the story does seem to get a little convoluted in some places, but when you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, it tends to make a lot of sense. I also think the villain’s (yes, there is indeed a villain) motivation is a bit of a odd sell to the viewer. I didn’t totally understand why he was motivated to do what he does in the story, and it left me a bit confused. Of course, I am trying to be vague so as to not give too much information away, because despite these few opinions about the overall story, I think Bodies is a really fun watch, and a very fascinating mystery to solve!
Overall, I highly recommend Bodies, especially if you are a mystery lover and a fan of stories that have a slight sci-fi edge to them, because I think the story is serviceable in both regards! The ending of the series is satisfying, and I’ll even say interesting, to the point where I will be thinking about it for much time to come. I won’t say anything more, because it truly was a fun watch which I highly recommend. I even just preordered the graphic novel to see if the source material lives up to the adaptation!
Rating: High Side of Liked it
Bodies is currently streaming on Netflix
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