Netflix has released the eight-episode series The Beast in Me, starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys. Set in an affluent New York suburb, the story centers on Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Agatha “Aggie” Wiggs.
After her young son dies in a car crash, her life collapses: her wife leaves her, work on a book about the friendship between Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia stalls, and she cannot stop thinking about the driver responsible, who lives nearby. The situation changes when millionaire developer Nile Jarvis moves in next door. His wife has vanished; there is a suicide note, but no body has ever been found.
Film critic Irina Karpova writes that the series is built around a familiar cat-and-mouse dynamic with a suspected criminal. Jarvis suggests that Aggie write a book about him, and despite her fear, she accepts. Karpova notes that the project contains implausible turns, schematic supporting characters, and motivations that are not fully developed.
At the same time, she argues, the show works because of its pace and the central acting duel. Danes again plays a heroine on the brink of breakdown, while Rhys creates the image of a polished, frightening man who radiates danger. A tense bond emerges between the two characters without becoming romantic.
Four of the eight episodes were directed by Antonio Campos, known for Afterschool (2008), Simon Killer (2012), Christine (2016), and the Netflix project The Devil All the Time (2020). In Karpova’s view, his presence gives the series weight: even within mainstream streaming entertainment, it contains images that linger in the memory.
The other episodes were directed by Lila Neugebauer and Tine Rafaeli, who maintain the visual and dramatic level he set. Karpova concludes that the story at times takes on a Patricia Highsmith-like dimension: a meeting with an external monster becomes a way for the heroine to confront the one inside herself. In her assessment, however, the ending remains fairly predictable.