A Filmmaker's Review: "Behind Her Eyes" (Netflix, 2021)

I'm not going to lie, the concept and a lot of the writing was pretty good to be perfectly honest. Unfortunately though, the acting was not - except for the woman who portrays Louise - she was alright. The series seems to be more about big plot twists and making the viewer feel shocked rather than explaining what is actually going on here. The fact that we get a very important plot point not until about episode four or five in the series and yet, this is expected to be a massive part of the ending. The problem here is that it has been pretty much shoe-horned in. Yes, it explains the 'twist' ending, but it also feels like it is there just to give a reason for it too. There really is a certain amount of the acting, especially in the latter episodes alongside the strangeness of the plot, that is laughable. Let us take a look at this.

The series is about a woman called Louis who starts an affair with a man called David who is married to a woman portrayed as mentally ill named Adele. As we move through the series, Louis believes that Adele is in danger because of suspecting her husband is controlling her to the point of no return. But when we get into the serious bits and pieces of their past, we find out that Adele was kept in a psychiatric hospital after her parents died in a fire and befriends a guy called Rob. Now, here's where the problem arises - the main point of the entire plot is set within the confines of this psychiatric hospital and yet, it only comes to our knowledge in the second half of the series.

Next, we have to look at the very obvious acting by Bono's daughter, Eve Hewson. If there was a better actress in that role, I think it would not have been so obvious that something was terribly wrong, such as some sort of imposter syndrome. When it comes down to her acting though, the imposter syndrome is not just very blatantly obvious it is also acted out completely wrong - almost like a caricature of itself. I have to blame this mostly on the actress because the writing for the character did not seem to have any major things wrong with it. But the acting was god awful and made it almost seem a bit laughable at times.

The other actor who portrays David played a Scottish man with a strange and often stereotyped Scottish accent. Not the best acting there is. I often felt like his character sometimes forced the role too much especially in instances of high tension such as when he gets rid of Louise. But on the whole, he was pretty much average. Not great, but not the worst character - that title still belongs to the lady who played Adele.

I think there was also an imbalance of talent in this show seeing as the woman who portrayed Louise was actually a very good actress. She was believable, relatable, she portrayed the common and average woman very well without making it a stereotype, a caricature or completely unrelatable at all. She seemed very down to earth and her character was very well acted. Even the man who portrays her ex-husband is not that good, he always looks like he had just shown up on the set five minutes before they started filming and he has no idea what he is doing there.

The man who portrays Dr. Sharma. If you people remember the film "My Beautiful Laundrette" (1985) like I do, I think you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that he is the father. In this show, he portrays an intellectual man who obviously has a ton of experience but is also very kind to the people who work for him. It's a great role that plays a small but vital part of the connection between David and Louise.

All in all, the show's shoehorning of plot must be part of the reason why it is a good watch but in hindsight, it feels very forced, unrealistic and thoroughly average. Swapping plot and intricacy for big shockers is always a bad idea, especially for a slow-burner. When it comes to the acting, I feel like a better actor and actress could have been chosen to portray David and Adele. For some reason, because of the fact that the actress who portrayed Louise was very good and the actor who portrayed David was actually somewhat average, the woman who portrays Adele seems to stick out like a sore thumb. You can tell she only got the role because she's Bono's daughter. I can name a few actresses who would have been better in her role. For example: Cressida Bonas from "White House Farm" also on Netflix, who portrays Sheila Caffell would have been a great choice for Adele in this show.

I feel like they had really missed the mark completely with this one. Boring, Unrealistic, and mis-cast with Adele's actress being too obvious and awful and Louise's actress being too good for the others in the series. There was a serious imbalance which made it almost obvious as to who and what was in the wrong.