A mystery series with a special sci-fi twist and a murder case spanning 150 years is launching at Netflix with Bodies. Read here to see if the mystery mystery is worth watching.
One of the most exciting comic book adaptations of the year has launched on Netflix. Bodies is based on a graphic novel from DC, and has been talked about as an ideal Dark replacement in advance due to its crime storytelling across multiple time levels.
The 8-episode miniseries has been streaming on Netflix since October 19. Whether the mystery series lives up to its promise, and whether it can keep up with the masterful time-loop enigma Dark, I’ll tell you in this brief first impression of Bodies.
Murder series with a sci-fi twist: That’s what Bodies is all about
In the present day of 2023, police officer Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) pursues a suspect into a back alley amid the chaos of a racially motivated demonstration in London’s Whitechapel neighborhood. Here she discovers the naked body of a man. What at first begins like a typical modern crime thriller, however, soon turns out to be something much bigger. Because: this is only one of four time levels.
Watch the trailer for the Netflix series Bodies here:
Also in Victorian London in 1890, in the hail of bombs in 1941 as well as in the seemingly utopian future of 2053, investigators:inside come across a man’s corpse in that very Longharvest Lane. What they don’t know, however, is that they are all looking at the same dead man and have to solve the exact same murder case.
Over 150 years separate Alfred Hillingshead (Kyle Soller), Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), Shahara Hasan and Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas). Isolated by time, their investigations all lead them toward a conspiracy – and answers beyond their imaginations.
Is the Netflix series Bodies worth watching?
Do you love convoluted mysteries and mystery box series such as Dark, its sequel 1899, Manifest or Westworld? Then Bodies is just the thing for you. Here, too, you can expect a fascinating series puzzle full of mysteries that will keep you enthralled and spin ever more wacky theories with every new WTF twist.
Away from the sci-fi mystery, Bodies brings visual and narrative variety with its four time levels. Each timeline captivates with its own style and represents a different subset of the crime genre – from the classic gritty detective case to the modern conspiracy whodunit.
Four Time Levels, One Murder Case
Garnishing the genre potpourri is playful mise-en-scène, as characters move through the same rooms separated by time and split-screen transitions divide the picture into moving comic panels. But before brain-twisting sci-fi elements of the series take hold, the focus is initially on the four exciting individual stories, which at first glance could hardly be more different.
In the 19th century, we have an inspector tormented by shame who falls in love with a journalist and is simultaneously on the trail of a sinister secret society. In stark contrast, we have a peace officer from the sci-fi future who can only walk thanks to a cybernetic implant and must save a quantum physicist from great harm.
How are these stories connected? What era is the murder victim actually from? And who is the murderer? Bodies develops dense suspense with its numerous questions that only multiply with each additional revelation. Identifying and discovering connections and parallels between the four investigations, as well as repeating elements over time – such as the ominous phrase “Know that you are loved” – makes Bodies great puzzle fun.
Bodies is the perfect replacement for Dark fans
Bodies is inevitably reminiscent of the German Netflix hit Dark, which left millions of fans’ heads spinning. To reveal more about specific similarities to Dark at this point would be getting too far into spoiler territory. But when one of the main characters is already wearing a yellow raincoat, it becomes clear that the makers were consciously inspired by the German Netflix masterpiece.
Bodies
Quite spoiler-free: in fact, Bodies feels like a compact and more accessible variation on the puzzle experience that Dark once evoked. In contrast to the oppressive heaviness of Winden’s time travel incest, however, Bodies develops a more enjoyable pace. After all, all of the mysteries in this miniseries must be solved within a few episodes (hopefully).
Whether the series is really that clever and complex can’t be finally assessed after the first four episodes. However, the dark mystery mood, the twisted twists and the core question of whether fate can be changed make Bodies the ideal replacement after just a few episodes, filling the gaping sci-fi hole that Dark has left on Netflix.
