Since October 19, the British series “Bodies” is streaming on German Netflix: What at first glance seems like a police thriller or historical crime drama turns out in the course of the first episode to be a science fiction thriller that is well thought out and clever, guiding viewers through the nearly six-hour plot with many twists and puzzles. A well-composed plot is just right for the Christmas season, says MeinMMO author Schuhmann – and you feel so clever while watching when you realize where the story is heading.
Thus starts Bodies: The story undergoes several rapid changes in the first episode, giving the impression that you are watching three series at once:
- a modern cop thriller
- a historical crime drama
- a nested SF story
At the beginning, you accompany a Muslim policewoman through her workday in modern London. She monitors a right-wing demonstration, discovers a suspicious young man, engages in a heated chase with him, and finally finds the corpse of a naked man in a back alley.
This is how a “normal” contemporary crime drama or thriller might start, as seen frequently from England: Culturally charged, with a diverse cast and an exciting beginning featuring a central, unresolved mystery: Why is there a naked man lying there, with no clues? Why can no bullet be found?
This is exactly how series from the island begin.
“Know that you are loved”
This is how Bodies surprises: But now “Bodies” takes a wild turn and sends the viewer to London in 1943: The Nazis are bombing the capital, and a Jewish cop is sent by a mysterious voice to exactly this alley where a naked man’s corpse lies, which he is to make disappear. In every scene, you can feel the distrust and aversion directed at the Jewish cop.
However, we do not stay long in this temporal level. Shortly afterward, we are in historical London 1890. Again, we accompany a police officer and he takes us to the alley where the corpse is.
The police investigate, and you watch excitedly. Quickly, you get the feeling of recognizing parallels:
For example, the whispered “Know that you are loved” – which must be the sign of a secret society somehow connected to the murders. And isn’t that always the same corpse that is found in this alley in London?
Now you have reached a historical mystery thriller. You puzzle along with the police about what connections and parallels there might be between the present and the two historical time levels.
But just when you feel like you understand what the series is showing and how it works, there comes a final time jump to the year 2053, where a mysterious power has seized control of London and assures the population through large overlays: “Know that you are loved.”
The new Netflix series “Bodies” is reminiscent of Cloud Atlas
This is what makes the series appealing: The individual time levels are interesting in themselves and display exciting conflicts. Each of the investigating police officers is an outsider in their time and carries some kind of stigma with them:
- The policewoman Shahara Hassan from 2023 is a Muslim and wears a headscarf.
- The police officer Karl Weissmann aka “Charles Whiteman” is, in 1943, an outsider as a Jew in the British police.
- Alfred Hillinghead appears in 1890 as a clean-cut bourgeois man with a wife and daughter, but hides a secret that will cost him his head and neck.
- In the future, the policewoman Iris Maplewood investigates, who can only walk thanks to advanced technology. And she has to deal with a annoyingly talkative neighbor in the future.
Bodies gives a great feeling when you understand what it’s really about
The real appeal arises when you realize how cleverly the plot is constructed and how individual characters play similar roles and pursue similar goals in each epoch.
As in Cloud Atlas, each part of the plot functions on its own, but the larger whole has its own appeal. When you understand during the course of the story how the individual characters and narrative strands are really interconnected, it’s already a very satisfying feeling to hear the penny drop.
Particularly outstanding are Kyle Soller as the tight-lipped police officer Alfred Hillinghead and Stephen Graham as the nebulous figure who plays a crucial role in all four time levels.
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An “18+” series on Netflix offers intrigues, brutality, and naked skin like Game of Thrones
