Netflix’s 8-Part ‘Dark Meets True Detective’ Is One Of Its Best Sci-Fi Shows

Although one of Netflix’s best sci-fi shows could be viewed as a blend of Dark and True Detective, the series never got the mainstream attention that this description deserves. Even though the Stranger Things franchise is one of Netflix’s biggest hits to date, it isn’t always easy for the streaming service to sell viewers on complex, ambitious sci-fi shows. For every success story like the modern anthology show masterpiece Black Mirror, there are underrated Netflix sci-fi classics like Sense8 that only last for a season or two before being canceled in their prime.

Within this context, it is perhaps unsurprising that a show which married the dark police procedural thrills of HBO’s True Detective with the time-twisting sci-fi of Dark proved too knotty for mainstream viewers to get their heads around. Dark is a cult classic small-town mystery where time travel results in a complex, multi-generational story of parallel realities, while True Detective is a grim, grounded police procedural where the titular detectives feel their lives unravel around them as they delve deeper into dark, complex conspiracies.

Mixing these two concepts is a tall order, but one that 2023’s graphic novel adaptation Bodies managed admirably. Based on a graphic novel of the same name by Si Spencer from 2015, Bodies begins with the discovery of a human corpse in Whitechapel, London. The unusual plot twist is that this same body is discovered four times, in the same place, at four different points throughout history, in 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053. The four different police investigations into this discovery overlap and eventually intersect in surprising, disturbing ways few viewers could predict.

2023’s Bodies Is An Underrated Fusion of Police Procedural And Sci-fi Storytelling

BODIES, Kyle Soller, (Season 1, aired Oct. 19, 2023). photo: Matt Towers / ©Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection
 

With a diverse ensemble cast including Greta Scacchi, Shira Haas, Derek Riddell, Amy Manson, and Jonny Coyne, Bodies is a complex show that rewards close watching and repeat viewing. Many of the main characters are recast as their older selves in later timelines, while the presence or absence of some characters from later timelines can often prove to be an early clue to their fate. If a young, healthy character from 1890’s investigation can’t be seen in 1941’s investigation, there’s likely a reason for this.

Compared to sci-fi period dramas like HBO’s The Nevers from the preceding year, Bodies doesn’t play up its historical setting too much, nor does the show’s future feel particularly far-flung or outlandish. Engaged with historic problems of policing and contemporary discourses around state surveillance and the role that private corporations play in its infrastructure, Bodies offers a vision of the future that, while technically dystopian, feels more like a logical extension of the show’s 2023 setting than a wholly imaginary reality.

Bodies Introduced Many Netflix Viewers To One of The Streaming Service’s Biggest Stars

It is a pleasure to watch the intersecting storylines of Bodies come together across the show’s eight episodes, and the show’s graceful writing often feels like a more ambitious sci-fi spin on True Detective’s dual-timeline approach from season 1. However, this is not the only reason that the series is a must-watch for fans of the streaming service. Its breakout star, Stephen Graham, is astounding in multiple roles across the show’s various timelines.

Graham has been a consistently remarkable presence in British cinema for decades now, appearing in everything from 2000’s Snatch to 2002’s Gangs of New York to 2010’s London Boulevard. However, his work in Bodies is as much of a revelation as his central performance in 2006’s This Is England, as Graham brings depth and gravitas to characters many actors could have reduced to straightforward clichés.

In the years since Bodies was released, Graham has starred, co-created, co-written, and executive produced Adolescence for Netflix, turning the Peaky Blinders guest star into a bonafide superstar the world over. However, well before that dark domestic drama gained him some well-earned recognition, Graham had already dazzled viewers in Netflix’s Bodies years earlier.

Release Date

2023 – 2023-00-00

Showrunner

Paul Tomalin

Directors

Marco Kreuzpainter, Haolu Wang

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