Netflix’s The Beast in Me Review

Full Spoilers travel for each episodes of Netflix’s The Beast successful Me. All 8 episodes of the bid debut November 13.

There’s a country successful the premiere occurrence of Netflix’s The Beast successful Me successful which earthy sewage erupts done the pipes of the protagonist’s location plumbing. Gross? Yes. But apt. The show, a caller mystery/thriller starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys, is each astir keeping repulsive secrets hidden distant and what, if any, consequences originate erstwhile those secrets spot the airy of day.

Danes, reteaming present with Homeland co-creator Howard Gordon (who serves arsenic showrunner and enforcement shaper on with chap EPs Gabe Rotter, Jodie Foster and Conan O’Brien) stars arsenic Agatha (Aggie) Wiggs, a once-successful writer who’s been stuck successful a spiral of grief and unproductivity since the decease of her young son. Aggie spends her days successful a stately, run-down location connected Long Island, pretending to beryllium excited astir completing her adjacent book, an uninspired tome astir the relationship betwixt Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Aggie’s idiosyncratic beingness is simply a mess, her enactment has stalled, and she’s mostly struggling to marque it done each day.

Enter: Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), an uber-rich existent property developer who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not person killed his wife. Attempting to flight the media glare that followed his wife’s disappearance, Nile moves successful adjacent doorway to Aggie and the 2 onslaught up a slow-burning not-quite-friends but not-quite-enemies relationship. Aggie convinces Nile to beryllium the taxable of her adjacent book, a communicative she’s genuinely excited about, and Nile yet agrees. From there, the bid accelerates into a hodgepodge crippled of cat-and-mouse with some jaw-dropping thrills and eye-rolling communicative choices that are often frustrating.

Matthew Rhys arsenic Nile Jarvis successful Episode 103 of The Beast successful Me. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

The Beast successful Me is thing if not compellingly watchable. Creepy affluent feline who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not person killed his wife? Check. Grieving writer takes connected said creep arsenic the taxable for her latest novel? Check. Broodingly gothic locales and crippled twists galore? Well, you get the picture.

The acting present is superb. From the infinitesimal Danes shows up connected screen, she brings the vigor successful each country she’s in. Aggie’s grief is palpable passim the play acknowledgment to Danes’s quality to represent seemingly dozens of conflicting emotions each astatine once. Anyone who’s mislaid a loved one, been stuck successful a dead-end job, oregon endured a failed narration knows however grueling immoderate 1 of those circumstances tin be. As Aggie, Danes is perpetually dealing with each 3 astatine once. From the emotions connected her look to the tense consciousness of dread she carries passim the series, Danes imbues Aggie with a tragic consciousness of longing that colors astir each country of the show.

The remainder of the formed is top-notch arsenic well. Brittany Snow is simply a standout arsenic the icy caller woman of Rhys’s character, who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not cognize much than she lets on. Natalie Morales plays Aggie’s ex-wife Shelley, and an underused Jonathan Banks plays Nile’s begetter Martin.

Rhys, for his part, plays the cleanable foil to Danes. For the archetypal fractional of the series, you fishy that Nile Jarvis PROBABLY killed Madison, his archetypal wife, but Rhys plays him conscionable charming and slippery capable that you’re not 100% convinced. That is until the amusement reveals 3/4 of the mode into the play that Nile is 100%, without a doubt, a stone-cold killer.

And that’s wherever The Beast successful Me (kind of) mislaid me. Look, I cognize that not each bid tin beryllium a perfectly constructed execution enigma wherever each the cards are revealed successful the precise past occurrence and you deliberation to yourself “A-ha! They truly got maine there!” But I can’t assistance but consciousness that The Beast successful Me loses astir of its momentum the infinitesimal that Nile is revealed not to conscionable beryllium a murderer, but possibly benignant of a serial killer.

After Aggie admits to Nile that she’s met respective times with an FBI cause (played by David Lyons), Nile’s defender is up. So erstwhile the cause confronts him portion trying to glean accusation astir a imaginable corrupt woody betwixt City Hall and Nile’s existent property company, Nile bludgeons the cause to decease successful a acceptable of rage. Later, we observe that the drunk operator liable for the decease of Aggie’s lad was kidnapped and yet murdered by Nile arsenic well, who successful crook (in 1 of the astir astonishing and effectual moments of the full series) attempts to framework Aggie. In the penultimate episode, a flashback outlining the events surrounding Madison’s disappearance, we spot Nile – you guessed it – bludgeon his woman to death, frankincense resolving the cardinal enigma of the full show.

Matthew Rhys arsenic Nile Jarvis and Claire Danes arsenic Aggie Wiggs successful Episode 103 of The Beast successful Me. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

The Beast successful Me pulls disconnected a frustrating feat of getting the assemblage to attraction astir the cardinal enigma but fumbling its execution: A convenient macguffin successful the signifier of an unearthed diary proves to Aggie that Nile is simply a killer; often clunky dialog (“All helium had near to termination was time”); a too-neat ending successful which Nile gets his conscionable desserts successful the signifier of a weapon to the gullet successful the situation communal country aft Snow’s quality rats him out; and truthful on. All seemingly innocuous peccadillos that congeal to forestall the amusement from being the elevated enigma it desperately wants to be.

Still, there’s overmuch to emotion astir The Beast successful Me. Brilliant performances, immoderate of the astir heart-pounding intelligence thriller scenes this broadside of Silence of the Lambs, and immoderate genuinely beauteous cinematography (there’s a country successful Episode 7 lit wholly by Christmas lights that I’ll astir apt ne'er forget) marque the amusement a worthwhile binge.

If you are looking for a enigma that’s truthful twisty and originative arsenic to permission your jaw connected the level for days aft you finish, this amusement astir apt isn’t for you. But if you privation to spot Claire Danes, Matthew Rhys, and a talented ensemble enactment the hellhole retired of immoderate beauteous gripping material, The Beast successful Me is worthy a watch.