The Beast in Me review – Claire Danes’ stunning new thriller is instant, first-rate television | TV and radio

IIt was a big surprise to learn that The Beast in Me is the first major screen work from its creator, writer and executive producer Gabe Rutter. Because, simply put, it’s very, very good. Even without the amazing performances of the main actors – Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys – the script, the sheer style and confidence of it all, would be beautiful things. But add in what this duo does, and this clever eight-part psychological thriller transitions seamlessly into top-tier television.

Danes plays Aggie Wiggs (Rutter may still have some work to do honing his naming skills), a writer who made her name with a book about her troubled relationship with her father. She’s currently stuck on her next book, about the friendship between Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and fellow justice but polar dissident Antonin Scalia, not least because she’s grieving the eight-year-old son she and her ex-wife Shelley (Natalie Morales) lost to a drunk driver four years ago. The driver, a young man named Teddy, who lives locally and whose frequent sightings eliminate any chance of peace for Agee, manages to delay a breathalyzer test at the time and avoid being charged in the boy’s death. Aggie lives alone with her anger and sadness in the big, empty house that was supposed to be filled with family.

Into her wealthy neighborhood comes millionaire scion of real estate developer, Niall Jarvis (Rhys), who has been the prime suspect in his wife’s suspected murder since she disappeared without a trace six years ago. His first act in his new home (where he lives with his former secretary/new wife Nina – Brittany Snow) is to ask everyone if he can cut a jogging trail through the nearby communally-owned forest. Everyone agrees to let the suspected killer have his way, except Aggie. “I should spend time with more dykes,” he says admiringly. It’s not very pretty work and exactly what you need.

And so they are brought together, forming the fundamentally antagonistic and compelling relationship that fuels the rest of the show. Aggie is banned along with RBG’s book, and Niall points out its characteristic lack of subtlety, because it’s the last thing people want to read. “No one wants hope. They want gossip and carnage.” He suggests she write about him instead. She refuses.

Then two things happen. She is visited at night by a drunken FBI agent, Brian Abbott (David Lyons), who was the lead investigator into the disappearance of Nile’s wife. He warns her that Niall is “not like us” and says he can’t live with his conscience if he doesn’t ask her to stay away from him.

Then Teddy disappears. The morning after Aggie inadvertently identifies him to Niall as her son’s killer, his clothes and a suicide note are found on the beach, despite his multiple future plans with his girlfriend and no sign of him suffering from any mental disorder.

The police have no interest in following up on their suspicions. In order to follow them herself, she agreed to write Niall’s story with him. As the central cat-and-mouse relationship develops, along with a potentially sinister air from Nina (a client who also becomes interested in representing the artist Shelley), the broader narrative also emerges. Enter Niall’s father, Martin (veteran actor Jonathan Banks – you’ll know him, and you’ll always be terrified of him when you see him), leading us to wonder if his son is just a chip off the old, evil block or just tainted by association. Protests against Jarvis’s latest planned development project, led by Councilwoman Olivia Benitez (Alyse Shannon), who has mayoral ambitions that could make her dangerously incorruptible or a useful ally to Jarvis’s cause. Further complications, possibilities of blackmail, deceit, and revelations are added to Abbott’s relationship with a married woman.

At its core, however, The Beast in Me remains a struggle between Danes as a wounded warrior struggling to rise, and Rhys as an elusive mass of possibilities and contradictions. They ignite each other through beautifully written scenes designed to immerse you in the world of two people discovering what it means to find someone who truly sees you and accepts you completely—even when that pushes others away—and how much of them you will accept in return. It’s absolutely amazing to watch. Prizes will definitely be awarded, and in the meantime you can’t look away.