User reviews

I find it odd that the description for this series doesn't admit to being a 100% remake of the mesmerising film starring Juliette Binoche & Jeremy Irons from '92. I mean there is dialogue ripped from it verbatim. Its not a bad series but could've been better. And nowhere near as psychologically demented, captivating or shocking. If you want to watch a true fkd up psychosexual drama/tragedy, with two huge indie stars from the 90's in one of the true indie cult film favourites of the 90's ? Go watch "Damage". The movie is legit. Not this watered down, Adrian Lyne lite version. And although Charlie Murphy (Anna) does an admiral job, NO ONE does that watery, luminously mysterious, sucking the soul out of you brown eyed stare like Juliette Binoche. NO ONE.

Well produced and shot, but why didn't the writers make the characters smarter? Just because you're a genius surgeon doesn't necessarily mean you know how to successfully have an affair. Here are some handy tips:

• Turn off text message notifications. It only serves as a way to alert your spouse that something's up. Same goes for taking calls at strange times of the day or in important meetings/events.

• Don't stare off into space like you've been dealt the worst news possible. Your spouse will ask if everything's okay and you'll have to lie.

• Avoid lying if you're not good at it.

• Don't let your phone ring until a coworker notices and asks you to answer it.

• Don't take calls from your lover in the presence of other people. One side of a conversation can still speak volumes.

It's like the main character skipped the class on "discretion."

Started watching this because Richard Armitage is in it. Quickly devolved into hate-watching two utterly reprehensible individuals selfishly causing chaos and wrecking lives.

William is a star pediatric surgeon, long married, who becomes obsessed with his son Jay's girlfriend Anna. Jay tells her he wants her all to himself, and we're also told someone once committed suicide over her. So what I want to know is, what's so damn special and irresistible about Anna? I sure don't see it. She certainly doesn't make me think "wow, I wish I looked like her" (I especially hated her haircut). So she must have pheromones that pack one hell of a punch or a gold-plated vajayjay, is all I can guess. Anna comes across creepy and manipulative. She loves to play head games to make herself seem mysterious ("learn to love the questions", seriously?). Anyone with any sense would find that annoying as hell, not irresistible.

Honestly, the most fun part of this series for me was frequently yelling "What the hell is wrong with you?" at both William and Anna. The sex scenes were laughable, since Anna is always ready to go within 5 seconds and apparently immune to both STDs and pregnancy since condoms never seem to enter the picture.

Don't really know where to start with this steaming pile.

The premise was interesting (though not very believable), but the actual series just gnaws at your gut like a thousand rats devouring you from the inside. The lead characters were not just despicable, they were something from a nightmare.

I do have to give it credit for one thing; I actually laughed out loud... a lot. The whole plot, dialog, and story line were so preposterous that it could easily have been a dark satire. Who knows; maybe it was and I'm just too dense to have realized that.

In any event, this is a complete groaner from start to finish and never even comes close to redeeming itself.

Where do I begin to criticize such a depressing and horrible series? Nothing psychological or exciting here!!

I usually really like English series, but this one hasn't left any mark, unless depression is one of them. Boring, ridiculous, very slow, nothing exciting, more boredom, more depression... ... I couldn't see more than 1 episode, and to be able to criticize it I hit the forward button until the end.😬🙄

It's not even exciting, not even that. There is no chemistry between the actors at all, no emotions... it's like being at a funeral full of zombies for a whole day.

It is incomprehensible how it can exceed the 5 in the imdb rating, and I don't usually say something like this, but this time I will, for me it is also incomprehensible that there are critics who rate it at 7, 8 or 9. As they say, there are people for everything, and once again it is shown here.

I am frustrated! And it's no wonder, with such good actors wasting their time for nothing. Not again please! Boring and cliche sex, ridiculous dialogues and more boredom!!

It is the first time in years that I have not given even a star to a series!!!

This was a very unsexy letdown, due to completely lacking writing and plot. I watched this for Richard Armitage who is, frankly, too good of an actor for such a lame script: 2 stars for him alone. If you want sexy Richard Armitage, stick to the safe-for-work North & South miniseries.

I understand that it's labeled a thriller but for such ominous music to be playing during supposedly passionate scenes is just bizarre and a huge turnoff. Am I gonna be jumpscared? It's confusing. Blue Velvet, Cruel Intentions, and Handmaiden are good examples of movies that successfully toe the line between sexy and unsettling; this wasn't it.

The female lead came off as super creepy due to the unrealistic and lacking writing of the show, so it was hard to want to watch past the first episode. On top of that, there was just very little chemistry between the leads. The man had more onscreen chemistry with his wife than on the woman he was supposed to be cheating on her with.

This series kept my attention and my husband and I binged in one night. My biggest criticism was the cast. I love love Indira Varma, so no complaints for her role. I felt Robert Armitage was a good cast as well, he does deliver the sexy, mysterious older man well, but the other actors were awful. Jay's character was so off. He was annoying to look at and did not pull of a handsome, mature adult- more like a teenage boy and he and Anna did not have an ounce of chemistry. The biggest flaw was who they chose as Anna. This actress should have been a sexy, seductive femme fatale (although I hate her, I think someone like Amber Heard vibes). This woman was neither sexy, interesting or seductive and it made me questions what the dad saw in her...the sex scenes were awkward and her story line was all over the place.

Who ever cast these actors together must not like their job very much! The chemistry is all off! The story is terrible - how can one become obsessed by someone in an extremely short period of time? And for the other person to be very interested as well?? It's like there's a chunk missing from the story! I dont understand why make a show with sex scenes and then have the most akwardly filmed sex scenes I've ever seen! For inspiration, perhaps they should have watched Unfaithful, or Original Sin or the newly released Florida Man, or Out Of Time with Denzel - THAT'S chemistry, not only during the sex scenes, but from start to finish. The scenes where I laughed out loud (I just watched 2 episodes I think) is when he's trying to look handsome by lying down on hardwood floors lmao it just did not work. Mr. Big and Carrie did it in Sex and The City, and they actually looked like they just had sex, this guy didnt even have 1 beed of sweat. I dont know what kind of sex life the actors have, but the simulated thrusting was so embarrassing and cringe. I really had second hand embarrassment. I really dont know what's worse - the acting, casting, chemistry, story or script? Someone wanted to launder money or just loves massive loss of time and money. Awful. Just awful.

Obsession is a Netflix limited series based in the UK about a family who is introduced to their son's girlfriend who is played by Charlie Murphy who was also in Peaky Blinders. She makes a move on the father who is played by Richard Armitage from the Hobbit series. Charlie has a thing to connect with those individuals who looked or sound similar from people from her past. Their obsession for each other caused a riff between his son played by Rish Shah and Richard. Indira Verma played the wife who knew something was wrong between her husband and soon to be daughter in law. This latest version of the novel Damage but I wouldn't watch it again. It was good, full of rough sexual scenes, definitely not a family oriented movie.

I adore Richard Armitage's acting. This series popped up on Netflix and I started it right away. It is finishing as I type this.

What a waste of talent. I even disliked Richard's acting in this role. No on screen chemistry. I cared not what happened to anyone here. I wished there was a voice off the screen yelling "cut!". "This is crap. I am not doing this."

The female protagonist is totally unlikable. Totally. Unlikable. No internal substance. Nothing.

The son was without charm.

They made the wife as clueless as possible. She has been married to this man and cannot tell that he has checked out.

The only slightly interesting role, was the female best friend.

Oh-- the intimate scenes were laughable at best. I cannot believe I actually fast forwarded through them. Yes. I skipped the supposed 'juicy' parts. Not compelling. They were boring.

I could find nothing to recommend this to ...anyone. Ever.

I did not care about the ending. I only looked forward to the time when it would end. I was laughing by that time. Ridiculous.

I am going to go watch North and South again. Now that is a wonderful use of Richard's considerable acting skills.

Not. This. Mess.

Normally I wouldn't even bother writing a review over such a monstrosity.

However it's worth noting why this series failed so spectacularly: Because 1. CASTING MATTERS and 2. SCRIPT MATTERS.

In this particular case, Armitage looks like he landed the role by accident. He plays one thing and one thing only: the confused mature male. He doesn't express anything else throughout the first episode except confusion. He looks confused even when he is looking out the window. Until it's all explained: he wasn't confused, he was "passionate".

What utter crap.

But he is overshadowed in lack of conviction by Ms Murphy.

She is an actress who has played some roles in the past where she was vaguely erotic, but in this particular series, her forced and artificial transformation to femme fatale who simply looks intensely at a father twice and convinces him to fall in love with his son's girlfriend is just ludicrous.

She looks like a stalker or a person with some serious mental disorder, and not for one scene does she manage to justify or explain why an older man and especially a doctor would read her behavior as seductive or sexual.

So basically this all comes down to one simple thing: if you have such a weak script that fails miserably to explain the process through which two people fall in love, like for example the script of "the English patient", one needs to rely on the chemistry, appearance and acting skills of the two main characters.

If you cankot cast people who look the part, and on top of that you can't even give them the semblance of a decent script to express it, why even bother to film one scene?

Let alone a whole series.

This is a complete failure that should have been shelved and not released.

I wish someone had warned me that this cringeworthy TV show was going to be the longest, boringest four hours of my life. The characters were one dimensional, stifling and uninteresting. William by far was the worst character imaginable. The lengths he went to be close to Anna is creepy and perverted. Anna was equally uninteresting; I couldn't care less about her past by episode 2 and when I found out in episode 4, it was the most anticlimactic reveal ever to grace television. They kept hunting at it and once you found out, you were left even more bewildered as to why they thought you would find that captivating. I wouldn't recommend this show to my worst enemy.

As others have said, this story is a re-write of Damage, which was a well written novel published some decades ago, and later also filmed. I'll be honest, I didn't watch all of Obsession, or rather: fast-forwarded to the end. I wouldn't even mind it being a rip-off if it was well done, but it's not, or not to my taste anyway. The spicier scenes seem to piggy-back on Fifty Shades of Grey, which unlike Damage I'm no fan of, yet even then could've forgiven if done well, but it's all just rather lame and, at least to me, not in the least bit sexy. Lastly, the characters and their interactions feel superficial, with little depth, and if there's any chemistry I'm not feeling it.

4-episode Erotic drama series on Netflix from England, the story of "William," a successful surgeon with a perfect family life until he meets "Anna," the girlfriend of his son. They both develop a desire for each other, leading to a risky affair that ignites intense passion but also brings consequences they can't escape.

Overall, it is an Erotic genre series that is entertaining, exciting, and filled with steamy sex scenes. The actors are attractive and charming, and the characters are well-developed with plausible motivations behind their actions, unlike the shallow characters typically found in pornographic films.

It's called, 'Obsession' so it should come as no surprise that it's not really a love story instead it's a story about sexual obsession and desire. I didn't see, 'Damage' the film (itself based on a book) which inspired this but I'm sure it told the story in a very similar way.

The acting is spot on and I never doubted the characters or their needs. I felt quite angry at points because I struggle with the concept of infidelity (just leave) and those who can put aside other relationships/ care nothing about consequences/the feelings of others in order to have what they want. But I think some of feeling angry is what the writer would expect.

I've been quite shocked by the level of vitriol this series has attracted; the leads have both proved their acting chops repeatedly and I really couldn't see where the criticism of them was coming from. They both convince as people acting on want rather than sense. As for the sex scenes, they are, essentially... sexy and didn't feel false to me at all. I know some people get hung up on the intimacy coordinator's role but surely it's akin to a stunt coordinator or choreographer? I hate to think what 'Nobody' would have looked like without the former or 'Westside Story' without the latter.

Basically, if you fancy a dark tale of lust and betrayal then this will probably float your boat. If you don't then it's probably not for you!

As others have commented, this is a cheap rip-off of Damage in which Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche gave a much more competent performance. I watched for Richard Armitage who is a fine actor (his NT performance in The Crucible is spine-tingling) but this watery mish-mash, with set piece sex scenes to titillate those who thought 50 Shades was super-erotic, is beneath his talent. There is zero chemistry between the leads and if there is anything admirable in the writing and direction, it's that it makes a refreshing change for the male actor to spend more time with his kit off than the endless gratuitous female-centred nudity that is still awash in TV and movies. In summary, a moderate amount of sex, a thin plot and characters that just don't gel.

As said in the title, the main characters (William and Anna) have no chemistry. It robs every scene of any sort of tension, especially in episode one where they're meant to have an instant connection. I don't see it, and it makes the watching just painful and like they're banging after a couple bland meetings with forced physical contact shoved into them.

I don't get why they're meant to be obsessed with each other. I really don't. And given how that's the main hook of the show, the show is a failure.

Also, minor nitpick, but his wife is prettier than this girl he's meant to be obsessed with. Weird casting choice.

The original by Jeremy Irons & Juliette Binoche was an an absolute unforgettable film. 1992 It shook me to the core, the ability of two humans (damaged individuals) to disregard all norms of the society. I could feel the passion, and the obsession between the two protagonists. The tragic ending however makes us question, was it all worth it ! If you have ever experienced such desire and uncontrollable passion, one could say yes.

Total disregard of morality, family rules and tragic ending of loss of a son. I recommend those not old enough to have seen Damage to watch it and decide for yourself.