Another Netflix series, but this time noticeably better than "Firefly Lane". Like the above mentioned, it is also an adaptation of the book. This time it's an erotic thriller by Sarah Pinborough, which is similar in some ways to "Gone Girl". "Behind Her Eyes" was recommended to me some time ago by my friend Paulina. After the initial reading of the plot, I found that I would watch it with my girlfriend. We like it, I can also recommend it without any problems, although I have seen better series than Netflix.
The plot tells about the relationship of the three heroes - David, his wife Adele and Louise. Dr. David is a promising psychiatrist who got a job at Dr. Sharm's prestigious psychiatric office. The day before the beginning of a new stage in his career, he meets Louise with whom he quickly grasps a thread of understanding. The next day, it turns out that the woman is working as his secretary, and the accidental relationship develops to the level of a romance. It will prove to be a nuisance for both sides in the near future. In the case of David it is obvious, the man is married to an extremely problematic woman suffering from various mental problems. Louise, on the other hand, is a divorced woman, raising her son on a daily basis, trying to deal with her own problems. These deepen with the developing romance and closer contacts with unaware Adele. Additionally, as is usually the case with humans, although many of us see the consequences of, so to speak, controversial choices from the outset, we are often drawn to them, like an insect to a lamp that will kill him. We, due to the fact that we have the mind and the ability to think, try to add some justification to it, but in the end we also do it badly. Louise initially wanted to be honest with herself and Adele, but her feminine needs and the fact that she still does it (i.e. is honest, seeing that selfish people have fun) win the battle with reason. At this point I am putting the dot as any spoilers are just as damaging as in the case of "Gone Girl". Better to discover this plot yourself.
The series initially develops quite lazily. The creators unhurriedly expose the characters' characters, presenting their behaviors and personalities in quite long, sometimes too boring sequences. We get too much exposure, and some information is repeated several times so that we do not accidentally forget about it. It is tiring because we saw many of these things at the beginning. David and Adele are very well-off to Louise. Adele has numerous problems, and she and her husband have a secret or secrets that they would prefer not to mention. Louise has a problem, like many single mothers - she lacks male help in everyday matters, support, tenderness and closeness to the opposite sex. He is clearly throwing himself from wall to wall, wanting stability on the one hand, and intense youthful romance and satisfying his sexual needs on the other. These are not uncommon problems, I suspect many of you have either encountered it directly or you know someone who has similar difficulties. Hence, I am surprised that the creators devoted so much time to it. I would understand it if the characters were extremely complicated, or ambiguous in their actions. In such a situation it would be justified, because while many creations do not need to be devoted too much time, some personas have quite a rich personality. Or one that lives in an erratic way, and their behavior is mutually exclusive. Fortunately, this mostly bothers us at the beginning of the show, because things get noticeably better after that (although there are also unnecessary or excessively elongated scenes, like Adele's flashbacks from when she lived in a facility separate from people).
As for the characters, "Behind Her Eyes" belongs to the category in which we don't like any of the important characters. The side characters aroused my sympathy. Maybe not the whole thing, but they were nice, and even very much compared to the three. Louise's ex-husband, her friend, her colleague from work, even Dr. Sharm also made quite a nice impression, even though he was rarely seen on the screen. The three main characters, despite several justifications explaining their behavior and a few positive features, mainly display negative ones. They're not bad guys (with one exception, but talking about him in detail is a powerful spoiler). They are just humanly gray in terms of morality. In fact, there are few people in the world to whom we can attribute dominant good or bad qualities. For this you need to be a special type of person or have a lot of strong experiences (happy or sad, depending on whether they are good / bad). Most of us are actually gray - we make mistakes, but we try to fix them. Sometimes we are driven by cynicism, sometimes altruism, sometimes we lie, sometimes we tell the truth, you can say that. I do not mind such a narrative, I even like it. I am not a fan of it, because I treat expressions of culture and art, i.e. series, books, games, etc. as a springboard from the real world, but sometimes I like to watch something that dulls people. Neither idealizes them nor demonizes them. That's why I like "The Witcher" so much for the fact that Sapkowski very consistently and clearly shows both sides of the coin in various aspects of life, and "Dark" for what I wrote before the previous sentence, as Adam said - "Each of us is a bit guilty and there are no people without blame. ". Adele, David and Louise, each character at least once fuck off a situation after which they deserved a hard blow from an open hand to wake up. Most of us either made a similar mistake or saw it with our own eyes. Perhaps I would have liked them as real people if I had known them longer and better, had a fuller insight into their personalities and behaviors. However, I was not able to like them as heroes even though they played quite well and convincingly. I knew them too little, and the effects of their actions were too annoying.
An interesting feature is the topic of lucid dreaming and the OOBE (Out of body experience) effect. I have checked it on myself many times, it works and it is possible to do. Some say everyone can achieve it, but I met a few people who allegedly tried several months (which I am inclined to believe sounded pretty convincing) but ultimately failed. It is certainly easier for people who have experienced sleep paralysis. At least that's what I read before I learned it. If this state is then mastered, one can move on to the stage of lucid dreaming. For me it looked as if I was moving inside myself, it is difficult to put into words. It felt as if it was a sort of "loading" screen of an old console game. I had such a dream many times, it lasted 10-20 minutes, and I was free to create the reality. Unfortunately, it cannot be dragged on for too long and too much impulse causes us to wake up immediately. My 1 lucid dream was to imagine that I am some kind of Superman and I am falling to Earth with some meteorite bits. I felt the chill of the cosmos, the warmth as I flew through the layers of the atmosphere, and then the wind on my body. At one point, I remembered that I was too close to the ground, and I didn't know how to brake. Unfortunately, it was too close, I hit the ground and woke up. As for OOBE, I have had this experience several times, but unlike LD, I have only experienced it intensively once. Usually these were only short, maximum one minute cases. It is true, a person then sees the environment that he knows well (a little worse himself, because for obvious reasons, we rarely see what we currently look like), he can observe them in any way, but cannot directly interfere with them. It is surprising how many details our brain remembers, not only about objects, but also about people's behavior.
We see both of these in the show, although the OOBE effect is false. Ie. up to a point everything is ok. In order not to suggest (by the way, quite an ingenious intrigue, a great idea, but a bit worse with the implementation), I will keep this paragraph to a minimum, writing carefully enough at the same time. You can even go outside your home (although it requires additional training, but we are less in the yard, especially nowadays), but there is no option to interact with other people. Ie. otherwise, we can contact them, but it will only be a figment of our imaginations based on what information our brain has. It is not possible to contact the "souls" of other people, or any other activities that go beyond our body. The series is a bit of a fantasy in this respect, but to be honest, I liked it. It is true that this solution was "a bit" surprising, but I am open to paranormal elements in the works of culture, so it did not bother me.
To sum up, I liked the series in general and I can safely rate it on 7/10, maybe even 7.5 / 10. The time investment is not very large, it is an interesting story in not bad shape with a not stupid moral. He has a few flaws, but I like the topics he touches on and I think he presented them quite well. This is not the "House of Cards" or "Dark" level, but also noticeably deviates from Netflix mediocrity. Contrary to average people, he can get something out of this entertainment, he is not an ordinary time clog. It can be viewed both separately and with our other half. The sex scenes do not look like they have been forcibly added, as it sometimes does on Netflix series. I can even say that they were filmed quite well, so it wasn't porn, but rather erotic. Overall, I moderately recommend this series.