Words like “ferocious,” “carnal,” and “shocking,” might be descriptors one could use to describe a truly great crime thriller, but they’re not necessarily go-tos. When it comes to Netflix’s 2025 limited series The Beast in Me, they’re the only ones that truly make sense — and all in a complimentary way of the highest order. Starring Claire Danes, Matthew Rhys, Brittany Snow, Natalie Morales, and Jonathan Banks in what amounts to a truly dynamic cast, this miniseries manages to remind us of what the “thrill” in “crime thriller” is meant to feel like, then pushes it to its outer limits.
‘The Beast in Me’ Is a Savagely Perfect Watch
The Beast in Me follows Agatha “Aggie” Wiggs (Danes), a writer who is mourning the death of her young son and subsequent split from her wife (Morales), when an affluent couple moves into a neighboring property. As the official log line reads:
“[Aggie] has receded from public life, unable to write, a ghost of her former self. But she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Jarvis (Matthew Rhys), a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance. At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth – chasing his demons while fleeing her own – in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly.”
Anyone vaguely familiar with the groundbreaking docuseries The Jinx or the name Robert Durst will immediately recognize the parallels between Durst and Nile Jarvis. The former, who died in 2022 while awaiting sentencing for the murder of his friend Susan Berman, was suspected of killing his first wife, Kathleen McCormack, and had already been acquitted of the death and dismemberment of his one-time neighbor, Morris Black. The Beast in Me draws obvious inspiration from the technically unsolved disappearance of the real-life McCormack in whether the fictive Niles, a real estate tycoon, is involved in the death of his own first wife.
Though the allusions are plainly visible, this isn’t a Durst biopic (besides, one of those already exists, more or less). And thank our lucky stars for that, because The Beast in Me takes the conceit of it, runs with it, expands it, and makes it compelling to a fault.
‘The Beast in Me’ Is a Perfectly Savage Watch
Rhys (The Americans, Perry Mason) is at his most savage in The Beast in Me, in yet another career-defining performance. One minute, his Nile is charming (even if he’s still a touch sinister); the next, he’s all drawn, taut lips, revealing his bared, gnashing teeth, like an animal confined to a human body against its will. A scene where he devours a rotisserie chicken while looming over a kitchen sink with his bare hands, sinews and all, tearing it limb from limb and forcefully throwing discarded parts in a pile, is full of tension and terror as any moment in Silence of the Lambs. There’s no doubt that there’s something dreadfully, deeply troubling about Nile, but his visceral charisma is hard to resist; it’s a gravity-pulling black hole that Aggie, as a writer, can’t help but be drawn to with her millionaire neighbor and possible murderer as her subject.
Rhys isn’t the only one who delivers on-screen. Danes throws herself headlong into the role of Aggie, her pain and bereavement as exposed as a raw nerve. The physicality she brings to the role is a constant reminder of her source of deep, psychic anguish over her unspeakable losses. But even so, Aggie is no wounded fawn; her ability to go head-to-head with Nile in determining his guilt or innocence in the death of his first wife almost belies her overwhelming grief, cluing the viewer in to the fact that, while Aggie exists in a world far different from Nile’s amorality-dictated universe, she’s wholly unafraid from immersing herself in it for the sake of willing the truth out, even to the point where her own stripe of savagery is at risk of being exposed.
This dynamic is what makes The Beast in Me one of the best crime suspense miniseries in recent memory — and a delightfully hair-raising, feral viewing experience. Its unforgettable ending will haunt you longer than any ghost your imagination would dare to drum up.
- Release Date
-
2025 – 2025-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Directors
-
Tyne Rafaeli, Antonio Campos, Lila Neugebauer
- Writers
-
C.A. Johnson, Gabe Rotter, Ali Liebegott, Daniel Pearle, Erika Sheffer, Howard Gordon, Mike Skerrett
