BODIES

Streaming on Netflix and based on the graphic novel by Si Spencer, BODIES grabbed me with its wild premise. It took me a while to connect with it, but once I did, I enjoyed this one a lot.

1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053: What these years have in common is a nude figure of a man suddenly appeared in the same alley of London, resulting in police investigations. The ensuing mystery exposes a bizarre time loop that appears destined to repeat forever, unless the police investigators all find a way to work together…

Like I said, it’s a terrific premise. The only catch is it took me a while to connect with the characters, and the mystery itself, so tantalizing in the trailer, didn’t translate with the same powerful impact once I started watching the show. Over time, though, the show hit its stride and swept me along to a surprisingly intense, emotional, and satisfying if very tidy finish, though the final denouement appeared to have been put there to ask for a second season. There are a lot of things along the way that didn’t quite make sense or didn’t add up, but they’re easy enough to overlook if you get invested in the story as I did.

One of the things about the show that resulted in it being harder to grab me is it deals with a time loop, specifically the bootstrap paradox. This paradox might look something like this: An old person knocks on your door and hands you a book titled, HOW TO TIME TRAVEL. You use the book to build a time machine and, once you’re old, you go back in time to give yourself the book so you can do it. BODIES deals with such a time loop, and I felt like I’d seen it before in the brilliant German production DARK, though the graphic novel’s publication appears to have preceded the show.

Anyway, I found BODIES a lot of fun once it hit its stride.