‘The Beast in Me’: A Searing Claire Danes Brings Powerful Emotional Weight To Netflix’s Compulsively Watchable Thriller

Alci Rengifo

Netflix’s limited series “The Beast in Me” is the latest example of old formulas still working like fine aged wines. Read the plot and it sounds like a scenario that has been tried to death by nearly every streamer. There is a would-be sleuth and mysterious rich man who is potentially a murderer. Elite family secrets abound. Don’t forget the scruffy detective with a messy personal life. Creator Gabe Rotter and co-showrunner Howard Gordon refresh these elements with a thriller that is engaging on its human level as much as in the expected twists. Vastly important is the choice of Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys to be at the forefront of this story.

Danes is Aggie, an author renowned for her profiles who hasn’t published anything notable since 2018. She lives alone in a house in Oyster Bay, New York, surrounded by woods and loneliness. The writer has not recovered emotionally from the death of her son in a car accident, an act for which the guilty party never faced justice. Aggie’s marriage to Shelley (Natalie Morales) also did not survive the tragedy. Her editor is eagerly awaiting a new book Aggie is meant to be working on about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. She has no pages to show, despite the book having ignited a bidding war five years ago. Then, Nile Jarvis (Rhys), a billionaire real estate scion famous for the disappearance of his first wife, moves into the neighborhood. When Aggie refuses to agree to Jarvis’ proposed plan for a jogging path easement in the nearby woods, he proposes they have a sit down. Lunch results in a bold proposal from Jarvis. He suggests Aggie dump her current project and write a book about him. She can return to prominence and his image can be presented truthfully.

Of course, viewers know that if the pitch from Jarvis were so simple, then there would be no reason for this limited series to run at eight episodes. Rotter and Gordon are both veterans of “The X-Files,” in another testament of the talents that show helped foster (“Breaking Bad” and now “Pluribus” creator Vince Gilligan is also an alumni). What they carry on from their past work into this series is a keen sense of how characters can matter much more than action. Aggie is a great lead, played by Danes with such sincere pain and the weight of a terrible trauma. If anyone mentions her son she will easily shut it down. In a sense her pain also makes her slightly vulnerable when she opens up to Jarvis, describing the frustration of her life falling apart and the young man most likely responsible for her son’s death is free. There is no consolation when he appears at her son’s grave she only sees such an act as an affront. Danes pushes clichés aside and makes Aggie into a flesh and blood character we care for. Shelley clearly still cares for Aggie, but it would be nearly impossible to mend what has been broken. 

The first twist to pull us in finds Aggie learning the day after meeting Jarvis that the man responsible for her son’s death may have committed suicide. Did Jarvis do her a favor? Maybe it’s a Faustian down payment for her book? Or, did the author herself finally go out and seek revenge? These questions will hover over proceeding events, as Aggie agrees to do the book and gradually enters Jarvis’ enclosed world. She is not doing it completely alone and connects with Brian Abbott (David Lyons), a disgruntled FBI agent who drunkenly stumbles to her door one night with a dire warning to stay away from Jarvis. Brian’s own personal life is distracted by an affair with colleague Erika Breton (a standout and moving Hettienne Park). It’s indeed another typical feature in this kind of story, but Brian and Erika are given genuine emotional weight and their conversations feel real.

Matthew Rhys has always been good at building an intelligently ominous presence. His performance as Ted Bundy in the overlooked “No Man of God” showed off his impressive range. In “The Beast in Me,” he brings the same sense of dimension to another TV billionaire fuming over a massive development project he’s facing pushback over. He also makes the character purposefully hard to read when sharing colorful or painful childhood memories with Aggie. Fully matching him, to the point of threatening to steal the show, is Jonathan Banks as Martin Jarvis, Nile’s domineering father. Banks’ career has been so defined by his level-headed, no nonsense henchman from “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” that he just has to transfer the same energy into Martin. This is Mike Ehrmantrout if he had lived to become a less caring, far richer tycoon. He looks at his son with a ferocious calm when warning that this book project with Aggie is not a good idea. Brittany Snow as Niles Jarvis’ wife, Nina, deserves credit for standing out amid these guys, as the picture perfect partner with a husband who can never truly open up to her.

As the plot carries on with questions about murder, real estate intrigue and political maneuverings, “The Beast in Me” stays engaging through the standoff between Aggie and Jarvis. Their relationship develops out of how both recognize a bit of each other in themselves. During that first lunch Jarvis almost delights in telling Aggie she has a clear bloodlust when describing the aftermath of her son’s death. The author is then in a situation where she may have found the perfect story for her next book, even if it could involve her with potentially fatal consequences. And yes, once again we have here a critique of the American upper classes and all their dirty laundry. Yet, it’s a timeless subject until the day when full equality is established, meaning we will always crave this kind of drama. “The Beast in Me” is a good mystery propelled by excellent actors and seductively dark implications.

“The Beast in Me” begins streaming Nov. 13 on Netflix.