Based on a 2014 graphic novel published by DC Vertigo, Bodies has the type of intriguing high-concept premise that feels like it almost must have been written for the express purpose of being adapted into a Netflix limited series. At least, the Netflix limited series adaptation of it sure gives that impression. Some cursory research into the source comic suggests that the original story may have been more complex the first time around.

That’s not to say that the TV version of Bodies is a bad show. I enjoyed watching it, for the most part. I also want to be clear that I haven’t read the comic by author Si Spencer yet. However, the eight-episode series is often frustrating and not entirely satisfying. Watching it prompted me to look up reviews of the comic (some favorable, some not) describing story details that, if nothing else, sound a bit more ambitious than what Netflix has given us.

Title:	Bodies
Season:	1
Number of Episodes:	8
Release Date:	Oct. 19, 2023
Watched On:	Netflix

In present day London, police detective Shahara Hasan (Amaka Okafor) discovers a naked body lying in an alley, dead from what appears to be a gunshot wound through one eye. Her investigation turns up no identification for the victim, no evidence of how he was killed (no bullet is ever located) or by whom, nor even any clear explanation for how the body got to the alley in the first place. One moment it wasn’t there, the next moment it was, as if it materialized out of thin air.

What Hasan doesn’t realize at first is that other detectives have already investigated this case, and will again. Not just similar crimes perpetrated in the same manner, but literally this exact same body has appeared in the exact same spot before. In Victorian era 1890, Detective Inspector Alfred Hillinghead (Kyle Soller from Andor) was the first to find it. Later, during the height of the Nazi Blitz on London in 1941, Detective Sergeant Charles Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) came across it as well. In the opposite direction, it will manifest again in the future year 2053, for Detective Constable Iris Maplewood (Shira Haas). Four time periods, four detectives, one body – the same case recurring decades apart, each detective initially unaware of its connection to the others.

That’s a fascinating set-up for the story. I just wish the show executed it a bit better. What little I’ve heard of the comic informs me that each time period was drawn by a different artist in a different style, told in the form of a different genre. The TV adaptation doesn’t particularly attempt anything like that. The first episode, which focuses mainly on the earliest three periods, didn’t really grab me. The second episode then presents the future in rather cheesy terms. This is the type of show that signifies the setting as “futuristic” by putting extraneous neon tube lighting around everything and showing holograms pop up all over the place – because people in the future are apparently going to be obsessed with neon and holograms.

Each detective has a primary defining trait by which they face discrimination in their respective times: Hasan is Muslim, Hillinghead is gay, Whiteman is a Jew, and Maplewood has a very unflattering haircut. (I joke; she also has some sort of ill-defined genetic defect that would leave her crippled if she didn’t wear a cybernetic attachment to her spine.) Unfortunately, the show doesn’t put much effort into developing that theme in any meaningful way. How are these characters connected? Why must they, specifically, be the ones to discover the body?

By the mid-point of the season, I’d become convinced that the earliest two timelines were superfluous and that the show couldn’t possibly resolve the greater mystery satisfactorily. By the end, the plot actually does pull together better than I expected and the finale delivers a surprisingly emotional climax. Nevertheless, the logic of its time travel aspect doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny and I could poke a million holes in it without much effort – especially as it pertains to the antagonist’s motives. The show also drops a pretty big plot twist near the end regarding the way time travel works in more than one direction, and then fails to think through the implications of that or do anything interesting with it.

Video Streaming

Netflix streams Bodies in 4K HDR. Episodes are presented at an aspect ratio of 2.39:1, except for the opening credits, which are full-screen 16:9 for some reason. For the tiny niche of Constant Image Height viewers like myself, I found that the credits are safe to be cropped to the same ratio as the rest of the show via electronic blanking. Even after masking off the top and bottom, all credit text remains safely legible in the center portion of the frame, and the imagery lost isn’t terribly essential.

Also of annoyance to CIH viewers, a handful of scenes across the season have foreign-language dialogue with subtitles that dip into the lower letterbox bar. Thankfully, although clipped, enough of the text stays within the active image to be just barely readable on a CIH screen.

Beyond the costumes and production design, the only attempt the show makes to distinguish the various time periods via photography is to make the image progressively softer and grainier the further back in time the story goes. However, it looks to me like the whole thing was shot digitally with a “film-look” filter applied, and all the grain is artificial. As a British production, some scenes also have a slightly smeary, video-ish appearance like they may have been shot at 50 Hz frame rate. Contrast is shallow and colors kind of dull, but I can believe those at least were intentional stylistic decisions.

The musical score by John Opstad is broad and expansive. Surround usage is otherwise subtle for the most part, though I noted the sound of planes overheard during the Blitz bombing scenes, and the Dolby Atmos soundtrack gets very aggressive in all directions for a moment when we finally get to see the “Throat” in action. (That reference will make more sense after you’ve watched the show.)