RIOTUS

“When bad things happen, it means you’re allowed to do bad things.”

The other night, a mystery-loving friend called and asked why I sounded so tense the night before. I replied, “I was watching a gritty, grimy murder mystery.” To which he replied, “Gritty and grimy?” To which I responded, “At 3AM on Jan 8, Netflix will drop a 6-episode limited series called HIS & HERS. Based on the book by Alice Feeney, it stars Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal as the ‘her’ and ‘his’ in the His & Hers. Does that sound like a psychological thriller to you?” Spoiler alert: It did.

His & Her secrets

His & Her lies

His & Her resentment

In the woods, during a storm, a woman is murdered in the rain. It’s brutal—shocking a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Anna (Thompson) is one of them, but the murder is an opportunity for her. The former news anchor had sunk into a reclusive life, but this investigation brings her back on-air and to her hometown. That’s where she crosses wits with the detective who’s her estranged husband, Jack (Bernthal). Forced back into each other’s lives, they’re chasing the same culprit, but they’re hiding things from us from the beginning, including a shared tragedy. There are too many lies, possibly deadly ones. Anna and Jack suspect each other, but not as much as Detective Priya Patel (Sunita Mani) suspects the two of them. Priya has good instincts and her own set of fatal flaws. But in this fictional small town, who isn’t questionable in their motives? 

As secrets, lies, and buried resentment unravel and trust crumbles, dementia sets in for Anna’s mother (Crystal Fox), while Jack’s irritable and irresponsible sister (Marin Ireland) can’t be trusted with her own daughter. And a cast of possible suspects comes into focus (Pablo Schreiber, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Jamie Tisdale, Poppy Liu). Only, who is guilty of what? Questions and deceptions circle the truth in this twisty psychological thriller where every story has at least two sides—and someone is always lying.

This Netflix adaptation of the 2020 novel relocates the story from the quintessentially British village of Blackdown to the cinematically southern town of Dahlonega, GA—an hour outside of Atlanta. The changes don’t end there. If you’ve read the book, this new limited series diverges enough to give you almost as many shocks as someone new to the story. And although it’s firmly built on the gripping ‘unearthed grave’ foundation of Feeney’s story, many of the series’ twists are more tightly knit, giving the motives a deeper sociological bite.

“There are at least two sides to every story. Yours and mine. Ours and theirs. His and hers. Which means someone is always lying.” Every time you hear these words, your perspective shifts, until you’re not sure who you want to survive or who you want to get kicked by karma. Nothing is what you thought it was; red herrings trip you up at every turn, but HIS & HERS plays the cards from its murder-mystery-thriller deck to win. When the truth comes out, there was no sleight of hand, just clues we failed to see in the shadows of deception. But they’d been there all along. 

Just remember, there are three themes in HIS & HERS: twisted love, vicious pettiness, and betrayed trust. The past is slowly revealed episode by episode, and by the end of the fourth, the line “be careful who you dance with” becomes the best advice and the grittiest threat—both in the present and going back to high school. Once the show gets going, the intensity is hypnotic with pacing that’s more and more magnetic.

Yet, what makes HIS & HERS work is the duo at the center of the turmoil; Thompson and Bernthal have kinetic chemistry. The bickering, the doubt, the longing. All with a sprinkling of spice. Their love is more than complicated—it’s corrosive. You get the sense Anna has acquired a taste for chaos, while Jack is both not-quite-noble and fueled by guilt or worse. 

Most of the relationships are on edge. Priya and Jack share a volatile blend of respect and distrust. Once again, the lies kill. Anna’s news anchor rival, Lexi ( Rittenhouse), is a petty little princess, but Lexi might not be ready to go toe-to-toe with Anna. Guess we’ll have to ask her husband (Schreiber) to be sure. The only relationships that aren’t contentious are how caring Jack and Anna are with her mother, Alice (Fox).

You’ll think episode 5 tells you every secret. You’re wrong. The tensions are a slow burn; you smell smoke, and you’ll see flames, before the mystery and thrills ignite. Then the last episode is wildfire. If you get into HIS & HERS, you’re not coming out until everything you thought you knew burns to ash.