Bodies; The Burning Girls

Bodies, Netflix

“There has been a lot of TV time-travel lately. Jamie Bell was a time-travelling serial killer in the eerie Apple series Shining Girls; Paapa Essiedu went six months back in time in The Lazarus Project, and Peter Capaldi jumped around the years in Prime’s The Devil’s Hour. It was high time Netflix came for its slice of the quantum physical pie, and Bodies is more than able to keep up with the pack.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“The fact that Bodies is “out there” needn’t be a bad thing, either – most fantasy from the Lord of the Rings onwards is hokum if you stop to think about it. Indeed, it’s often the not-stopping to think that’s a large part of the fun. The problem with Bodies is that it is anti-fun: it takes itself as seriously as a judge in a wig. There’s nary a wink to camera nor a funny line to be had across the whole eight hours. If earnestness is a sure sign of a slow mind, as Nietzsche said, then Bodies isn’t half as smart as it thinks it is.”
Benji Wilson, Telegraph

“If you’re fed up with contemplative, self-aggrandising TV in which nothing happens, you’ll love Bodies. There’s so much plot and so many storylines to wrap your head around that there’s no time to question the whys and wheres. And yet, the central mystery ⁠-⁠ who on Earth is the dead guy and why is he in four separate timelines? ⁠- somehow stays compelling for the entire series.”
Emily Baker, The i

“It’s all very – well, atmospheric is the word if you like that sort of thing, and dull is the word if you don’t. A lot is evoked – then evoked again – but the clues and twists and mini-revelations before the big ones come more slowly than in the book, which moved along at a fair old clip. But it looks good, moves itself and us confidently through its paces and it’s got Jane Lapotaire as a sooth-speaking old lady sitting like a spider at the centre of Chapel Croft’s web of intrigue. You can stay for her alone. Solid, spooky, sanguinary fare. Buy shares in bloodied nightgowns.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“This series is high on foreboding atmosphere but low on subtlety. No folk-horror trope is left un-flogged. Crows caw. Candles flicker. Dead rabbits and birds become a recurring motif. A vampiric church warden (David Dawson) keeps creeping up on people and making them jump. The local landowner (Rupert Graves on dastardly form) scowls and snarls. A young girl appears in the graveyard, covered in pig’s blood like Carrie on a rural minibreak.”
Michael Hogan, Telegraph