Scream Stream 2023: Bodies

In 2023 London, Detective Sargent Hasan (Amaka Okafor) a Muslim officer, while chasing a suspect with a gun comes across a naked corpse in Longharvest Lane with a bullet hole to one eye. After tracking down the suspect with the gun, the 17-year-old shoots himself in the head right after saying, “Know you are loved”. In 1941, Detective Whiteman (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd), is a Jewish cop being investigated as possibly being corrupt, which he is.  Taking a call from a mysterious woman who instructs him to take a car to Longharvest Lane to pick up and bring a body to her, every conversation with her ends with, “Know you are loved”. As he is transporting the body in the trunk of the car, he is caught by a fellow police officer. He only escapes when a German air raid of London kills the cop following him. Whiteman is then put in charge of the investigation.  In 1890, Detective Hillinghead, a closeted gay man, is called in to a rookery on Longharvest Lane to investigate a body, where he meets a photographer who took photos of the corpse.  When asking Ashe for proof of his alibi, he discovers that Ashe is also gay and was photographed with another man.  This prompts Hillinghead to arrest Ashe.  In all three eras, the body is exactly the same, each body appeared just after a power surge, a strange marking on one wrist and shot through the eye, but with no remnants of a bullet and no exit wound. The episode ends In 2053, a dystopian London ruled by a tyrant, Detective Constable Maplewood again finds the same body as her predecessors in Longharvest Lane, but in this case, there is something very different about it.

Bodies is based on a DC Vertigo comic and graphic novel of the same name, written by Si Spencer and illustrated by Dean Ormston, Tula Lotay, Meghan Hetrick and Phil Winslade. It isn’t often when a show comes along the combines two of my favorite genres, science fiction and murder mysteries. This combination can sometimes be hit or miss, but Bodies knocks it out of the ballpark, at least from what I could tell of the pilot episode. The characters are rich and interesting.  All the main detectives live in a society where they are a minority and often face bias if not outright hatred. The storyline is intriguing, and the mystery is fascinating. There are layers that need to be unraveled and conspiracies afoot. The script is very well written with some great dialogue.  The expositional information is handled excellently, giving the audience enough information to understand the characters but not enough for it to feel forced.

The cast is amazing. Non-verbal communication is extremely important in expressing intent and telling a story, and it is the subtle looks an actor gives that can speak so much more than any line of dialogue. All of the actors master this art wonderfully.  Amaka Okafor is wonderful as the tough, but kind single mother, whose work life and home life often conflict. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd is just smarmy enough to be the bad cop of the group, but is he really bad? And Kyle Soller, says so much with his eyes, it is amazing how much information can be conveyed with a single look.  His quite kind nature, which sets him apart from the other officers in 1890 shows a man of intelligence and yet he is conflicted by his own desires. The first episode definitely hooked me and I can’t wait to watch all eight of the episodes which Netflix began streaming on October 19^th, 2023.