I watched Netflix’s most-watched series and its ending left me stunned

A woman lies bleeding on the hood of a car, deep in the woods, in her final spasms. Another woman arrives home trembling with fear and begins manically cleaning the apartment of, well, everything. When I started watching His & Hers, it immediately became clear to me that this would be a textbook case of hate watching, a phenomenon my sharp-tongued colleague recently wrote about. Namely, it refers to watching a series or film solely to experience it through to the end, or rather to convince oneself of just how bad it is. This is literally that kind of series. It is not watched only for the story, characters, or suspense, but for real-time commentary, shared disbelief, and merciless dissection once the end credits roll. From this stems the contradictory fact that the internet is currently obsessed with the series. It is number one on Netflix by viewership, while professional reviews are at the same time overwhelmingly negative. So what is it actually about?

His & Hers, based on the acclaimed novel by Alice Feeney and adapted for television by William Oldroyd, is a tense mystery psychological thriller filled with murders, secrets, and lies. Read between the lines: a variation on a theme we have seen countless times before. At the center of the story is an Atlanta journalist, Anna (Tessa Thompson), who is trying to return to her career by covering a shocking murder case in her hometown, as well as the impulsive detective Jack (Jon Bernthal), who leads the entire investigation. Soon, however, we realize that these two fierce adversaries are in fact estranged spouses, and that they are connected to the murder case itself in ways that are both predictable and unpredictable. “There are two sides to every story, which means someone is always lying,” says the narrator. It sounds great, although it is not actually true, and it can easily lead you down the wrong path.

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His & Hers is a story about human suffering, about events we wish we could forget, about attempts to forgive ourselves after we hurt others, and about what anger can do when it is carefully nurtured and consciously used. Society pressures us to move on after terrible events, and while many manage to do so, others choose a different path. And that anger, in the end, can be a powerful motivator for various ideas and actions.

Accordingly, alongside unspeakable grief, the central motive of the series is revenge. Almost all of the characters are poisoned by this emotional intoxicant: Anna as she enters an affair with the husband of her rival, Richard; Jack in an attack on his lover Rachel, who is also the victim from the beginning of this story; his sister Zoe, an alcoholic who despises her childhood peers; and by the very end of the series, it will turn out, many other characters as well. No, I will not spoil that bizarre epilogue. In any case, the list of potential suspects for the crime continues to grow, including Rachel’s husband Clyde, especially since the victim committed far more malice against all of them than we could have imagined, giving everyone a possible motive.

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With its six episodes, the series contains all the elements of a crime story made for one-night bingeing: gruesome murders, personal relationships, a tense and tragic past, scandalous affairs, and passionate chemistry. Yet none of these elements are ever extreme, original, or entertaining enough to rival, for example, The Hunting Wives. Although Thompson and Bernthal are impressive in their roles, the plot is riddled with absurd twists. The problem lies in the fact that William Oldroyd, a director who built his reputation with acclaimed psychological thrillers like Lady Macbeth and Eileen, never fully decides how seriously he wants to approach the story he is telling. Sometimes ironic, sometimes earnest, the series ultimately fails both as a self-aware black comedy and as a moving exploration of traumatic experiences, which prevents viewers from developing empathy with any of the characters.

A major issue is that the main characters do not function as real people. Their behavior and actions are too distorted in relation to the circumstances. It is not that they are flawed, human characters making bad choices. Rather, the interesting and complex aspects of their personalities are not sufficiently explored, making their stories feel incomplete. Narrative inconsistencies render them fragile and unconvincing, sharply contrasting with the show’s dark themes as it desperately tries to comment on social issues such as the lasting impact of bullying, sexual abuse, peer pressure, and class differences. Each twist only creates new plot holes and shapes scenes that later make little sense in retrospect.

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Finally, in an attempt to avoid a predictable ending and not become the kind of thriller it initially appears to be, the finale suddenly turns shocking, but not wow shocking. The message that the person who seems completely irrelevant and overlooked in the story may be crucial is clearly hinted at, but in an overly forced, dramatic way that casts even the series’ brightest moments into the shadow of a bitter soap-opera aftertaste.