In short, Fatal Attraction is a remake where the game is worth the candle, one that honors the anxieties that animate the original while jettisoning its thriller approach in favor of something both more expansive and more humane. And unlike the original, the story does not end when the monster is destroyed and the status quo is restored so that everyone can live happily ever after; the damage lives on, and another monster may have been born in the bargain. Filled with memorable performances from terrific actors, it’s one of the best-written shows of the year. Let’s hope it’s one of the best-written shows of next year thanks to a second-season renewal, too. It’s earned one.

I reviewed the season finale of Fatal Attraction for Decider.

Two words come to mind when describing Episode 7 of Fatal Attraction: emotional abattoir. That’s the environment Alex Forrest grew up in, as we learn in the series of flashbacks that give this episode its spine. And the moment I realized that’s where this was headed, that the kid we were watching play mini-golf in the opening scene while her father ignored her to flirt with another woman was Alex, I could feel my whole body tense. I knew we were about to examine the family dynamic that made her into what she eventually became, I knew it would be horrific, and I was right.

I reviewed the penultimate episode of Fatal Attraction‘s (hopefully) first season for Decider.

But the show’s sophistication is present in more than how its characters talk to one another — it’s in why they talk to certain people the way they do. On a show like Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof’s Mrs. Davis, the main character’s occupation as a nun, as clergy for the Roman Catholic Church, is treated as a quirky detail, an excuse for running around having wacky adventures in a fun costume, and the setup for an admittedly very surprising and funny twist — but that’s it. The fact that being a part of the structure of a specific religion has a specific political valence goes completely unremarked upon.

Not so here. Much to my surprise and delight, much of this episode of Fatal Attraction (“The Dillingers”) explores how poorly people treat Dan and Mike in the present, not because they’re a disgraced ex-DA and ex-cop respectively, but because they were ever a DA and a cop at all. These are political jobs, and politics have real-world consequences on real people’s lives, and people justifiably hate them for that, and Dan and Mike are not excepted simply because they’re the main characters, or because they’re played by actors we like. 

I reviewed this week’s episode of Fatal Attraction, which is very good, for Decider.

I bring all this up not to suggest that Dan is, like, a really terrible guy or anything. (It was always weird when people acted like Don Draper’s infidelity was somehow on par with Walter White killing loads of people on the “I Hate This Antihero” scale.) I bring it up to point out that the real attraction of Fatal Attraction isn’t how it does or doesn’t mirror the dynamics and major moments of the movie, but the dialogue the show serves its participants. Writers Kevin J. Hynes, Tandace Khorrami, and James Dearden, *LOWERS SHADES TO LOOK YOU DEAD IN THE EYE* who like all union writers should be paid and treated fairly by the Hollywood studios by the way, continue the show’s tradition of simply giving Amanda Peet, Toby Huss, Joshua Jackson, Lizzy Caplan, and Alyssa Jirrels interesting things to say and interesting ways of saying them.

I reviewed the most recent episode of Fatal Attraction for Decider.

So yeah, I’m still in on what Fatal Attraction is doing. It’s not the stylish, sexy, nasty, almost expressionistic exploration of male desire, insecurity, and guilt that the movie was, but it doesn’t want to be, and I won’t hold that against it — not when it’s providing so many simple pleasures in exchange.

I reviewed this week’s episode of Fatal Attraction for Decider.

Which leads us back to the bulk of the episode, in which we see the formation of the affair from Alex’s perspective. The most interesting thing about this is that while it presents Alex as more instantly deranged about things than it initially appeared, it also fleshes her out as a human being, with her own likes and dislikes, fears and hangups, friends and colleagues — a life, in other words. It’s just not a very good one.

Alex’s therapist from out of state unceremoniously breaks up with her over the phone, ostensibly because she’s not licensed to practice in California but also, by the tone of it, because she’s tired of dealing with Alex. Paul, the doctor from across the hall, tries to slam the breaks on whatever they had going on; Alex responds by unsubtly threatening to call the cops on him over his extracurricular pill-peddling. She recounts trying and failing to get closer to her dad by getting really into his favorite Civil War movie, to the point of memorizing the real and moving letter from a soldier that closes the film. You get the feeling this is the story of Alex’s life: She gets intensely close to people, inevitably alienating them, then turns against them on a dime when they fail to live up to her expectations. (This is literally textbook borderline personality disorder stuff, by the way.)

I reviewed the third episode of Fatal Attraction for Decider.

But it does raise the question: Where do we go from here? If we’re going off the movie as a template, the sexual affair between Dan and Alex is now over, nearly as soon as it began — within the same episode, at least. Her suicidal gesture — she pretends to ingest every pill she has after he tries to leave, not admitting to the ruse until he drives her all the way to the hospital and warns her that she will lose her job if authorities determine she’s suicidal — marks the end of this being a casual, easy thing for either of them, and the beginning of the spiraling obsession that will destroy their lives.What do you think? Post a comment.

The thing is, the show has eight hours of screentime to fill instead of just two. Rushing through the affair made sense in the film: Dan and Alex’s sexual relationship was limited to a 48-hour whirlwind they both knowingly entered into because his wife was out of town, and which he planned to end upon his wife’s return; his literally fatal error was in assuming Alex planned the same thing. The show has already extended the timeframe of the affair, adding two other nights of passion to that initial lost weekend. Moreover, Dan is a much more active agent in the affair’s progression — following Alex to the roof, having her assigned to one of his cases, going back to her place after she interrupts his dinner with Mike. 

If I had the kind of time on my hands that the filmmakers do, I might have expanded the affair’s screentime to match. In addition to further cementing the complicity of both participants in creating the idea in Alex’s head that this isn’t just some limited-time-only fling, this would give the show the chance to develop and intensify the characters’ sexual relationship before bringing the hammer down on it after another episode, perhaps. In other words, the show could stay hotter for longer, and I, for one, like my erotic thrillers erotic.

I reviewed the second episode of Fatal Attraction for Decider.

Let’s get it out of the way quickly: Fatal Attraction is not the kind of show that Alice Birch and Rachel Weisz’s Dead Ringers is. I mean, why would it be? Despite their proximity in the broader erotic-thriller genre, Fatal Attraction is not the kind of movie David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers is either. That said, it’s a much more interesting looking, interesting sounded, interestingly acted and written movie than it needed to be to become a titillating hit; Lyne’s use of silence, shadow, and silhouette in particular is notable without being overtly neo-noirish. Go watch it if you haven’t in a while, it’s worth your time.

I’d say the same about Fatal Attraction the TV show, based on this episode. The simplest way to put it is that if you want to watch telegenic actors like Joshua Jackson, Lizzy Caplan, Toby Huss, and Amanda Peet have a good time talking to each other the way grown-ups actually talk while being crisply filmed and scored, Fatal Attraction is a show for you. 

I reviewed the series premiere of Fatal Attraction for Decider.