His & Hers ★****★★½

Intermittently in this murder-mystery, Tessa Thompson’s Anna Andrews delivers solemn, narration. “The most dangerous thing we do is lie to others,” she notes, pausing for maximum effect before adding, “and ourselves”. These contemplations, expertly laced with regretful menace, are a smokescreen, as are the nuanced performances of Thompson and co-star Jon Bernthal.

His & Hers is Prestige Trash – juicy, ludicrous, and not especially airtight. I had a good time with this limited series, but it is righteously unhinged.

Tessa Thompson stars in His & HersCredit: Eli Joshua Ade/Netflix

Moving the rural town setting from England to Georgia in the American south, this adaptation of Alice Feeney’s 2020 novel intermingles mysteries. How does a mother recover from an unimaginable loss? What truly breaks a marriage? Why are newsreaders such devious competitors? And who stabbed Rachel Hopkins (Jamie Tisdale) 40 times in the woods late one night and left her body arranged on her luxury sedan’s bonnet? The literary and the pulpy are thoroughly intertwined, although the balance soon starts to favour the latter.

The subsequent investigation is told through two different investigators, who are married but estranged. Anna is the television news reporter looking to reignite her career after a painful leave of absence, while Bernthal’s Jack Harper is the lead police detective. They both knew the victim. And they both suspect the other is more involved than they’re letting on. Should either of them be working on this? Probably not, but questionable decisions are a kind of currency here, spent until they’re exhausted – and it does allow you to second-guess both his and her intentions.

Jon Bernthal as Detective Jack Harper and Tessa Thompson as Anna in His & Hers.

This concise six-parter was developed by English filmmaker William Oldroyd, who specialises in psychological thrillers and helmed Florence Pugh’s 2016 breakthrough Lady Macbeth. He writes and directs multiple episodes, and his touch is notable in discreet ways: the framing of figures in certain shots, for example, has an edge that’s sharp to the touch. But I’m not sure he has a commanding feel for the lurid that surges though His & Hers. The working model is Alfred Hitchcock laced with some Rachel Kushner. The result? A 1990s potboiler.

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Still, it’s clever with its dumbness. You will think you have cracked this long before the rainy night finale, but you are wrong. Plus Thompson and Bernthal sell the relationship between Anna and Jack with more finesse than the set-up allows. They deliver anger, regret, and suspicion so dense that you understand both their former bond and their current estrangement. The story feeds off their compromised reactions – Jack, in particular, is soon out of his depth as a detective with much to hide and a suspicious partner. smartly never idles.