5 Key Takeaways From Fatal Attraction TV Reviews: Stream It or Skip It?

Fatal Attraction (2023) is a TV series based on the massively successful erotic psychological thriller film of the same name from 1997. The new show premiered on Paramount+ on April 30. In the case of streaming, assessing viewership usually takes time, but the first wave of reviews is already out. What are the key takeaways from them?

Please note that the points below are based on the first three episodes, so theoretically, the rest of the series can turn things around.

However, this is still unlikely in practice because the first takeaway is this — stretching a two-hour film into an eight-hour series wasn't a great idea to start with. There is not enough plot to go around, and the show draws out and pads what it has, and the writers' attempts to add new plotlines seem rather clumsy, as they all simply distract viewers from the core idea.

Just to clarify this point — and this is our second takeaway, in fact — the remake tries to use up its runtime by dwelling too much on minute details of the characters' background and day-to-day lives. This approach could work, but sadly, this happens at the expense of revealing the characters' emotional experiences.

Thirdly, the original movie worked so well in large part because of the obvious chemistry between Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. This story lives or dies on the lead actors' ability to portray a fatal attraction between their characters. Can Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan, playing the same pair in the remake, rise to the heights of their predecessors? Most of the reviewers agree that they can't.

Many reviews also note that the creators' attempts to modernize the story don't work, in part because they haven't made an earnest effort at this, as the remake only goes for a half-way modernization with the main events set in 2008. The original Fatal Attraction was more than just a thriller — it had a cultural impact and sparked an actual conversation about feminism, sexuality, and other controversial topics. The remake doesn't really want to touch the touchy questions, and the reviewers largely agree that it does not say anything meaningful about how the perception of these issues had changed by 2008 or today.

To conclude our takeaways, the Fatal Attraction remake is generally considered a bad show. It has the critics/audience scores of only 33% and 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. So the verdict is that you should skip it unless you really like the actors or the concept itself.

The next episode of Fatal Attraction will be released on May 7.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes.