Bodies · Season 1 · Netflix
Bodies Season 1
Bodies Season 1 is a WORTH-IT, BollyMeter 7.4/10. 8 episodes on Netflix from 19 October 2023.
Updated
What BollyAI Thinks
Bodies dropped on Netflix on 19 October 2023, adapted from Si Spencer's graphic novel by Paul Tomalin and produced by Sid Gentle Films. The series deploys four detectives across four Londons - 1890 (Kyle Soller as DI Hillinghead), 1941 (Shira Haas as DC Maplewood), 2023 (Amaka Okafor as DS Hasan), and 2053 (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as DS Weissman) - each investigating the same impossible corpse. Critics approved at 81 percent from 27 reviewers; The Guardian found it more than able to sustain the ambition of its central conceit. Stephen Graham's work across the timelines was singled out as the performance that unified an otherwise segmented narrative. Audience scores at 7.3 on IMDb reflected solid engagement, with genre fans who came via Dark and Cloud Atlas most enthusiastic. The primary critical caveat was the exposition-heavy final episode, which works to collapse the four threads into a single explanation.
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The Room
“Bodies is more than able to keep up with the pack - Netflix came for its slice of the quantum physical pie.”
The Guardian“Bodies is beautifully told - the real test is the capability of its leading cast and whether it gives us some heart.”
Radio Times
Standout Episodes
The hours worth arguing about - premieres, finales, and the turning points. BollyAI reads the room episode by episode.
- E1Episode 17.8
The premiere introduces all four timelines within a single episode, each anchored to Longharvest Lane and a naked male corpse with a bullet wound. The cross-cutting is disciplined rather than dazzling - Tomalin establishes the rules of the conceit cleanly before the series earns its right to complicate them. Each detective has a distinct register, and the production design work across four distinct period Londons is immediately impressive.
The moment: The fourth-period reveal of the same lane in 2053 - the moment the series announces its full structural ambition.
Full review of E1 → - E8Episode 87.0
The finale draws all four timelines into a single explanatory framework, and the exposition required to do so is the season's weakest stretch. Audiences who invested in the character work across the preceding seven episodes will find enough emotional payoff to satisfy; those watching primarily for the puzzle may find the mechanics disappointingly tidy once fully revealed.
The moment: The moment the temporal loop is revealed to be both the crime's cause and its solution - the structural payoff the series spent eight hours earning.
Full review of E8 →