Review: Netflix’s 'Bodies' Turns the London Crime Drama Inside Out

Photo Courtesy: Netflix / Cosmopolitan

Bodies is every kind of British TV show merged into one: the Victorian period piece, the wartime escapade, the present-day East London police drama, and the techno-dystopia. The four timelines are merged into one show in a Doctor Who-esque fashion, chopping between narratives every five minutes or so. The common thread – a dead body found in Whitechapel. Of course.

The first story we see is Detective Hasan’s, set in 2023. You could easily be fooled into thinking this is just another BBC or ITV detective drama; a formulaic 6-episode race through the capital to find the killer. It has all the markings of typical British crime TV, with its shallow exploration of current events – think far-right nationalism, police mistrust, gun violence – and stoic detectives who care about their jobs a bit too much.

Just as it settles into the formula, we switch to 1941, complete with jazz music and the sound of the Luftwaffe flying overhead. This jolting narrative continues throughout the show – just when one storyline gets interesting, we jump decades into the past (or the future). Through no fault of the writers, every viewer will have their favourite storylines, and it can feel frustrating to sit through what feels like the entire history of Britain to find out what happens next.

The time periods often invoke very different tones, for example, the exploration of Victorian Detective Hillinghead’s sexuality contrasts massively with the harrowing tale of war taking place in 1941. To explore the lives of Londoners across centuries, whilst doing justice to their individual struggles, would require a far larger project than 8 episodes, and the attempt to do so can distract from the already ambitious narrative.

Bodies was written in 2014 by the late Si Spencer as a graphic novel for DC, with the first episode dedicated to his memory. The sci-fi element is certainly that of a graphic novel, with shaky time travel science and cartoonish violence. Having said that, it’s no less accurate than Doctor Who, and is easy enough to look past for the sake of the story.

Undeniably ambitious in both plot and scope, Bodies infuses the London detective genre with sci-fi and history, giving new life to an increasingly over-done formula. It peels back the layers of history, investigating London’s past, present, and (imagined) future. For fans of Doctor Who and Luther and Charles Dickens, it might just be the perfect show.