The Beast in Me

It is not often, in modern television, that just about everything goes right. A series featuring dynamite performances might have terrible dialogue; a weak score and poor lighting can drag down even the best editing. On rare occasions, however, when the foundation (i.e., the writing) is solid, the cinematographer, director, and editor have the wisdom to step back and let the actors drive the story. To pull this off, you need heavyweights, like Matthew Rhys and Claire Danes, who star in Netflix’s new limited series “The Beast in Me.” A morbid soul like myself would have preferred the series to further amp up its darkness quotient, but for an eight-episode watch amongst a vast sea of dreck, this is damn good stuff.