'Bodies' is a Genre-and-Time-Bending Crime Thriller

Adapted from the DC Vertigo comic of the same name by Si Spencer, the new Netflix limited series Bodies is a smart, fascinating crime and conspiracy tale told in four separate time periods in London. Initially announced in early 2022 and put into production later that year, the series has been promoted in the U.K. reasonably well, but its limited series status has led it to be undermarketed in the U.S. despite casting British BBC A-lister Stephen Graham (Time) as Elias Mannix, which is a shame because it feels like an instant hit. There is a slight X-Files flavor mixed with a hint of Doctor Who. The mystery is riveting, and puzzle pieces are laid out for the audience like delectable morsels.

Four separate detectives, played by Kyle Soller (Poldark), Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (The Great), Amaka Okafor (The Responder), and Shira Haas (Unorthodox) in 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053, respectively, all find the same corpse in the same street in Whitechapel. Told in shifting but congruent timelines, each of the four detectives finds the corpse in the same condition: Naked, missing an eye, with a tattoo on his left wrist.

The series starts in the current present-day 2023, where Detective Shahara Hasan (Okafor) is a badass Muslim cop. She’s introduced by showing incredible stamina and determination in a high-speed pursuit on foot, running down armed suspect Syed (Chaneil Kular). The chase ends with Hasan discovering the corpse and Syed insisting as he runs off that he didn’t kill the man.