Obsession

Obsession is a four-part British television miniseries released on Netflix on April 13, 2023. Adapted from Josephine Hart's 1991 novel Damage, it relocates the central character's profession: William Farrow is a respected London surgeon, whereas the novel's Stephen Fleming is a politician. Richard Armitage plays William, whose apparently stable family life begins to unravel when he starts a secret affair with Anna Barton. Anna, played by Charlie Murphy, is engaged to William's son Jay, played by Rish Shah. Indira Varma portrays William's wife Ingrid. The series takes the novel's premise of forbidden desire and makes the Farrow family's relationships the immediate stakes of William's choices.

Rather than concealing a brief indiscretion, William repeatedly arranges meetings with Anna while Jay's relationship with her grows more serious. Anna does not simply appear as an outsider to the family: she attends gatherings with Jay and develops a relationship with Ingrid, making William's deception especially intimate. As Jay and Anna prepare to marry, William's fixation threatens both the engagement and his marriage. The plot reaches its decisive catastrophe when Jay discovers William and Anna together. Jay falls down a staircase and dies, leaving Ingrid to confront both the loss of her son and her husband's betrayal.

Josephine Hart's novel was previously adapted as the 1992 film Damage, directed by Louis Malle. That film starred Jeremy Irons as Stephen Fleming, Juliette Binoche as Anna Barton, Miranda Richardson as Stephen's wife Ingrid, and Rupert Graves as their son Martyn. Netflix's version retains Anna's name and the central father-son triangle but gives the father a different name and career, and calls the son Jay rather than Martyn. Those changes distinguish this miniseries from Malle's film even though both adaptations follow Hart's story of a father whose involvement with his son's partner destroys his family.

The television adaptation was written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Benji Walters and directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa. Its four episodes allow the affair and its aftermath to unfold across a short, self-contained run rather than a continuing series. Armitage, known for playing Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit films, leads a cast that also includes Varma, who played Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones. For Murphy, the role of Anna followed her portrayal of Jessie Eden in Peaky Blinders. The result is specifically a new screen telling of Damage, not an unrelated series that happens to share the title Obsession.