Echoes’ premise would seem perfectly engineered for breakout potential. Brian Yorkey boasts a résumé of hit procedurals like 13 Reasons Why along with Quinton Peeples of the Iron Fist fame. But in practice, the seven-episode series falters in every critical way. The cast features names such as Michelle Monaghan, Matt Bomer, Jonathan Tucker, Karen Robinson, Ali Stoker and many more.
The Powerhouse Cast of Echoes Couldn’t Rescue the Mini Series
The seven-episode series recently premiered on Netflix is Hitchcockian in scope and tone. It has been noted for its eerily intense soundscape and seamless story that leaves no character or concept unexplored. Heck, it even stars a genuine Hollywood star — with a Golden Globe and two Oscar nods under her belt — as the seemingly innocent but manipulative star-crossed twin sisters.
So why did this limited series feel like it was draining the life force out of its characters rather than deepening them?
But when watching, you’re left sifting through the haze of a series with serious identity issues. There’s the thriller part, and then there’s the family drama. The sisters are at odds with each other yet revere one another – except only one finds out the other’s been lying for decades, and both go on to deal with their respective lives, but not before there are twists and turns aplenty.
Yet Echoes is only mediocre – at best. Its twisty lead-up to the big reveal never generates the intensity or the suspense it needs, and the big reveal isn’t all that big as an equivalent of those familiar Agatha Christie setups (gorgeous wife gets murdered on vacation; a poor relative kills a rich guy) of the past when movie and TV noir has lost its jolt and thrill – for both genders.
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Echoes Unveils Rather Flimsy Double-Dealings in the Plot
Though Echoes has the Gone Girl air about it, the departure is overly familiar (and dull) country noir like the brothers in Blackway. Yet, it’s even more derivative – right down to the overblown record-scratch coda that adds insult to injury. That’s because the revelations are not shocking revelations but mind-numbing revelations. The tension grows thick and claustrophobic as we wait for the mystery to unfold until it collapses into a baffling vortex of ridiculousness by the finale.
The series is sadly not one of these shows that rings the bell. It’s like that friend who appears to be an early bloomer, but mid-to-late in life never finds the right thing to say or do or finds people not interested in what they have to say.
Instead of taking the inevitable Hollywood switcheroo and turning it into something else entirely at its halfway point (think Billy and Madeline from Secret Life of the American Teenager), the series stays true to this flawed premise until the credits roll – which makes for a slow, if not downright dull, show.
Echoes will plunder your nightmares if you can get through its first episode. Powerhouse performers and some dark emotional nuance can’t hide the fact that it completely squanders its story and becomes increasingly less attractive as it goes on.
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The Reveals in the Storyline of Echoes are Twitchy and Skittering
But while the show’s basic premise can theoretically work, Echoes is so listless and languid in its pace and storytelling that you constantly check your phone for the time. You even have an argument with yourself about whether to keep watching it. And yet the show cheats, withholding backstory and characterisation instead of telegraphing apparent twists. It wants to preserve the mystery, but it’s evident from the start what it’s up to.
But the more that is revealed, the more the series becomes the least interesting version of itself. Rather than a double-crossing thriller with a unique premise, it’s a recycled story (in both its obligatory twists and apparent influences) that hasn’t differentiated itself enough.
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Stream It or Skip It?
If you’re unsure whether you should watch the just-released Netflix limited series Echoes, let me help you decide. Yes, it’s creepy and unsettling; yes, the atmospheric cinematography and production design bring the story’s remote setting to life (in this case, Utah); yes, the central performances are excellent – Monaghan is a revelation, making both sisters wholly distinct while suggesting their present-day trauma emerged from a common source; but no, it’s not a must-watch.
Echoes is currently streaming on Netflix.