While this new four-part drama has been heralded as being gloriously charged with unapologetic female energy, you watch on and certainly wouldn\u2019t think it \u2013 and it\u2019s not for the want of willing it to be so on my own enthusiastic part.<\/p>\n

In the run-up to the series\u2019 release, I believed that Obsession would turn the narrative of the 1992 movie version of Damage on its head by subverting tired tropes, portraying sex (particularly BDSM) in a non-voyeuristic manner and making Anna an empowered, complex protagonist who embarks on this consensual rollercoaster relationship with William. But unfortunately, that\u2019s not really what lays before us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sign me up for an erotic thriller taken from the female point of view, with a nuanced, fleshed-out character who isn\u2019t merely the hyper-sexualised subject of a man\u2019s desires and takes control of the scenario before her. Sign me all the way up, in fact. But try as it might, Obsession is not that.<\/p>

While Anna is the dominant submissive in her relationship with William and enforces strict and specific rules, William consistently flounces against them, not really considering the consequences. He goes to the apartment when told not to, he follows Anna to Paris even after she says their relationship only exists within the walls of the apartment they frequent. He even steals a page out of her diary even though she underlines that\u2019s it for her eyes only.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all very well and good having a female character that is unapologetic in enforcing rules and boundaries, but if you have a male partner that continues to ignore them for his own wants, it\u2019s all relative, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n