Streaming on: Paramount+###Episodes viewed: 8 of 8###We all know this story, don’t we? A high-powered single career woman, Alex Forrest (Glenn Close), has a weekend affair with a married lawyer (Michael Douglas) and grows increasingly unhinged after she discerns his disinterest in continuing their relationship, preferring to remain with his wife and young daughter. Fatal Attraction, a cornerstone of erotic thrillers, directed by expert of the genre Adrian Lyne (see also: Indecent Proposal and Unfaithful) and a box-office smash on release in 1987, has entered the cultural lexicon in a manner that makes it close to sacrilegious to imagine it remade.###That brings us to the eight-part Paramount+ series which is doing precisely that, despite’in spite of’albeit the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue runner and writers, mostly women, promised a drastic reclaim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate of the (dodgy) gender politics of the classic. Joshua Jackson is Dan Gallagher, a slick, quietly arrogant attorney whose external calm and cheerful family life hide rather more unruly ambitions and tempers. He meets a victim services legal aid advocate, Alex (Lizzy Caplan, all watchful dark eyes and unsettling poise), and they soon begin an affair destined to end unhappily and lethally, as that title promises.###The reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ’s surface-level interest in depicting mental health renders it fairly anodyne.###But by the time the reasonably well-choreographed sex scenes possess’own’nurse kicked in, any glimmer of interest in the couple has faded. Caplan and Jackson gaze’contemplate’study (‘gape (surprised or shocked)) meaningfully at one another, make jokes and glance shyly down at their cocktails, bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e eventually’ultimately ripping at one another’s clothes and tangling limbs with seeming abandon, but all the above is perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding med with intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully little actual chemistry.###There’s been a glut of erotic-thriller rejigs of late, reimaginings in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a new, post-MeToo generation. Yet in spite of its creator’s pledges to the contrary, this series does shockingly little with the key plot points that make them seem any more geared toward female empowerment. There’s more fleshing out of the archetypal ‘bunny boiler’ as a woman with a troubled background and what seems to be a personality disorder, but the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ’s surface-level interest in depicting mental health renders it fairly anodyne.###Set in the present day with flashbacks, the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue also depicts the aftermath of the affair, following Gallagher’s grown daughter Ellen (Alyssa Jirrels). It seems that this fresh centring of the daughter, and exploration of how Dan’s actions possess’own’nurse impacted the family, is another of the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ’s attempts at depicting a more female POV in a conventional ly rather anti-feminist story. And yet we still end up with put-upon, suffering women, and aggressive, ‘crazy’ ones, all of whom are in some fashion punished in/with regard to’concerning’regarding their existence.###Visually, too, the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ’s dark, corporate corridors, courtrooms, and blandly tasteful interiors are neither expressive abundant’ample’plentiful to be noir-ish nor attentive ly drawn abundant’ample’plentiful to make a real claim in/with regard to’concerning’regarding authenticity. The result is something which more-or-less does the job without ever evoking any mood or feeling beyond ‘tedious’.