How did erotic thrillers get so unsexy?

There’s a scene near the start of Netflix’s glossy new thriller Obsession that sets the tone for the series. Pioneering surgeon William (Richard Armitage) is attending a drinks party at the House of Commons when he locks eyes with a woman across the room. At the bar, the woman (played by Charlie Murphy) sidles over and introduces herself as Anna, his son’s girlfriend. Spotting that William is holding an olive, she asks, breathily, “Is that for me?” As violins quiver in the background, William pushes the olive into her mouth and lets out a strangulated sigh as she bites down on it. It is one of many moments in Obsession that is intended to be madly sexy, but ends up just looking mad.

The return of the erotic thriller, that ridiculous totem of 1980s and 1990s cinema (see Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct, the Madonna vehicle Body of Evidence and almost anything made by director Adrian Lyne, from 9½ Weeks and Fatal Attraction to Indecent Proposal), is one of the more startling TV developments of recent times. Along with Obsession, a reimagining of Louis Malle’s 1993 film Damage, this month brings Dead Ringers, a remake of David Cronenberg’s 1988 tale of twin gynaecologists, and a new Fatal Attraction, about an extramarital affair that goes nuclear (the original 1987 movie gave us the term “bunny boiler” to describe a scorned woman).

Drawing on elements of soap opera, film noir and soft porn, these thrillers often feature femmes fatales, priapic men driven crazy with desire and an overload of orchestral music, all designed to get viewers hot under the collar. What they are not meant to do is get them falling about laughing, which is the overwhelming impulse while watching Obsession, a paper-thin story stretched out over four sweaty episodes. One of the problems is the script, or lack of it; the makers have clearly taken a decision to let body language do much of the talking, which means ages seem to pass as William and Anna stare wordlessly at each other to signal their barely suppressed lust.

Worse still are its barmy BDSM stylings, its insistence on having its protagonists coupling on uncomfortable hardwood floors and a laugh-out-loud scene in which the infatuated William visits a hotel where Anna has just been, picks up a pillow carrying her scent and, well, defiles it.

It’s significant that the films on which this crop of series are based have mostly aged poorly. They date from a time when misogyny went unremarked upon and the male gaze ruled supreme. Mercifully, things are different now. It has become the norm for TV creators to employ intimacy co-ordinators, specialists whose job it is to ensure that actors are treated respectfully and the sex and nudity are handled with care. It’s a far cry from the days of Basic Instinct when, according to her memoir, Sharon Stone was tricked into filming the notorious police interrogation scene in which she is shown to be wearing no underwear and was labelled “difficult” for refusing to have sex with her co-star to improve their onscreen chemistry.

Reflecting these evolved attitudes, in Obsession, it is Anna who is in charge of her and William’s sexual encounters. In Dead Ringers, the role of the twins, previously played by Jeremy Irons, is now occupied by Rachel Weisz. Indeed, out of these new series, Dead Ringers fares best, partly because Cronenberg’s original film, with its themes of birth, death and power, was more than a smut-fest, but also because, in this new edition — which was written and directed by women — Weisz brings out the humour and smarts in the twins, along with their fierce psychological rivalry.

As for the new Fatal Attraction, which casts Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan in the Michael Douglas/Glenn Close roles, embargoes prohibit me from sharing what transpires. But going by the first three episodes, it is clear that, while the story has been tweaked, and Caplan’s vengeful Alex Forrest is more three-dimensional than Close’s, early claims of a radical feminist overhaul would appear to have been overstated.

So why remake these films at all? The generous answer is that TV writers are keen to make space for female characters that were, in the days of yore, denied agency and a voice. A more likely one is that, given the demand for rolling content, streaming services are opting to take the easy route, dusting off ready-made stories about which audiences will automatically be curious. On the surface, attempting to right past narrative wrongs may seem laudable. But it isn’t the most solid basis for a remake where the ultimate aim is still for viewers to get their rocks off. There’s nothing wrong with showing sex on screen, but why not start with a clean slate?

‘Obsession’ is on Netflix now. ‘Dead Ringers’ is on Amazon Prime from April 21. ‘Fatal Attraction’ is on Paramount+ from April 30.