Chambers: Season 1
Genre: Horror
Network: Netflix
Premiere Date: Apr 26, 2019
Creator: Leah Rachel
Exec. Producers: Stephen Gaghan, Wolfgang Hammer, Winnie Kemp, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Why is No One Talking About Netflix's Show 'Chambers' and How Good It Is For So Many Reasons?
You can find the darkest shows on Netflix. It’s a storehouse of horror shows such as Stranger Things, Black Mirror, Dark and The Fall—they scream of insane twists and supernatural turns. Now, don’t get us wrong! They are also incredibly entertaining but the taste of mystery they bring along makes us bite our nails!
Adding to the list of such shows is Chambers—a dark-supernatural drama, released on April 26, 2019. The ten-episode-horror teen drama is slow paced but definitely worth a watch! It is created by Leah Rachel. She is also credited as the executive producer, along with Stephen Gaghan, Akela Cooper, Jennifer Yale, Wolfgang Hammer, Winnie Kemp and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. and to my astonishment, not many people are talking about it! The series is produced by Uma Thurman, along with Karen Moore, Andrew Nunnelly and Charmaine DeGraté.
Plot: The plot revolves around a free-spirited American girl, Sasha (Sivan Alyra Rose) who is high school student. She lives in Arizona and comes from a poor background. Sasha suffers a cardiac arrest, and receives a transplanted heart of a wealthy girl named Becky. In a few days, she has an awkward meeting with Becky’s family. Overwhelmed upon meeting her, the girl’s parents (Uma Thurman and Tony Goldwyn), they offer her, their deceased daughter’s scholarship to college. Reluctant at first, Sasha finally accepts their offer and starts attending the school. But accepting the offer to attend Becky’s school soon turned into a curse. No prices for guessing that soon, Sasha starts having eerie visions and metaphysical experiences.
If that wasn’t enough, Becky’s parents, out of their insecurity, try to keep Sasha close, mostly because deep down, they weren’t able to convince themselves of the demise of their own daughter. The attempt to keep Sasha around, as expected, only adds to the deterioration of the health of Sasha as well as their own. Sasha literally starts feeling a dark entity entwined with her soul. With each episode, it becomes clearer that the entity is nobody else but Becky, trying to communicate her truth to the world through Sasha.
The first two episodes build the storyline for the rest of the show. It begins with rumbling thunder where Sasha is getting out of her house to meet her boyfriend. In the middle of having fun, Sasha suffers a heart attack and the transplant happens. In the second episode, she starts getting acquainted with her connection to Becky. She also starts doubting Becky’s parents’ intentions for some solid reason.
Episode three and four exhibits Sasha’s confusion about weird and dark things taking place around her. By the end of episode four, Sasha becomes positive that something is wrong inside her and that it might be Becky, trying to communicate with her.
In her quest to fix herself, Sasha ends up pushing away people that love her and turns to a stranger to help her solve a problem that she wasn’t fully able to understand. Episode five and six see a lot of drama coupled with gruesome horror and triggering content. This is the time when most of us will try to leave the show but the interest developed around the plot would make even the reluctant ones stay.
Episode seven and eight will keep you glued to your seats, however uncomfortably as Sasha goes beyond her sanity to find the truth of what really happened to Becky. She starts looking like and acting like the deceased girl at various occasions. Even, the gone girl’s parents and brother start experiencing certain episodes with Sasha that convinces them that their little girl has perhaps decided to stay around them, until Sasha decides to separate this identity from her, and she stops at nothing.
By the end of the season, Sasha gives her all to detach Becky from her. Her friends become her guiding angels as she fights hard to get rid of her demons.
The way things have unraveled in the series is commendable. The revelations were dark but beautiful in their own way. However, too many stories were concocted together in a ten-episode series which kind of brought down the energy of the show, singlehandedly. There were no explanations of many unnatural events that took place in the show, which must have left viewers confused.
Sivan Rose as Sasha probably was the highlight of the show, like she should be. Her itch to tear away what she couldn’t see or understand made from her body was impressive. The confusion on her face whenever she was hit by pangs of what looked-like anxiety but determination to drag it out of her body was strikingly convincing.
Uma Thurman did justice to her role as well. Her body language clearly depicted the pain of losing a daughter. The level of insanity she experiences as a result of the devastating loss and sudden rush of emotions she faces at the sight of Sasha tells the story of years of Uma’s experience as a top-class actress.
Rest of the cast did justice to their roles as well. Making his first appearance post Scandal, Tony Goldwyn wore his character like a cloak on a body—flawlessly.
I can sum up the whole show in just one word—bizarre! And that doesn’t change the fact that as dark as it gets with each episode, the show deserves to be watched by the audience! I can promise that if you start watching it, you will be done with it in a day or two. Let’s just hope that it comes around for second season and give us supernatural fans something to cringe about!
In spite of negative reviews from publications such as Variety and New York Times, IMDB ratings of Chambers peaked at 6.6.
