‘The Beast in Me’ Premiere Recap, Episode 1: ‘Sick Puppy’

“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too self-confident to notice what is going on,” Janet Malcolm famously said, “knows that what he is doing is morally unjustifiable.” If you've ever studied writing nonfiction, you're probably rolling your eyes, but let me explain for the uninitiated. These words open Malcolm's 1989 classic: Journalist and killer a book about the legal battle between journalist Joe McGinniss and murderer Jeffrey MacDonald. When McGinniss signed on to write a book about MacDonald, he vowed to portray him in a redeeming light. But the more time McGinniss spent with MacDonald, the more convinced he became of his guilt. As a journalist, he knew access was valuable, so he kept quiet about his intention to say so in the book.

Now imagine that instead of McGinniss meeting MacDonald in a professional setting, MacDonald happened to move next door. Imagine, if you will, that McGinniss struggled for more than two years to finish and release the sequel to his best-selling memoir. Now imagine McGinniss being Claire Danes. That's one way to describe the overall concept of Netflix's new crime thriller. The beast in me.

Danes plays Agatha “Aggie” Wiggs (stupid, I know, but she serious), a writer living in picturesque Oyster Bay on Long Island. She has all the trappings of a run-of-the-mill David E. Kelley-style protagonist: big house, nice sweaters, respected position in her professional field. But Aggie is falling apart. “Sick Puppy” opens with an image of her bloodied face screaming at the scene of a car accident as another woman searches for a boy named Cooper. We later learn that the woman is her ex-wife Shelley (Natalie Morales) and Cooper is their son who died that night. Several years have passed, but Aggie is still trying to cope with the situation. Her house is in dire need of renovation; Black disgusting liquid pours from the sewer. She receives notice after notice by mail. Her writing is going poorly. Shelley doesn't respond to her texts or answer her phone calls.

It is in this context that Niall Jarvis (Matthew Rhys) moves into the house next door. Aggie's first impression of him is that neither he nor his French guards can control his German Shepherds, who frighten Aggie's little dog, Steve. Her neighbor tells her that Neil wants to build a private jogging track in the surrounding forest for all the residents to enjoy. To do this, he put friendly letters with easement agreements in everyone’s mailboxes, and so far no one has said “no” to him. It's unclear whether this is because they think the treadmill is a good idea or because Neil is known for potentially killing his wife. When she returns home after Aggie trashes her own letter from Neal, she tracks him down for more information on the case: his wife Madison has simply disappeared. After a lengthy investigation, no charges were brought and no one was arrested, but both the press and the public agreed that it must have been Neil.

After meeting him, it would be hard not to think about it. Just ten minutes into the premiere, I felt ready to put my hand in the fire: this guy totally did it. In fact, he's probably guilty of everything he's ever been accused of. The Jarvises leave a box of wine on Aggie's doorstep to apologize for the dogs, and she goes to their house the next morning to return it because she doesn't drink. Her rehearsed hostility is disarmed by the warm friendliness of Neil's wife, Nina (Brittany Snow), who claims to be a big fan of Aggie's work. It's an awkward interaction, but not overtly combative, until Niall pokes his head out of his office and asks Aggie to talk about the treadmill.

Niall Jarvis is a property giant with a mean streak and he speaks as if he is convinced of his superiority. He takes Aggie's book off his shelf and begins to insult her in a hundred different ways: It's been too long since her book came out; someone, as trapped in her “mind palace” as she is, must get out; she could really use a treadmill. But Aggie, already outraged by the dogs, the loud alarms that go off at night, and the presumptuous nature of the easement agreement, is adamant in her answer: She won't sign. Neil offers her money, which only makes the situation worse. However, she is polite; she only loses her composure when Neil provokes that she “hasn't posted anything since.” [her] the little boy died.” Imagine saying this to someone you just met! You'll have to be a psychopath. Aggie's blood visibly rises, but Niall remains alarmingly cool throughout the conversation.

Niall caught Aggie on a bad day too. Today is the anniversary of Cooper's death, and Shelley has not responded to any of her messages about visiting his grave together. When Aggie gets there, she sees the young man and his mother paying their respects and a fight immediately breaks out. The camera pans around Aggie, who aims straight at the guy, intending to push him away. We learn that it is Teddy Fenig, the child who was driving the other car the night Cooper died, and that Aggie blames him entirely for the accident. “He killed our son and then lied,” Aggie screams at Shelley, who arrives just in time to break up the fight. Aggie is so violent that the Fenigs took out a restraining order against her, and it is implied that Aggie's difficulty controlling her rage was part of what destroyed her marriage. Shelley seems to be trying to move on, although not completely: she has a new partner from whom she is taking a break, and she is resuming life as an artist.

Aggie is angry, but she clearly loves Shelley. The saddest thing about her character is how rage has driven affection out of her life. When Aggie gets a call from her editor and friend Carol (Deirdre O'Connell), she prepares to be reprimanded about the delay in her manuscript, but Carol only wants to make sure she's okay. Aggie tells her about the cemetery, the huge shell (which just exploded on her), and Neil Jarvis next door. She also asks Carol if there is any possibility of getting another advance to help her stay afloat on the bills, but since Carol is two years late on delivery, she thinks publisher Bob is losing hope. Maybe she could only turn in a couple of chapters to show him that she was working? If only she could find some fresh material, something that could actually make her work…

The next day, while the plumber is inspecting Aggie's ruined pipes, Niall arrives and asks Aggie to sign his copy. Sick puppy. Judging by the way he devilishly looked at the book in the frame, I'm guessing he wants to forge her signature to pave his way. This appeal to the ego will only really work on a writer, especially one who is at a difficult and insecure point in her career. Niall suggests inviting Aggie to dinner since they started off on the wrong foot. She says no, but he insists – aggressively, arrogantly, earnestly – and she finally agrees to meet him at a restaurant called Eleanor's. As she enters, a man is watching her from a parked car nearby.

Over lunch, Aggie and Niall learn each other's stories while other restaurant patrons watch. Neil grew up in Oyster Bay; Aggie won a Pulitzer Prize and moved there from Brooklyn. Sick puppy it was about her father, a “swindler and swindler,” with whom she lives separately. She is currently working on a biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's unlikely friendship with Antonin Scalia. Niall isn't sure that's as good a topic as her veiled admiration for her father or his own story. “You need another bestseller,” he scoffs, “you should write about me.” It doesn't take Niall two seconds to recognize part of Aggie's ruthlessness – what he calls her “bloodlust.” Aggie tells him that Cooper died in a drunk driving accident, and that Teddy refused the breathalyzer at the scene of the accident, so by the time the authorities finally tested his level, it was below the limit. She also says he lied and said she was acting erratically. All this together indicates to the astute Neil that Aggie is full of rage – perhaps that's why she's not afraid of him, unlike everyone else. As if to both demonstrate his ability to scare people and prove that Aggie kind of likes it, he approaches the woman who secretly took a photo of him and smashes her phone with his elbow after she refuses to delete the photo. Aggie is shocked and a little worried. She smiles.

Outside the restaurant, they see Teddy Fenig leaving the corner market with his friends, and Aggie tells Neil how hard it is to see him every day. Anger crosses Neal's face as his eyes follow Teddy; “This is wrong,” he says. Before Aggie leaves, Niall asks her to consider taking the money for a run. As she drives away, she sees him in the rearview mirror, watching Teddy.

That night, Aggie takes a pill before bed. A thunderstorm rages, and just as she gets comfortable, she hears a knock on the door. Downstairs, the man who was watching her earlier tries to break into her house through the back door. When she grabs the knife, he shows her his FBI badge and explains that he's just trying to warn her. He's Special Agent Brian Abbott (David Lyons), and like everyone else, he's obviously drunk. With a general demeanor and a pleading look, he tells her that he couldn't live with himself if he hadn't told her to be careful around Neil. “He’s not like us,” he pleads before leaving. He would know: Abbott was the lead investigator on the Jarvis case, and he seemed to have his own agenda. He doesn't confirm when Aggie asks, but if is closed, she thinks, then what is he doing, chasing Neal?

In any case, the next morning his point was confirmed. Aggie wakes up to a call from Shelley telling her that Teddy Fenig disappeared last night. His car was found on the beach and authorities believe he drowned. This information suggests that his body was never found, which is very similar to another murder we just learned about. Aggie shakes her head in horror and remembers telling Niall that all she wanted was for Teddy to suffer like she did. In the harshest move of the premiere, which showed little attention to subtlety (complimentary), Aggie's face merges with Niall's as she asks him or herself: What have you done?

• Aggie's outrage at Teddy's assertion that she was acting erratically gives me the impression that she was, actually drives erratically, but cannot bear the burden of admitting this truth. This, coupled with her sobriety, also raises the suspicion that there may have been two drunk drivers there that night…

• I really love what Matthew Rhys is doing with this character – Neil is so weird and creepy. Every time he smiles, it looks like he's about to let out an evil cackle.

• I really appreciated the almost complete lack of flashbacks in this pilot, which is becoming increasingly rare in prestige television crime shows. We open with an event from the past, but then the plot moves forward – explanations for what happened emerge organically in the dialogue, and the overall impression remains that we are catching up with Aggie at the present moment of her life, rather than rushing back and forth from her past to the present. I hope it stays that way!