"Echoes" Review: A Convoluted Twin Mystery

Vega
Sep 3, 2022
5 min read

Release Date: August 19, 2022

Platform: Netflix

SPOILER WARNING

The new Netflix crime-drama "Echoes" is a very frustrating concoction of a narrative. Every series gets three episodes to establish its major narrative tent poles: the world, the characters, and the story. After the first two episodes, the overload of questions and lack of answers had worn out its welcome and exhaustion had completely set in. The world was easy enough to recognize, but the overly layered plot and unreliable main character threw any sense of motivation to the wayside. Choosing to continue through the three episode standard, there was a pleasant surprise halfway through the third episode which offered a glimmer of hope that there would be some clarity in the series' direction. Thus, the journey continued all the way until the series finale. Did the series resolve some of its many plot points? It did, which allowed the opportunity to sort through some of the details and character motivations. However, leaving the pivotal details of the backstory until the 5th episode of a 7-episode series became the poster child for "too little, too late".

The series follows a pair of identical twins, Leni and Gina (Michelle Monaghan), who have been swapping places with each other since they were children, allowing them to share everything. This tactic ended when they were teenagers and Gina became exhausted of taking the backseat to Leni's desires. After an unfortunate miscarriage and a resurgence of mental issues, Leni and Gina began swapping lives again in adulthood, which took place following every annual birthday trip. While living Leni's life, Gina becomes reacquainted with an old flame, Dylan (Jonathan Tucker), and they devise a plan to take back the life that Leni took away from them. When Gina, posing as Leni, disappears, Leni returns to Mt. Echo from LA and finds herself swept into a police investigation that will stretch into the dark corners of her past. Leni's struggle to save and Gina's war to destroy their enmeshed existence comes with consequences for them, their husbands Jack (Matt Bomer) and Charlie (Daniel Sunjata), and many others in their small hometown.

That synopsis is straightforward and indicates an intriguing premise that is bound for twists and turns. However, the series strays far from presenting the story in the way it is cited above, making almost no effort towards allowing the viewer to understand what is happening for many of the episodes. The series' biggest sin lies in its greatest premise: that Gina and Leni have perfected their swapping so much that either could be the other. Unfortunately, this leads to a frustrating experience of not knowing which of the two is the point of view character for the first few episodes and, honestly, it does not always get better. It demolishes any idea of character development moving forward in their differing motivations. Instead, the characters are best explored in the past, which is solely saved for the fifth episode. Prior to that, there are confusing flashbacks of memory fragments that are meant to build up to later reveals, but it is all too messy to build to a climax. It all feels like pointless complications to warrant the mysteries of the crimes and Gina's motivations. It does end up lending credence to the latter, but the former becomes another muddying of the waters.

There is an excessive number of plot lines that are carried by the local sheriff's (Karen Robinson) investigation: the circumstances of Leni's (Gina's) initial disappearance, Jack's dealing with loan sharks, Dylan's death, a church fire from year's ago, and the ultimate mystery of which twin is which at any given time. While the character is essentially meant to be the organizer for the audience that keeps up with the hanging plot threads, her confusions only serve to accentuate the poor storytelling. Other than the explanation for Gina's disappearance, which is the only mystery essential to the core of the story, none of the other plot threads are met with any need or satisfying conclusion. This is not surprising considering the amount of time that has to be divided between each mystery, with the church fire feeling the most inconsequential. Even Gina's disappearance and her overall scheme is unsatisfying, not in its content, but in it being dragged out and framed to be much more perplexing than it actually was. The detective's journey follows the conventional pattern of just happening to put trivial details together at the very end to come to a conclusion that comes too late to act on.

The story's conclusion comes very rushed with a waterfall of revelations from the past that highlights the turning point in Leni's psyche and the reason why Gina was always viewed as the mentally fragile twin. The narrative tissue between these revelations and the current events is barely held together. Although they were teased in the split-second flashbacks, it is ludicrous to think that one tragedy surrounding their mother, who is rarely ever mentioned, could help sum up the complex journey that the series took. As is to be expected with so many plot threads, many are left unresolved or without closure: what came of Jack and Maddie's lives, was the guy who died in the barn of any importance, what about the loan sharks/money issues, and with their father's death, what comes of their sister? The closing moments and the cliffhanger epilogue tease more of the same in a potential continuation of the story, which is an idea more exhausting than the opening episodes. It is difficult to discern a breakdown of the acting, production design, or even recognize emotional tone amidst the haze of its messy script. It is a shame too, because I think Monaghan sneakily puts on a great performance as the twins.

This series sacrificed basic, proper storytelling for a failed attempt at cleverness. There are definitely good ideas that can be found in the crevices, but poor execution results in the plot's layers collapsing onto each other. Perhaps its label as a limited series caused panic in the writer's room to the point that nothing was sacrificed because half of the story lines would have benefited from unfolding in a second season. Any satisfaction drawn from the conclusion is not because of the narrative direction or character resolutions. It comes simply from finally understanding what the hell was going on. Oh, and also poking fun at what appeared to be some of the worst green screen a Netflix Original has ever had.