Surface, A Review

How can you solve the mystery of your own memory loss?

Surface follows Sophie Ellis (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, The Girl Before), a woman who wakes from an apparent suicide attempt with no memory of her past or any of the people in her life. Moving back home, Sophie attempts to reconnect with husband James (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, The Haunting of Bly Manor) and best friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) but finds herself at odds with the pair, struggling to fit in to her old life. One night whilst out with Caroline, Sophie notices apparent stranger Baden (Stephan James), who appears to be following her. Baden explains that he was the cop assigned to Sophie’s case and before she lost her memory the two had been working together. Sophie discovers that millions of dollars have gone missing from an account at James’ workplace and James himself is prime suspect.

Sophie and Baden begin to suspect James took the money and may have even pushed Sophie to keep her quiet, causing Sophie to reevaluate her entire ‘accident’. Things however aren’t always as they seem and the truth begind Sophie’s accident may lie in her past just as much as it does the present. Can Sophie figure out how and why she came to lose her memory or will she be forced to live her life forever in the dark?

Surface admittedly had a bit of a slow start and for the first half of the series I honestly wasn’t that invested. The series had a pretty simple premise and the storyline just felt like your basic run of the mill thriller. Sophie had suffered a near death experirience, lost her memory and suspected her husband wasn’t all he seemed, I’d read or watch countless other stories with the same set up. It wasn’t that I wasn’t enjoying what I was watching exactly but due to the slow start Surface really did fail to wow me in it’s first half, the second half however was a different story…

Around halfway through the series it was revealed that Sophie wasn’t nearly as nice as we’d been led to believe and it was in fact her that had caused many of the issues so far. Living her life as a con-artist of sorts, Sophie had lied her way into James’ life and then the pair had schemed their way up the career ladder with Sophie constantly wanting more. This reveal definitely put a spin on things and it put all of the characters in a new light, really changing how I saw things. Like I said above Surface had been very run of the mill up to this point so I did really enjoy the twist here. It was interesting as well for Sophie to have to come to terms with this darker part of herself and decide how she wanted to move forward, it made for some great character moments.

Towards the end of the series it did become increasingly difficult to decide who was trustworthy and who wasn’t, which I think is always the sign of a good thriller. Both James and Baden had been built up as solid love interests for Sophie with equal share of shadiness and reliability. Both presented a compelling argument for their case and I did genuinely flip between the pair constantly. Either one could be telling the truth and either one of them could also have pushed Sophie himself, it was certianly a great puzzle and I enjoyed trying to put everything together and decide who to trust.

I feel like the ending of Surface definitely left things open for a second season but it would be following a very different kind of story. Now that Sophie has returned to England and is free from her former life (for the most part), she must now focus on her own past, especially her connection with Eliza (). Much of Sophie’s past was left still a mystery and whatever happened to her when she was younger is definitely a mystery I’d be open to watching, especially with Mbatha-Raw continuing as the lead.

Overall Surface was an enjoyable watch. Initially the plot did seem pretty predictable but the midway twist definitely shook things up and I really liked this new perspective on things. Mbatha-Raw was a great series lead and I loved her portrayl of Sophie, with the role allowing for a layered and complex performance. An overall interesting thriller, I would definitely tune in for a potential season two.