Last Friday, my friends and I riffled through the haphazard stacks of Netflix original movies, tv shows, and documentaries in search of just the right brand of entertainment to start off the weekend right. Amidst the ever-growing lineup of content, so much of which is now entirely produced and distributed by Netflix itself, we found a new title with a familiar leading actress. Brenda Song, a childhood favorite who many may remember as playing London Tipton on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody or from Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, is featured prominently on the thumbnail for the new Netflix thriller, Secret Obsession.
I would like to say our initial excitement about the movie and the nostalgia factor of seeing Song back in action were emotions that carried throughout the film—however, the dry clichés and predictable plot lines that strung the movie along did not leave us feeling obsessed.
The premise behind the film is that Song’s character, Jennifer Williams, has been in some type of accident and wakes up in the hospital with amnesia. She is unable to remember quite who she is, what happened, or much about her life. The saving grace appears to be that her doting husband is alongside her to help her remember.
*SPOILER ALERT*
It’s not actually her husband. BUT, the trailer already alludes to this fact and essentially gives the film away. The man who claims to be Jennifer’s husband, “Russel,” (portrayed by Mike Vogel) is really a disgruntled lover and former coworker of Jennifer’s. When Jennifer never reciprocated his feelings and married her real husband, Vogel’s character took drastic measures and killed not only Jennifer’s parents and real husband, but also a random guy who was at the accident scene and came with flowers to give to Jennifer at the hospital whose identity is never explained. Really, Netflix? It is also revealed that the beginning scene of the movie, in which Song’s character is running and hiding from a violent assailant is indeed Vogel’s character, who eventually is the one who hits her with the car, triggering the amnesia and kicking off his plan to take over the husband’s spot.
The fact of the matter is, however, that Vogel’s character, named Ryan Gaerity, is actually a pretty sloppy killer. He buries the body of the mystery man so ineptly in the back garden at his secluded house that Jennifer can tell right away. Jennifer’s parents are practically mummified in their old house, as the detective character (portrayed by Dennis Haysbert, most commonly known from the Allstate insurance commercials) finds, in addition to Jennifer’s real husband’s body simply thrown into the back of a trunk. Gaerity has photoshopped all the family photos with himself in, but slipped up in one of the photos in quite an obvious manner.
The slip-ups transcend the characters themselves into the writing of the film. A lot of the dialogue is quite forced, little backstory is elaborated enough for the audience to make meaningful connections with the characters, and the ending is drier than day old scones. Not everything on the Netflix original list is a hit. Yet I was struck at how a movie with such subpar structure might even make it past the early stages of production. Perhaps the genre and tropes the film sat on, topped off with a big name like Brenda Song were what kept it going. What was even more interesting than the film itself was the conversation my friends and I had following the film.
We discussed the not-so-secret media obsession trending toward the romaticization of serial killers, stalkers, and sociopaths particularly in movies and documentaries. The fascination with darker sides psychology is not a new idea. Rather, it is a theme that can be traced back several eras throughout all media types, especially literature and film. While I believe shedding light on these topics surrounding abnormal psychology is of utmost importance, my friends and I did consider if there are some unintended consequences of this genre. Women are most always the victims to the antagonist/predator, and often the film is shot with a huge affinity toward male gaze. Further, the extreme circumstances (often fictional, as in the case of Secret Obsession) of stalking or manipulative behavior may unintentionally convince survivors (of all genders!) of assault or stalking that their experience was not important or worth taking action against because it does not fit how manipulative behavior is portrayed in the media. I find this to be noteworthy on a college campus when unfortunately, incidents of stalking and even assault can be common, and many incidents already go unreported.
All this being said, the most important thing to do is be an ally and an advocate. Maybe we don’t all need to cut out our Ted Bundy guilty pleasure documentaries, but rather think critically about the media we consume and the inevitable effects it can have on us. And if you’re missing Brenda Song, definitely watch some old Suite Life reruns instead.