REVIEW: ‘Echoes’ is Peak Melodrama

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Okay, I’ve seen the first six episodes of Echoes, the latest mystery-thriller from Netflix, and to be honest, what the hell is happening? Now, I’m not saying this pejoratively. Echoes is a masterclass in melodrama, eccentricity, and the good old telenovela absurdity and twists that I haven’t seen in some time.

Written and created by Vanessa Gazy, the seven-episode mystery-thriller mini-series from Netflix stars Michelle Monaghan, Matt Bomer, Jonathan Tucker, Daniel Sunjata, Karen Robinson, Gable Swanlund, and Michael O’Neill. The series follows identical twins, Leni and Gina, who share quite a bit more than looks. Both women are holding onto a dark secret, they’re as much the other sister as they are themselves.

Since they were children, Leni and Gina have secretly swapped lives, culminating in a double life as adults. Every year on their birthday, Gina switches with Leni, Leni switches with Gina, and their lives become new. They share two homes, two husbands, and a child but everything in their perfectly choreographed world is thrown into disarray when one of the sisters goes missing in their small hometown.

Echoes is best entered with no information other than the synopsis. So, this is where I tell you, reader, to click out of this review and come back later just to let the melodrama rush over you. Now, with that out of the way, let’s get to the reason Echoes succeeds in its messiness instead of losing to it: Michelle Monaghan.

Monaghan plays both Leni and Gina and is able to bring them each to life with their own individual idiosyncrasies and personalities. More specifically, it’s Monaghan’s ability to flip on a dime from Leni to Gina and back that all work to craft the tension and disbelief that fuels the mini-series. Gina is a rich writer working with an agency in Los Angeles living a big life with big money and a psychiatrist husband. She’s all about the big city and a life detached from her small-town roots. Leni, on the other hand, she’s a rancher, a mother, still has her country twang, and she’s deep in money problems.

On opposite ends, they catalog every detail of their life in a joint virtual diary, their moves, their choices, the small changes to their bodies, and their family lives. It’s how they are able to switch identities so smoothly without those around them questioning who they really are. This constant switching becomes the tension that drives the series as much as the big unraveling mystery.

As one sister finds herself stuck playing the part of two, Monaghan gets to stretch her acting muscle, highlighted especially in Episode 6 where she moves her hair to one side and completely changes. The deception that twins have woven into every part of their life pushes forward the narrative as every lie and secret bubbles to the surface.

While the switching seems like a gimmick at first, the dedication to making it the central focus of the story allows it to cause chaos and confusion that fits the tone of the miniseries. Additionally, Echoes features near seamless effects work when showing Monaghan playing against herself. With careful angles and well-matched body doubles, Gina and Leni never feel like one actress and that keeps you immersed.

Now, Echoes isn’t perfect. It’s messy and the narrative’s twists become unwieldy at times. That said, the rapid pace and absurdity of the turns are too good to not watch, and left pressing play all in a row for the next. While I’ve only seen six of the seven episodes, I’m going to be watching episode seven the moment it hits Netflix to see how this nexus of jealousy, obsession, and family drama concludes.

Echoes is streaming exclusively on Netflix now.