Dead Ringers Season 1 Review: Rachel Weisz Shines in Twisted Twin Roles
Why settle for a show starring one complex female character when you can have a show starring two? Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twin gynecologists portrayed by Rachel Weisz in the new thriller Dead Ringers, are one of the rare sets of identical twins on television allowed to take the spotlight for something less than wholesome.
The miniseries, a modern take on David Cronenberg’s 1988 film of the same name, comes from creator-showrunner Alice Burch (Normal People). She’s joined by a team of film and television directors including Sean Durkin, Karyn Kusama, Karena Evans, and Lauren Wolkstein who helm the six episodes.
The Mantle twins share their lives with no boundaries and provide a case study of a codependent relationship taken to the extreme. The pursuit of their desires, whether it be their effort to revolutionize women’s healthcare or find personal happiness, challenges and twists that relationship into something terrifying.
Weisz is superb as the Mantles and gives the best performance playing identical characters since Tatiana Maslany’s run on Orphan Black. While Maslany had a bevy of accents and wigs to work with, the only external difference between the Mantles is Beverly’s habit of wearing her hair up.
Despite only this slight distinction you never question that there are two of them. So much so that when I checked the cast list I felt like it missed someone only to realize I was subconsciously expecting to see two actresses listed for the twins.
The Mantles make up two sides of female rage, one all chaos and one simmering repression. Beverly’s dissatisfaction and resentment bubble under the surface so that we’re often only clued into her real feelings when she’s attending a bereavement support group where she pretends her sister is dead.
Elliot’s sundry addictions, including drugs, food, and sexually harassing the husbands of patients, are a manifestation of the insatiable hunger she feels as a woman unsatisfied in the world.
Elliot is arguably the more “fun” role providing the show’s dark humor, big physical acting, and exaggerated facial expressions, but Weisz excels in both. Although the sisters may deny their individuality within the story, it’s glaringly evident on screen how different they are and how that informs their toxic relationship.
Being identical twins is a unique experience and is often treated in pop culture as something sweet (and occasionally unsettling). Dead Ringers explores how even that purest form of connection, one that starts at inception, can fester into something dangerous if abused.
Weisz’s dazzling performance alone is enough to recommend Dead Ringers. The adaptation’s decision to give the female perspective the focus also makes it stand out from the original as its own story worth watching.
There’s plenty of codependency and twisted twin antics in Cronenberg’s film, but the female perspective is limited to that of Beverly’s lover and patient. That set of Mantles’ interest in fertility is more scientific than personal.
This series explores a woman’s relationship with fertility, childbirth, and motherhood from the individual to the societal level. Beverly’s desire and subsequent difficulty to have a child is what drives Elliot’s obsessions and is what ultimately drives them apart.
What this Dead Ringers lacks in Cronenberg-style body horror it makes up for with the stark reality of a woman’s body. There’s no need to invent something newly disturbing when the miracle of childbirth is right there in all of its squelching, bloody, and painful glory.
It isn’t shy when it comes to showing graphic depictions of birth, from a delivery on the premiere to a life-altering operation on the finale. It includes the deaths of mothers and babies not for shock value but to ground the series in reality.
There is no moral judgment on whether one twin is right and one is wrong to want or not want a child, but there is a clear judgment on how the medical system treats childbirth as a disease to manage. The Mantles’ plan to open up a radical new birthing center puts into sharp relief how far they’re willing to go to change the status quo and who benefits from such efforts.
Weisz is joined by a talented, mostly female ensemble including Britne Oldford as Genevieve, Beverly’s alluring but rational girlfriend who sees through the twins’ unhealthy relationship. Other standouts include Poppy Liu as the twin’s mysterious housekeeper Greta and Jennifer Ehle as their callous investor Rebecca.
Not all of Dead Ringers‘ choices pay off, including its build-up of Greta’s secret which turns out to be much more sad than nefarious despite the show’s initial framing. The choice to feature the twins’ parents and flashbacks to their birth is a clumsy attempt to cover postpartum depression compared to how deftly it tackles similar topics.
Those notes aside, the series successfully creates a compelling story about unsustainable love and obsession set against a backdrop of real and speculative horrors.
Dead Ringers may not be the scariest show you’ll watch this year, but it will stay with you long after watching.
What did you think of this season of Dead Ringers? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Dead Ringers is streaming now on Prime Video.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.