Editor's Note: The article below has spoilers for the finale of Fatal Attraction Season 1.Fatal Attraction as a story is one that, for decades, was about how women would go crazy based on what the men in their lives did. It was initially not a story that was sympathetic to its female characters. What the new television series, which is based on the 1987 movie, has done is give a more open-minded view of Alex Forrest. Played by Glenn Close in the 1987 movie, she was labeled as the "crazy" woman. In the television series, she's played by Lizzy Caplan and she's given a little more nuance to not only her mental health issues but her own relationship to Dan Gallagher (played by Joshua Jackson).
When Alexandra Cunningham decided to take a new look at the series (as showrunner), she focused the story not only on Alex getting a more sympathetic look but we also got to see what this all did to Ellen. Dan Gallagher had a young daughter in the movie and the show has Vivien Lyra Blair playing Ellen when she's younger, during the affair. But we also get a perspective of Ellen having her father back in her life years later when he's trying to go out of his way to prove that he did not kill Alex Forrest.
The show twists who kills Alex. In the film, Dan's wife Beth (who was played by Anne Archer) ends up killing Alex in the end. The show has Arthur, a man who was friends with Dan and Beth and who would go on to marry Beth (played by Amanda Peet) in the modern day side of things. What the show really highlights though is that Ellen is the one character who sort of gets left on her own without answers and we see the aftermath of it in the finale.
Ellen Was Not Protected In the Movie
It's easy to forget about Ellen when you're watching the movie but the show goes out of the way to make sure that adult Ellen, played by Alyssa Jirrels, is explored and we see exactly what Alex's death, Dan's betrayal, and how her mother and step-father coped with it affected her in the end. In talking about the finale with The Hollywood Reporter, Cunningham talked a lot about how her reasoning for wanting to do the show was to explore what Ellen would feel about the situation.
"One of the things that really got to me is the daughter," she said. "I’ve always watched Ellen going through all of this emotional trauma and wondered, “How is she processing all of this?” The movie ends on the cold shot of the family, like it’s all going to be okay. Like they’ve escaped the clutches of this harpy, and now they can move forward. I was thinking to myself, “It’s 1987, there’s a distinct possibility they might have decided to deal with it by just never talking about it again and hoping Ellen forgot.” But, we don’t forget anything so, how is she processing all of this emotional violence that she’s just gone through the last few weeks? And how does she take that forward into adulthood? Especially given that her father, who is supposed to be her protector, is the instigator of all of it? What does it mean for love and trust and relationships?"
She went on to talk about how getting to do the show meant that she could explore Ellen's dynamic and what Alex's memory did to her. "That was something I could actually explore if I was going to do a series. I could explore the effect of that on Ellen and how the body keeps the score. And also, write about fathers and daughters, which is something that fascinates me. Also, having done a show where Hugh Laurie played a neuropsychiatrist [in Hulu’s Chance] who was based on a real person who was our mental health consultant, who read all the scripts and then talked to the actors whenever they had questions, and learning about personality disorders and the genetic pathways that are necessary for them to take root, and also learning about people who are trauma advocates, and what a difficult job that is as a human being who has bad days to not take your emotions out on someone who is less powerful than you who is going through chaos [Alex works in victim services in the L.A. court system where Dan is a prosecutor]."
Fatal Attraction as a show is something that is how we can re-examine a story that we know extremely well with a modern lens and the series does it incredibly well. Check out the trailer below: