Netflix’s focus is on keeping users engaged with its platform—so much so that whether we’re actually watching barely seems to matter anymore. The streamer’s new mantra, “What’s Next?,” says it all: it’s less about the substance of its stories or their ability to hold attention, and more about keeping the binge-watching cycle alive. That’s why most Netflix Originals blur together; if you’ve seen one steamy thriller, murder mystery, or action romp, you’ve seen the bulk of what Netflix offers.
Sadly, His & Hers isn’t an exception to this. This polished thriller about betrayal and lies in a small Southern town checks all the boxes of its genre. The mystery opens with a beautiful woman’s body—stabbed repeatedly and left on her car hood—found in the woods, but who killed her takes a backseat to the complications (and endless infidelities) her death uncovers. His & Hers is mostly a show about steamy secrets: everyone’s attractive, everyone’s driven by desire, and everyone’s a suspect. What makes it watchable, beyond its formulaic steamy mystery beats, is the estranged couple at the center—Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal—and their twisted path back to each other.
The first of many tangled twists in His & Hers is that Anna Andrews (Thompson) and Jack Harper (Bernthal) are married. Jack, a detective who’s lived his whole life in Dahlonega, GA, is one of the first on the crime scene. Anna, an investigative reporter, arrives from Atlanta just as her hometown wakes up to the gruesome murder of a local. While police tiptoe around case details, Anna relishes her inside scoop. She hasn’t been in Dahlonega for a year—not even seeing her husband—but she’s quick to reveal that Jack had a personal link to the victim, Rachel Hopkins (Jamie Tisdale).
To be clear, Anna isn’t entirely innocent either. In a town like Dahlonega, everyone knows everyone—and Anna once knew Rachel best. Rachel was the queen bee of their all-girls Catholic school, and Anna was one of the lucky few in her inner circle. Flashbacks to their school days explain Anna’s lingering resentment and could even make her a suspect. As the only Black woman in a overwhelmingly white town, it’s fair to say she’s long seen her hometown’s dark side and the evil its residents are capable of. Her suspicious dependence on this case only clarifies her role in it; it also brings His & Hers close to finding its own identity.
It would make sense—even be interesting—if Anna killed Rachel, because she had plenty of motive. The more scandalous the story gets, the closer Anna is to reclaiming her job at Atlanta’s top news station, pushing out the perky blonde reporter who replaced her. The only person more suspicious than Anna is Jack: he and Rachel had a secret affair for months—and he was the last to see her alive before her body turned up in the woods. He’s also the worst person to lead the investigation, and he misuses that power every step of the way, frustrating his ultra-capable partner Priya (Sunita Mani, who deserves her own detective series).
His & Hers delights in the idea of unfaithful spouses getting even—from Rachel’s widower Clyde (Chris Bauer) to Richard (Pablo Schreiber), the husband of Anna’s work rival who serves as her cameraman and after-hours lover. But at its core, it’s about the pain of secrets—especially those between Anna and Jack. More than a mysterious death separates them; there are years of hurt, including the loss of a child. Thompson and Bernthal bring these vulnerabilities to life, even when the writing falls short. Though Anna says every story has two sides, you can’t help but hope hers and Jack’s will align—that they’ll stand together against the world, for better or worse.
Even if they didn’t kill Rachel, both Anna and Jack contributed to her death. What’s satisfying about His & Hers is its commitment to the gray areas of this broken marriage. Thompson and Bernthal stay at the heart of the chaos as bodies pile up, a potential serial killer emerges, and twists get increasingly daring. His & Hers might play it too safe to stand out from similar shows, but it hits brilliance when it fully embraces its racy premise. Without that consistency, the lead duo brings enough heart to lift this mystery beyond just being bingeable.