Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Apple TV+’s latest murder mystery The Crowded Room seems incredibly engrossing, on paper at least: in 1979 a young man, Danny (Tom Holland) is arrested for his role in the shooting of his friend Ariana’s (Sasha Lane) rapist. Believing him to be mentally unstable (and there’s about a 95% chance they’ll be right), the prosecution calls in a professor of psychology, Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried), to interview him. As Rya interrogates Danny, the audience delves ever deeper into the dark waters of this troubled young man’s psyche.
The Good
The performances are stellar. Holland, Seyfried, Lane, and supporting actors Emma Laird and Will Chase all deliver stunning performances. It’s not a stretch to say the acting is the standout star of the show, with commentators reporting it would almost work better as a film than a play.
Also, the premise is intriguing. A young man convicted of murdering his friend’s rapist is good enough without adding mental illness into the mix (and some might say the mental illness is unnecessary, anyway).
The Bad
The plot goes in circles. The Crowded Room immediately sets about throwing its spectacular premise to the wind by filling its episodes with nothing but flashback sequences. True, it’s integral to showing us how Danny came to be who he is (and setting up future plot twists), but the flashback sequences are so long and so episode-eating that at times they distract from the main plot and bog the story down.
And it’s not a very good murder mystery, anyway. By the end of Episode 3, we already know Danny was involved in the crime he’s been arrested for. Ariana’s whereabouts are unknown, but the audience can figure out where she is easily enough.
You can see the twist coming from here. Why does Ariana (and Danny’s other friend Yitzhak [Lior Raz]) always seem to disappear when we see Danny and his friends through someone else’s eyes? Why is Danny’s love Annabelle attracted to Ariana? Why is Ariana’s rapist also Danny’s abusive stepfather Marlin (Will Chase)? Why is the title The Crowded Room? The answer: because Ariana and Yitzhak are almost certainly figments of Danny’s imagination. This show was, after all, based on the story of the first man to use multiple personalities as an insanity defense, making it uniquely self-spoiling.
The Ugly
The Crowded Room is based on the nonfiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, which chronicles the story of (guess who) Billy Milligan, who was arrested in 1977 for the rape and murder of three women. Milligan was institutionalized after his dissociative identity disorder was found, and he died peacefully in 2014.
Though the real-life Milligan was not mentally sound to receive justice for his crimes, we can surmise that at least a few of his personalities were very bad people indeed. The Crowded Room, however, can’t bring itself to have such a villainous lead. Things may change in the unfolding episodes, but as it stands, the only crime he’s committed is (most likely) murdering Marlin.
Who is, you know, a sexual abuser in his own right.
The Crowded Room, by painting its protagonist in such a sympathetic light, effectively writes itself into a corner. Either it follows Milligan’s story, thus sending a message that people with DID (dissociative identity disorder, already quite a demonized group) are monsters. Or it can take the opposite route and lighten it, whitewashing the original story this is based on.
Our Verdict
When it comes down to it: skip. Though the premise of this work is very interesting and the cast is strong, it’s not enough to justify the weak writing and problematic messages of this story.
The Crowded Room is streaming now on Apple TV+.
