Falling Water taps into subconscious fears…

The premise of Falling Water is one of my top ten worst fears: someone interfering with my brain while I’m asleep, so I was already going into this preview with some trepidation. However I, foolishly, thought: ‘How bad can it be?’

The answer is bad: terrifyingly, make you question reality, please Gawd make it stop, what is happening?, levels of bad.

The worst part is that it starts off so benign with your usual television introductions to our main leads. Tess’ (our resident photographer and fashion consultant) introduction is upsetting but comes off as the loneliness of someone who longs for a family more than anything else. Burton, a corporate investigator, (and possibly the hottest man alive whose name isn’t Idris Elba or Jensen Ackles) is getting that itch that something is going on within his company, he’s just not sure what and his dreams aren’t helping. Things don’t really take a turn until we get to Take, Special Investigations Officer for the police who seems to ‘have the nose’ for insane cases. It’s his waking visions that rip the band aid off and start us down the road to crazyville.

Without giving too much away, these three have what I would call extreme empathy. It’s what makes each of them so good at their respective jobs: Tess always knows what’s going to be the next big fashion trend; Burton can always figure out when someone is doing something shady; Take can practically smell when a case is more than it seems. It’s also what’s making them targets.

Visually, the show is very film noir: day to day everything is crisp black and white, with earth tones and shade, only in dreams and visions do colors factor in and it took me far longer than it should have to notice when things were about to take a turn for the upsetting by the shift.

Our three leads are captivating from the outset. Each gives so much in their scenes (even when they’re not speaking) to make you care about them and want to see more of their worlds, that you are invested immediately in their safety and want them to realize the danger they’re in.

Overall I’m hooked into Falling Water, even if I have to watch with all the lights on, 5 out of 5 neural naps.

Falling Water Premiers October 13, 2016 on USA.