Little Birds TV review: Anais Nin adaptation fails to rise to erotic promises

It promised eroticism, sexual delights and hedonistic pleasures. But the reality of this Anais Nin adaptation was quite different.

It’s the set-up that grounds Little Birds.

If the marketing hadn’t focused so much on how erotic, sexual or seductive this new, six-episode series would be, it probably wouldn’t have been quite so disappointing when it turned out it’s anything but.

Adapted from short stories by Anais Nin, a French-Cuban writer who penned some vivid and charged erotica, Little Birds is a visually dazzling if not tonally limp production.

Set in 1955, our introduction into the heady world of “international zone” Tangier is Lucy Savage (Juno Temple), the daughter of a wealthy American weapons manufacturer. Just out of the sanatorium and with a one-year supply of a patent-pending mood-lifting drug, Lucy arrives in Tangier on a luxury steamer.

Juno Temple is the lead in Little Birds.

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She’s there to meet her soon-to-be husband, a minor British lord named Hugo Cavendish-Smyth (Hugh Skinner), a gay man who agrees to the marriage because of the promised allowance from her father – an allowance Grant Savage (David Costabile) later withholds unless Hugo shills his rocket launchers around Tangier.

Armed with her own pistol with a light trigger and a mother-of-pearl handle, Lucy is ready to take in all that the alluring Tangier has to offer, including a cast of characters such as prostitute and nationalist Cherifa (Yumna Marwan), a young, rich Egyptian man and Hugo’s lover Adam (Raphael Acloque) and the extravagant, uninhibited Contessa Mandrax (Pedro Almodovar favourite Rossy de Palma).

Tangier is a dizzying cocktail of pleasures and sins, a mecca for those looking to indulge and lose themselves. Parties, drinking and sex abound, all swirled together in Little Bird’s dreamlike aesthetic.

At least it’s visually impressive.

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If nothing else, Little Birds is a beautifully visualised series, directed by Stacie Passon with cinematography by Ed Rutherford.

The palette of rich jewel tones pop in every softly lit scene, whether it’s Lucy’s lilac two-piece set against teal walls or the violet and pink sky peeking through a window. Pause it at any moment and the neon-flared mise-en-scene could be an art photograph.

There’s liberal use of extreme close-ups and off-kilter framing to displace the audience while the costumes are lush and the production design is commanding. It all looks incredible.

And yet, despite the production values and Little Birds’ embrace of all things sexual – there are two sex scenes and a salacious story about orgasms in the first 20 minutes – there’s a cold, distancing feel to the series.

For all of its emphasis on sex and the erotic, it’s not actually sexy. Perhaps it’s the casting – few of the actors have any onscreen chemistry with each other (Temple and Marwan are the exception) or perhaps the supposedly hedonistic scenarios are out of place.

The sex scenes exist, but they feel like they don’t need to, adding only to a general “isn’t Tangier bonkers?” vibe and not much else – there’s no heat, no matter how attractive the actors are.

Hot people doesn’t equal onscreen chemistry.

Little Birds touches on the social mores of the era, exploring restrictions against homosexuality, gender inequality, the leash of wealth and privilege, and the fight against colonialism.

But it doesn’t marry these themes into its so-called eroticism, missing an opportunity to coherently use the escapism and expression of its characters’ sexual desires to add layers to the wider social story it’s trying to tell.

Instead, there are scenes that randomly segue into S&M play, or two sisters who demand an extorted employee provide them libations as if they were dogs. And, just as randomly, they segue out without the connective tissue that would bond the various stories and characters.

It’s a mishmash of intention – is it thought-provoking or titillating or, more importantly, why isn’t it both at the same time?

Weaving together a collection of short stories into one narrative was always going to be challenging, but try as it might to arouse the audience, to stir feverish desires, Little Birds mostly just exists.

But hey, if it has to be middling, then at least it’s pretty.

Little Birds is streaming now on Stan

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