What Prime Video's Chloe tells us about the dark potential of social media.

The perils of social media is a topic that has been discussed many times before, but never with as much cleverness, thrills, and raw human emotion as can be found in the new series Chloe. 

The new Prime Video series tells the story of a twenty-something woman called Becky, played by Erin Doherty, who works a series of uninspiring office temp jobs while living with her mother, who has early onset dementia.

Becky appears to trudge through her life with a cloud of weary defeat hanging over her, but there's one pastime she applies a razor-sharp focus to and that is obsessively stalking the social media accounts of a glamourous young woman named Chloe (Poppy Gilbert).

Watch: Take a look at the trailer for Chloe on Prime Video. Post continues below.

A quick glance at Chloe's Instagram account would make you believe that her life is nothing more than a series of idyllic cocktail catch-ups with her equally glamorous friends. 

Even more intriguing is that after Chloe's surprising death, the audience soon begins to piece together the fact that Becky and Chloe might have been former friends. 

Her death sets Becky's con-artist ways on a more focused path of deception online, and she then attempts to slink her way into the life Chloe has left behind.

Erin Doherty first caught our attention via her scene-stealing role as Princess Anne in The Crown, and with Chloe she is really given a leading role to sink her teeth into. Image: Prime Video. 

Chloe was created, written, and directed by Sex Education's Alice Seabright who deftly uses the psychological thriller setting to reflect – and then magnify – the envy and obsession so many of us feel when watching other people's lives through social media. 

The character of Becky may take it further than any one of us ever would (hopefully) but we have all, at one time or another, felt our lives unworthy compared to the glossy photos we see on Instagram; leading us to slide into someone else's world, even if it means leaving our own behind. 

So much of the success of Chloe hinged on finding an actress who could convey the complexity of Becky, bringing to life both her empty inner pain and her sly deceptiveness, and actress Erin Doherty is magnificent in this role.

After the funeral, Becky set her sights on Chloe's friend Livia (Pippa Bennett-Warner). Image: Prime Video. 

Erin Doherty first caught our attention via her scene-stealing role as Princess Anne in The Crown, and with Chloe she is really given a leading role to sink her teeth into.

With her performance, Erin brings a vulnerability to Becky where you'll find yourself willing her not to get caught as she slashes someone's tyres or lies her way into a family home. In that same breath, you'll also be chilled by the calculated way she manipulates everyone around her and exploits the pain of people who have lost a loved one.

Chloe is very much a mixture of Single White Female and Inventing Anna, especially when it comes to watching a young woman craft an opulent web of lies around herself in order to assume a new identity, but the series also takes a deeper look into the psychology of why this would happen. 

The six-part series is also a murder mystery as questions about Chloe's death, and the reason why she called Becky shortly before her death, begin to bubble away below the surface as the police close in on Becky and Chloe's inner circle slowly becomes suspicious of her alter-ego 'Sasha'.

Becky also learns that Chloe's life may not have been as perfect as it appeared to her online, leading us all to think twice about the stories behind the accounts that we covet. 

Every episode of Chloe will have you hooked right until the very end. It will make you examine the eerily dark potential of social media, particularly on how easy it is to gain access to the details of someone else's personal life. 

The locations you frequently tag when you're grabbing your regular coffee or brunch. 

The identifiable parts of your street you've posted to your Instagram Stories.

The humble-brags of identifying exactly where you work. 

The very visible inner circle of friends you always tag.

And just how easy it is for a master manipulator, storing every detail, to piece it altogether and walk straight into your very open life.

It'll have you questioning the very complicated feelings you have about your own social media usage, while also making you wary of how much of your life you share online for strangers to find.

If you're in the market for a clever psychological thriller, you'll want to devour every moment of Prime Video's Chloe. 

Watch the new series, Chloe, coming to Prime Video on June 24, 2022.

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Feature Image: Prime Video.