What can a disembodied hand from a Netflix show teach you about non-verbal communication that no textbook ever could?

If you haven’t watched Wednesday on Netflix, put it on your list — but not for the reasons you might expect.

I want to talk about Thing.

Thing is a disembodied hand. No face, no voice, no body language in any conventional sense — just a hand, moving through the world of the show. And yet Thing is one of the most expressive, emotionally compelling characters in the series. Without a face, without a voice, Thing communicates — clearly, specifically, and memorably — through movement, gesture, and timing alone.

Which makes Thing one of the most instructive teachers of non-verbal communication I’ve come across in recent pop culture.

What Thing Teaches Us About the Visual Channel

The Three V’s of communication — Verbal, Vocal, Visual — describe the three channels through which we send and receive messages. Verbal is the content of what we say. Vocal is how we use our voice. Visual is everything the audience can see.

In face-to-face communication, research consistently suggests that the visual channel carries the largest proportion of the impression we make. This isn’t just about what we wear or how we stand — it’s about the entire physical communication: gesture, movement, eye contact, facial expression, and the micro-signals that audiences process faster than conscious thought.

Thing demonstrates this principle at its absolute extreme. Strip away the verbal channel entirely. Strip away the vocal channel. What remains — the visual — is sufficient to convey complex emotion, clear intent, humour, affection, concern, and urgency. Not in a vague or ambiguous way. Specifically and unmistakably.

Hands as Communication Instruments

One of the most powerful insights from watching Thing is the communicative potential of hands, specifically.

Most speakers I work with don’t think about their hands deliberately. Their hands do something — they gesture, they fidget, they grip the lectern — but rarely as a conscious communication choice.

Thing reminds us that hands can:

Emphasise. – A gesture that accompanies a key word or concept reinforces it, making it land with more impact.

Describe. -Spatial gestures — showing size, direction, relationship — add a visual layer to verbal description that makes ideas more concrete.

Signal emotion. – Open hands communicate openness and honesty. Closed or rigid hands communicate defensiveness or tension. Hands pressed together communicate thoughtfulness or gravity.

Create rhythm. –  The movement of hands contributes to the overall pace and energy of delivery, the way a conductor’s baton does for an orchestra.

What We Can Learn From a Disembodied Hand?

The lesson from Thing isn’t that you should develop an elaborate gesture vocabulary and deploy it self-consciously. Planned, deliberate gestures tend to look exactly that — planned and deliberate, which undermines their effect.

The lesson is that your physical presence is communicating constantly, whether you intend it to or not. The question is whether it’s reinforcing your message or working against it.

A few things to notice in your own communication:

Do your gestures match your content? Enthusiastic content delivered with stiff, restrained physicality creates dissonance. Let your body reflect your message.

Are you gesturing in the “presentation zone” — roughly between waist and shoulder height? Gestures above the shoulders can feel aggressive; gestures below the waist tend to lose energy.

Are your hands visible to your audience? Hands hidden behind a lectern or kept in pockets remove a major communication channel.

The Thing Test

Next time you’re preparing to present, try Thing’s challenge: run through a section of your presentation without using words. What does your body communicate in the absence of language?

If it communicates nothing — if your physical presence is neutral to the point of absence — that’s information. Your body has untapped communicative potential that’s currently going to waste.

Thing doesn’t have the luxury of words. They use what they have with extraordinary effectiveness.

You have words and your body. Use both.