"56 days" Is An Addictive, Erotic Thriller That Will Keep You Guessing

Reel Perspectives

February 19, 2025

What happens when an intense love affair takes a deadly turn? Prime Video's latest erotic thriller, 56 Days, adapted from Catherine Ryan Howard's best selling novel, premiered on February 18, with all 8 episodes available for binge-watching.

Executive producers Karyn Usher and Lisa Zwerling decided to move the series from pandemic-era Dublin to present day Boston, improving the atmospheric setting for the Amazon MGM Studios and Atomic Monster production, and we're digging it.

56 days follow Oliver and Ciara, who, after meeting randomly in a supermarket, fall for each other fast and dangerously hard. Fifty-six days later, homicide investigators arrive at Oliver's apartment to find an unidentified body—brutally murdered and intentionally decomposed. Did he kill her? Did she kill him? Intercutting between an intense single day in the present investigation and the twisted trajectory of the young lovers' affair in the past, the series is both a unique crime story and a riveting, sexy, psychological thriller.

The star-studded cast features Dove Cameron as Ciara Wyse, Avan Jogia as Oliver Kennedy, Karla Souza as Lee Reardon, and Dorian Missick as Karl Connolly.

56 days delivers a lot of twists and turns in a story that feels familiar yet remains engaging and mysterious. What begins as a simple premise slowly unfolds into a tense, layered psychological drama that keeps you guessing without relying on cheap twists. Setting the tone from the beginning, it's clear that both characters are lying about several aspects of their lives as the series delves into their pasts and slowly unravels their secrets, with suspicion and emotional volatility deepening between them.

The series effectively shifts between the past and the present, and the scenes in which Boston PD detectives Lee Reardon (Karla Souza) and Karl Connolly (Dorian Missick) investigate the murder are among the best of the series, with a genuine sense of mystery about who the killer is and the motivation behind the killing.

56 Days is a strong entry that leans more towards mystery than eroticism. Through research, almost every line spoken by the characters is almost word for word from the book adaptation, which has been beautifully crafted as each episode adds layers of tension and intrigue, leading up to the shocking finale.

56 days is streaming now on Prime Video.