TOO LONG, TOO LIMP

56 DAYS IS A STEAMY THRILLER THAT RUNS OUT OF STEAM

- TATAT BUNNAG

Dove Cameron, left, and Avan Jogia in 56 Days.

Years after the Fifty Shades trilogy dominated pop culture, erotic thrillers have become a rarer breed. The genre hasn't disappeared entirely — last year’s breakout hit The Housemaid, starring Sydney Sweeney, proved there’s still an appetite for stories that blend sex, suspense and psychological danger — but they don’t arrive as frequently as they once did.

Prime Video's eight-episode series 56 Days attempts to fill that void, positioning itself squarely as a steamy, twist-driven mystery. And to its credit, unlike many shows that advertise themselves as provocative only to pull their punches, this one actually follows through.

Each episode runs about 45 minutes, and on the surface, 56 Days has all the right ingredients. It’s sexy, twisty and frequently eerie. At the same time, though, it’s also bloated and, in stretches, more tedious than it seems to realise.

The story centres on Oliver (Avan Jogia) and Ciara (Dove Cameron) who meet by chance in a supermarket and quickly fall into an intense, accelerated romance. Fifty-six days later, homicide investigators arrive at Oliver's apartment to discover a decomposed body.

The central question is immediate and blunt: Did he kill her? Did she kill him? The series intercuts between a single, high-stakes day in the present investigation and the increasingly tangled progression of their relationship in the past.

We watch Oliver and Ciara move from strangers to live-in lovers in a matter of days. Their chemistry is fractured and uneasy — charged, but never fully comfortable. Both characters are secretive, impulsive and faintly paranoid, driven by a volatile blend of lust and longing.