As soon as I heard this was a thriller I thought ‘sign me up!’ however his series failed to deliver what I thought had the potential to be a huge success. A body in a bath tub? Two people hiding their true identities? Secrets? Lies? All of these are a recipe to creating a suspenseful, bingeworthy limited series however, it struggles to hold any captivity longer than the first episode.
56 days is based off of the novel by Catherine Ryan Howard and follows the intense relationship between Ciara ( Dove Cameron ) and Ollie ( Avan Jogia ), in which they find themselves in a typical supermarket meet-cute. The two hit it off immediately and begin a predominately sexual relationship, their obsession for each other igniting from their first interaction. Almost instantly we learn that neither of them are who they say they are and both of them are very clearly telling lies to each other. The episodes follow two different parts of the timeline, one being from when the couple meet on day 1, to the discovery of a dead body rotting in Ollie’s apartment bathtub in which detectives Lee (Karla Souza) and her partner Karl (Dorian Missick) are trying to solve the crime. Despite the reveals of Ciara’s true intentions and Ollie’s twisted lies, the oh-my-god plot twist moments just never land. There is no tension or no shock factor to any of the narratives twists and turns, and I truly believe the intention between Ciara’s motives was revealed too early. What should of been a gripping psychological thriller, becomes a messy, flat overload of information.
Dove Cameron is one of the saving graces of this turbulent disaster. Her performance is strong and full of heart, despite her character being somewhat devious, I found it super easy to emphasise with her backstory. Dove manages to covey every single emotion and character development from just her eyes, those eyes in which manage to captivate the full narrative unfolding in scenes where her character is watching Oliver intensely. Dove and Avan bounce off each other strongly, but their lack of chemistry fails to sell their on screen relationship, even their erotic scenes just feel like they belong in a music video montage at times.
The original novel is a fantastic piece of material, but this adaptation fails to deliver that same feeling. I do think that the narrative is engaging as the episodes go on, I did find myself hooked on seeing what would happen, especially with Ciara’s family. However, I think it was bold calling itself a psychological thriller personally as it doesn’t hold that same feeling of suspense I was expected to feel. I think Avan’s magnetic portrayal of Oliver and Dove’s captivating performance as Ciara will be enjoyable for most, the unfolding of their intense relationship felt somewhat realistic and almost relatable at times. 56 Days is just predictable and the acting from our leading pair isn’t enough to drag this series out of the deep end. It’s unfortunately flat and some of the storylines unfold into a messy train wreck that becomes instantly forgettable.
⭐️