56 DAYS OPENS with a dead body disintegrating in the bathtub of a swanky, minimalist Boston apartment.

Minutes later a fire alarm is rung, investigators are called in, and the mystery kicks off properly: who is this person, and who killed them?

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Cork writer Catherine Ryan Howard, this Prime series transplants her Covid-era Dublin setting to present-day Boston. Nonetheless, the couple at the centre of the story, Ciara Wyse (played by former Disney star Dove Cameron) and Oliver Kennedy (played by Canadian actor Avan Jogia), keep their Irish names. The one change: Ciara is pronounced see-ar-ah. 

Flashbacks

The body, it turns out, was found in Oliver’s otherwise empty apartment, and neither Oliver nor Ciara are anywhere to be found. To highlight how much of a black box this mystery is, the apartment itself is painted black, with abstract art and shiny surfaces emphasising Oliver’s swanky lifestyle. Ciara, on the other hand, lives in a termite-infested room. 

Each episode moves between the present-day murder investigation and the 56 days that Oliver and Ciara spent together. Through flashbacks we discover that Oliver (long-haired, brooding) and Ciara (sparky, tattooed) bumped into each other in a fancy supermarket and immediately embarked on a romantic entanglement that seems to have ended in one of them dead. 

Ryan Howard’s novel felt as though it dwelt very much in reality, even if it was a heightened scenario. Irish readers could recognise a lot of the settings, as well as the rather intense pandemic atmosphere in Ireland. While the series does its own thing with the story’s location, there are loads of nods to Ireland – a date at a hotel named The Westbury is kept in the series, and one scene takes place on St Patrick’s Day.

But what really kept the book grounded in reality was that the pair shacked up because of Covid restrictions. Without Covid in the screen adaptation, the writers of 56 Days have to introduce another level of machinations, but they keep – no spoilers – the main reason why one of the couple was drawn to the other in the first place.

Unlike the book, however, the audience is shown some of Ciara’s and Oliver’s hands pretty quickly. That said, there are plenty of twists and turns to come.

Chemistry

56 Days bills itself as an erotic thriller. Still, there’s more smoulder than spark between Cameron and Jogia. The sex scenes don’t exactly move the show forward, but they don’t feel alive with chemistry either. (As we’re living in a post-Heated Rivalry universe now, the bar for chemistry on screen has been well and truly lifted a few feet.)

Leaning more into the eroticism and chemistry would certainly have helped intensify the viewer’s connection to the couple. After all, the more we care about them, the more we want to figure out who killed who… if they were even involved at all.

Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia do a great line in intense, brooding looks. But because the audience recognises immediately that they’re both hiding something, we can’t really get invested in their ‘romance’, such that it is.

Detectives Lee Reardon and Karl Connolly and (Karla Souza and Dorian Missick). Courtesy of Prime Courtesy of Prime

Instead, we want to unravel that clever core mystery, knowing that we’re being wrongfooted somewhere. There’s great banter between Detectives Karl Connolly and Lee Reardon (Dorian Missick and Karla Souza), who themselves – in a subplot that’s one too many – have a few secrets up their sleeves. The building manager, Kevin Sullivan (Matt Murray) is another highlight. And yes, he too is holding some secrets to his chest. Is anyone not hiding something in this series? You can guess the answer.

You could draw a few comparisons between 56 Days and the recent Netflix adaptation of His & Hers, starring John Bernthal and Tessa Thompson. Both take a twisty-turny thriller and spin a decent story out of it, and both lean into the soapy side of TV. Another point of reference is last year’s Prime series The Girlfriend, which like 56 Days looks visually slick, is at times preposterous and yet has a gripping mystery.

From an Irish pride point of view, it’s clear that Ryan Howard was on to a winner with her novel and the compelling plot for 56 Days. Like the adaptation of Andrea Mara’s book All Her Fault, moving the action to the US showed both writers’ gift for thrilling, keep-us-guessing plots. The ending of the series, by the way, is different to the book, so don’t be put off if you’ve already read it.

Just past its midpoint 56 Days begins to feel stretched thin. It’s an eight-part series with long episodes, which might have worked better as a six-parter. But that hasn’t curbed its bingeability – the series flew to number one in the US Prime charts. 

Even if you’re not quite taken by the couple’s romance, the desire to figure out the identity of that unfortunate creature in the bathtub could compel you to keep watching. Like many series of its ilk, the key to enjoying 56 Days is to lean into the thriller elements, and accept the moments that strain belief. 

56 Days is available to watch on Prime now.