"56 Days: Review: When Desire Turns Deadly.

“56 Days” arrives on Prime Video like a late-night knock at the door—sudden, unsettling, and impossible to ignore. Adapted from Catherine Ryan Howard’s bestselling novel, the series opens with a grisly discovery inside a luxury high-rise in Boston: a body decomposed beyond recognition. It’s grotesque, yes, but more than that, it’s deliberate. This wasn’t panic; it was planning. Then the clock rewinds.

Fifty-six days earlier, Ciara (Dove Cameron) and Oliver (Avan Jogia) are strangers navigating a new city and the loneliness that comes with it. A chance encounter in a grocery store—sparked by a NASA tote bag and playful banter—leads to cocktails, chemistry, and a connection that accelerates with alarming speed. First dates blur into overnight stays, and overnight stays become cohabitation. The rush feels intoxicating, reckless, and inevitable.

Boston itself feels complicit, with sleek glass towers, polished interiors, and corporate apartments that conceal as much as they reveal. Oliver’s world projects affluence and stability, while Ciara’s suggests a desire for reinvention. Both characters carry secrets, and the series understands that mystery is most potent when it lingers. Instead of revealing everything too soon, “56 Days” parcels out its revelations through shifting timelines, allowing suspicion to simmer rather than explode.

Jogia and Cameron share a subtle, persuasive chemistry. Their intimacy isn’t built on grand declarations but on proximity—the quiet thrill of being chosen. While the erotic charge is present, the real tension lies beneath: how quickly desire can override instinct and how easily vulnerability can masquerade as trust.

In the present-day investigation, detectives Karl (Dorian Crossmond Missick) and Lee (Karla Souza) peel back layers of deception with measured skepticism. Each new detail reframes what came before. Motives shift, and allegiances blur. No one emerges untouched.

By the time the final revelations unfold, “56 Days” reveals itself as more than a glossy thriller. It’s a study in accelerated intimacy—how two people can build a fantasy faster than they can uncover the truth. What begins as attraction evolves into something darker, more complicated, and far more human.

The series suggests that love is rarely the danger; it’s what we’re willing to ignore in its name.

Final Grade: B

All Episodes of “56” Days are available to stream now on Prime Video.