Based on a 2021 novel by Catherine Ryan Howard, "56 Days," which premiered Wednesday on Prime Video, is billed as an "erotic thriller," which means that every so often, or at least until the main characters are too distracted by the thriller part, the action will stop for a sex scene in a car, an alleyway or even a bed; these are relatively succinct, and more suggestive than explicit, with only a little bit of nudity. Sorry, if that's what you were hoping for.

We open in the present, where we meet a decomposed body in a fancy bathtub, before fast rewinding to "Day 1," when Oliver (Avan Jogia) and Ciara (Dove Cameron) meet in a grocery store. We feel from the beginning that this is not accidental, but just who's arranging it is not clear. They engage in strained banter that for all I know mirrors the way their generation talks when flirting over cucumbers but also sounds like bad writing, and plays as bad acting — but might be meant, after all, to signal that something is a little off. Soon enough we'll learn that neither is who they say they are, and that Oliver, at least, is hiding from a dark past, although hiding in pretty much plain sight.

They are modeled as attractive opposites. He works at an architectural firm, not as an architect. She tells him she works in IT. He lives in a company-owned apartment full of dark, polished surfaces and bad modern art; she lives in a rundown apartment furnished with termites. He has a sleep disorder, which he tries to tame with yoga, meditation and prescription drugs. She has a Future Farmers of America sweatshirt. He is bearded and buff; she is a porcelain doll with Wednesday Addams hair and skin. She's the cooler customer; he runs hot. He can be paranoid, but she snoops around a lot. He smells of money, and she has a family whose house is about to be repossessed. They do agree that kombucha tastes bad and is too expensive, and seem to share an interest in space travel, though we also see that she's done some cramming on the subject.

Meanwhile, in the scenes labeled "Today," detectives Lee (Karla Souza) and Karl (Dorian Missick) are investigating the body in the tub — so decomposed by whatever it is the killer put in the water that it cannot quickly be identified as male or female, but we know from cross-cutting that the bathtub is in Oliver's apartment.

There's nothing new about a story that runs on dual timelines, in which the past eventually catches up with the present, though "56 Days," developed by Lisa Zwerling ("ER") and Karyn Usher ("Prison Break"), leans into it hard, with titles representing whatever day we've come to. It's not a bad conceit — the viewer plays detective in the past-set scenes, and the detectives sort through the mess the earlier scenes have left behind, (I haven't read the book, but I can tell from the blurbs and Goodreads reviews that the plot of the series differs substantially from the novel, and contains a lot of additional business; like many such shows in the eight-hour streaming ecosystem, it is somewhat overstuffed.)

Past and present form essentially two discrete stories, different in tone, dialogue, camerawork and acting styles; they might belong to two entirely different series. Some secondary characters from the past-set scenes spill into the present — also in the mix are a psychiatrist (Patch Darragh) for Oliver, whom we are to regard as potentially unstable, a freelance journalist (Kira Guloien), who Really Needs That Story, a sister (Megan Peta Hill) for Ciara, who smokes and has unkempt hair, and Oliver's nice boss (Alfredo Narciso), who knows his secrets. But Oliver and Ciara never meet Lee and Karl.

I am guessing that "erotic" will draw more eyes than "thriller" — thrillers are a dime novel a dozen nowadays, and more often than not are described as "gritty," which, decomposed body aside, this is not, and even that is more gooey than gritty. The camera takes time to adore the young protagonists, to admire their excellent surfaces, to look them straight in their moody, broody, serious eyes. Still, this aspect of "56 Days" can run to silliness — as is often the case when "erotic" enters the equation, leading to a line like, "We can drink our drink and pretend to be interested in whatever it is we're talking about, but we aren't really going to be listening are we?" One scene, involving giant fans, re-creates Leo and Kate on the prow of the Titanic.

It's not a bad show at all, but what kept it afloat for me were the detectives as they walked through the familiar business of combing through crime scenes, "Dragnet"-dry and droll, proposing theories (many of which we know are wrong) and interviewing persons of interest. ("Can you just call for a warrant so we can go eat?" is the sort of thing they get to say.) Each has been given extraneous dramatic business, perhaps to balance the scales with Oliver and Ciara, and to underscore that this is a show about two sets of couples, their trust issues and their need for one another. Or perhaps to fill time. But the actors handle it handily.

With her hair tied back in a practical bun, Souza ("Home Economics," "How to Get Away With Murder") is especially good, doing a lot by doing a little, real in a way that not every character here gets to be, and Missick partners her perfectly. Not for the first time in my TV watching career did I wish that detectives from a limited series might be transferred into a show of their own.

———

'56 DAYS'

How to watch: Prime Video

———

©2026 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.