Five recent 'thrillers' to start watching during the long weekend

BarcelonaWith a long weekend ahead there is time to do many things, also to start watching those series that we have stored in the pantry because we haven't been able to get to them yet. We select five thrillers that have been released relatively recently and that guarantee a dose of adrenaline.

One of the series that has generated the most conversation this summer. A cat-and-mouse game with a feminist discourse that makes you think a lot about the Epstein case. Emmy Rossum, known for Shameless, is a police officer with a tough appearance and a somewhat distant attitude, but who carries several traumas on her shoulders. A death apparently caused by an overdose will turn into a race to catch a killer, played by Lola Petticrew (Say Nothing), who liquidates powerful men, all of them related to a case of child prostitution. Furious is a series about female rage and the violence exerted against women in different spheres. Besides the two protagonists, it is worth highlighting the work of Quincy Tyler Bernstine in the role of an FBI agent who resorts to alcohol to appease her frustration, and that of Hope Davis, who plays one of the most detestable characters in the series. The thriller from Disney+, which has already been renewed for a second season, was created by Liz Meriwether, known above all for the comedy New Girl and who here delves into a very dark territory.

Not all thrillers are fast-paced; some are slow burners. The British Gone is of this kind. Michael, a man who seems insensitive to emotions, is the headmaster of a private school who arrives home after work and realizes that his wife, Sarah, has suddenly disappeared. The house is in perfect condition and there is no sign of any violent situation. Faced with his daughter's perplexity, Michael decides to wait a few hours before reporting the disappearance to the police, and when he does, his attitude is absolutely stoic, a fact that surprises Detective Annie Cassidy. She will be in charge of being the family contact during the investigation, and the strange reactions of the missing woman's husband will intrigue her. In parallel to the investigation, Annie will relive an old unsolved case and resume her relationship with her ex. The protagonist of Gone is David Morrissey, one of the most reliable actors in British television, present in series such as Sherwood.

Curiously, one of the thrillers that has been performing best on Netflix in recent weeks is also the work of the creator of Gone, screenwriter George Kay. Here, however, we leave the United Kingdom to move to the Swedish summer, when a woman calls the police to report that she is being attacked with a knife. The two officers who go to the house of the alleged victim are found dead and there is no trace of either the woman or the attacker. Investigator Thomas Berg, who is in charge of the case, suspects that the murders may be related to the death of another officer, even though the alleged culprit is in prison. To advance the investigation, Berg will have to ask for help from a person with a brilliant mind but with whom he has a bad relationship, his father, a former police officer. For Kay, Blood Sacrifice is "a love story between a father and a son, reunited through work".

Always excessive and not a fan of subtleties, Guy Ritchie signs a second season of The gentlemen that is the perfect example of a popcorn thriller. Theo James reprises the character of Eddie, a duke who ends up at the head of a marijuana trafficking network when he inherits the family estate and discovers that his father had a parallel business that no one knew about. In this second season, the duke's ambition is completely unleashed and his obsession is to expand his illegal business to have funds that will allow him to recover the original extent of the estate and revive the splendor of the old British aristocracy. On his path to glory there will be power struggles –with his partner, Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), and with the Italian mafia–, beatings, family conflicts, and romantic drama. We do not know if The gentlemen has a long life ahead, but for the moment it has a confirmed third season that will start filming very soon, as James has explained.

Series featuring missing children are usually a common trope, but this Australian fiction on AppleTV handles it quite well. Patrick Brammall, whom we have just seen in The Devil Wears Prada 2, is a former police detective and now an emergency dispatcher who has spent eleven years traumatized by the disappearance of his daughter, Maggie, when she was 3 years old. He is convinced that the girl might be alive, even though everyone around him, including his ex-wife and the child's mother, tells him he must turn the page and assumes she is dead. When he receives a distress call from a teenager, he will set all his resources in motion to find who he believes is his daughter. Open Case has just arrived on AppleTV with two premiere episodes and will release one chapter every Wednesday until October 7th.