Five stars for this funny, sad and bonkers British thriller that breaks all the rules
Dead Hot ★★★★★
This six-part thriller is created and written by Charlotte Coben, daughter of the phenomenally popular author Harlan Coben, who’s been adapting many of his bestsellers, such as Stay Close and Fool Me Once, as part of a huge Netflix deal. Charlotte has written for many of those adaptations, but Dead Hot is distinctly her creation – and probably not what you might expect.
I’m not even sure it’s a thriller. Well, it is – but it’s also a black comedy, an audacious visual experiment and a world away from the formulaic British thriller format. None of the main characters is over 25. There’s not a farmhouse in sight.
Vivian Oparah as Jess and Bilal Hasna as Elliot are besties bonded by grief in Dead Hot.
In a highly stylised Liverpool (where most characters have London accents), twenty-somethings Jess (BAFTA-winning Vivian Oparah) and Elliot (Extraordinary’s Bilal Hasna), are bound by grief after the disappearance of Peter (Olisa Odele, who we see in flashback). Peter is Jess’s twin brother, and Elliot’s first love. Five years earlier, Peter vanished, the only clue being his severed finger.
Jess and Elliot are drifting, working crappy jobs – Jess in a new-age shop and Elliot, who is largely supported by his wealthy grandmother (Downton Abbey’s Penelope Wilton), occasionally works at a campy pet grooming business.
Penelope Wilton, pictured at her daughter’s equine-themed hen party, is Elliot’s grandmother in Dead Hot.
Trying to move on, Elliot is convinced he’s found love again when he meets Will (Marcus Hodson) at a club. But Will proves elusive after their first night, and when Elliott finally hears from him, inviting him to his flat, Elliot arrives to find nobody home – and another severed finger. This time though, it’s not a real one. Is Will taunting him? Does he know what happened to Peter? This is just one of many, many questions you will have throughout this bonkers, but compelling, series.
Penelope Wilton, Bilal Hasna and Rachael Elizabeth in Dead Hot.
Jess, meanwhile, clings to the belief her brother is alive, and has signed up to a DNA matching app (just go with it) in the hope of finding him. When she receives a match, she’s convinced it’s Peter, which leads her to a bizarre encounter in a creepy cabin in the woods.
It’s just one of many strange detours – there’s also Peter’s missing cat, which turns up at the grooming shop, a hipster bar where Jess’s DNA match sends her to take a call on a creepy red telephone, a boxing class that might be a cult, a miniature pony, a dodgy police detective (the brilliantly deadpan Peter Serafinowicz), and Elliot’s aunt’s equine-themed hen party.
Dead Hot’s surreal plot diversions (reminiscent of Edgar Wright’s work, particularly his hit series, Spaced), Gen Z soundtrack, rapid camera work and polychromatic production design might not be to all tastes, but I urge you to give it a go.
There’s genuine chemistry between Oparah and Hasna as the co-dependent besties, and while it’s a campy marriage of black comedy and thriller, the leads’ shared grief is never underplayed; the surrealism and the chaos of the narrative often acting as a reflection of the unpredictability of such sorrow. Just be prepared to go with the flow, and enjoy the frenetic, kaleidoscopic ride.
Dead Hot is now streaming on HBO Max.
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