56 Days doesn't quite deserve Dove Cameron

But Cameron is the hook throughout. In episode five, a journalist investigating the story surrounding these two makes an observation about Ciara: “She has the strangest eyes; it’s like she sees through you.” Ciara is an observer letting the world around her reveal itself. She is taking notes—literally in some cases—while also calculating her next move. Most of this is done without a single word spoken; and when she does speak, she manages to say a lot with a little. Really, it’s all in her eyes. Cameron has an instinctive talent for conveying a page’s worth of dialogue and character growth with a single unflinching look. And those eyes go a long way to bridging the shortcomings of the story at hand.

Jogia has a steeper hill to climb. Also a mainstay for a young audience (going back to Nickelodeon’s Victorious), the actor has to play both predator and prey. He is the fixation of Ciara’s attention, but he has his eyes set on something else, with his status giving him authority (or at least a perceived sense of it). His story is much more introspective, requiring a different kind of wordless anguish than Cameron’s calculating character, and Jogia is very good at bringing depth to Oliver’s privileged and insular world. Dancing around any real plot points for Ciara and Oliver is, unfortunately, a hazard of the job when writing about this series, which doesn’t reveal its true intentions until they are already deeply intertwined. But that is also part of the problem. There is just too much excess here. 

For one thing, the 56-days framework is largely irrelevant. Ciara and Oliver’s passion, combustibility, and potential are distilled through their own agendas, not that particular timeline. Also, those aforementioned detectives are far too preoccupied with their own issues to really delve deep into the case, and the murder-mystery part of this story never really gets off the ground. As such, for a thriller like this (especially one with a decomposing body), the stakes feel remarkably low. 

Cameron and Jogia have chemistry and clearly have fun playing off their characters’ respective demons. But it isn’t enough to buoy the weight put on their shoulders in carrying this overly long season. Their collective impact also wanes the further these two get into their relationship, as they make some decisions that feel emotionally and logically disconnected from what the audience is seeing. 56 Days ultimately exists to further Cameron’s slow but steady rise. Her natural gravitas lifts up a story that’s almost as soggy as that body soaking in the tub.  

Hunter Ingram is a contributor to The A.V. Club. 56 Days premieres February 18 on Prime Video.