348 Best Suspenseful Movies to Watch (Page 23)

We don’t like to think about it, but there are children around the world recruited into organized crime, and sometimes, it leads to violent tragedies, the very kind we want to protect our children from. Deliver Me is a Swedish miniseries based on the best-selling novel of the same name that explores how a teen delinquent enters this vicious world. The series starts with the aftermath of an attempted murder– with Dogge holding a gun in his hands and his best friend Billy bleeding out in front of him. The cops in charge, led by Farid, hope to help him, by gaining more information about the gang they were recruited into, but it’s not an easy investigation. It’s depressing, especially when Dogge is so convinced he’d get off scot-free, and the issue is clearly important. But it also doesn’t stand out, as the series pulls off the same Netflix flair we’re already used to.

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Actor: Ane Dahl Torp, Ardalan Esmaili, Henrik Norlen, Jhullian Carlsson, Mahmut Suvakci, Yusra Warsama

The idea of a fitness instructor suddenly discovering the thrill of selling military armaments is promising in its absurdity, so it's unfortunate that Los Farad doesn't maintain this offbeat sense of humor for too long. It moves relatively quickly into tense criminal activity, but the series isn't able to really capture the magnetic pull that this world of luxury has on protagonist Oskar. Without enough table-setting, the crime family he finds himself becoming a part of can't help but seem ordinary, and the last-minute solutions he finds weaken the urgency of the situations he's in, as cinematic as they appear on screen.

Genre: Crime, Drama

Actor: Adam Jezierski, Amparo Piñero, Fernando Tejero, Igal Naor, Miguel Herran, Nora Navas, Omar Ayuso, Pedro Casablanc, Susana Abaitua

As far as heist stories go, Choona gets points for placing so much importance on the act of getting its team together. The first two episodes watched for this review don't advance forward in plot as much as they pivot from one point of view to another around the same moments in time. Unfortunately, because the series is so particular about its own structure, it loses sight of the reasons why we should be emotionally invested in the heist in the first place. There is a world of gang violence sketched out in these early episodes, but little sense of what's actually at stake. And with the show's over-reliance on voiceover narration, Choona sucks the tension out of its plot, as this seemingly omniscient voice constantly keeps us at a distance.

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama

Actor: Aashim Gulati, Arshad Warsi, Atul Srivastava, Jimmy Shergill, Namit Das, Vikram Kochhar

Director: Pushpendra Nath Misra

Rating: TV-MA

With a history of court magicians and diviners, it’s easy to imagine ancient Japan as a fantastical world. Onmyoji depicts Abe no Seimei, Japan's most famous historical court cosmologist, as he solves cases that involve the supernatural. With people turning into demons, or demons possessing people, you’d think that the anime would be mystical, fantastical, perhaps even totally crazy, as magic could free the story from normal earth-bound logic. However, Onmyoji stays on the tamer side, mostly explaining its magic through Seimei’s dialogue, and each case’s flashbacks. The show doesn’t even delve into the court politics that would drive Seimei’s rivalry with a genderbent Ashiya Doman. Onmyoji feels like a missed opportunity to go absolutely nuts with its magic.

Genre: Animation, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Daisuke Kishio, Daisuke Namikawa, Kenji Hamada, Shintaro Asanuma, Yui Ishikawa

Rating: TV-14

Though it features strong talent in front of the camera from Lena Headey and Stephan James, Beacon 23 ultimately doesn't do enough to draw us into what should be a tale of tense paranoia. It throws us directly into the story without nearly a clear enough idea of what's at stake—which may be part of the genre's appeal to some, but even our protagonists possess little to latch on to at the beginning. Even if the constant ramping up of the situation, with new secrets and betrayals revealed at every turn, is entertaining on a base level, the series just can't overcome the blandness of the overall story and of the dull, metallic greys of its production design.

Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller

Actor: Lena Headey, Stephan James

Rating: TV-MA