While Apple TV Plus might be finest identified for its consolation meals comedies and big-budget style swings, the streaming service has additionally steadily constructed up a lineup of very intense thrillers. The newest is Surface — to not be confused with Suspicion, Severance, or Servant, additionally accessible on the service — which takes the concept of a thriller to its most excessive conclusion. The early episodes are nearly completely made up of questions and misdirection. I can’t even inform if the present is even any good at this level — however I do know I must hold watching to search out out.

Surface is centered on Sophie (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who you would possibly keep in mind from Loki, Doctor Who, and the perfect episode of Black Mirror), 5 months faraway from an accident that precipitated near-complete amnesia. She has no reminiscence of who she is or the folks round her and is making an attempt to piece collectively her life primarily based on every kind of clues: previous telephone messages, medical and monetary data, temporary flashes of goals or recollections, and the assorted issues her family and friends inform her.

The core thriller, at the least initially, has to do with Sophie’s accident. It’s handled as a suicide try, with Sophie apparently leaping off of a ship in the midst of nowhere but miraculously surviving. But nearly instantly, she begins to doubt what occurred. For starters, her life appears fairly idyllic, with some shut buddies, a giant home, and a well-off husband (performed by Oliver Jackson-Cohen), so she doesn’t perceive why her previous self would wish to depart all of it. She turns into suspicious fairly rapidly. It begins out as small emotions — supposed buddies she doesn’t join with, garments that don’t appear to suit proper — however principally, it’s as a result of almost everybody in her life is clearly mendacity to her.

The primary suspect is her husband, James, who shifts from doting accomplice to obsessive, manipulative creep — and as anybody who has seen The Haunting of Bly Manor is aware of, Jackson-Cohen is superb at taking part in an obsessive, manipulative creep. But there’s additionally the detective assigned to her case who gained’t depart her alone, her unnaturally peppy bestie who’s clearly hiding issues, and even her therapist, who’s intent on reminding Sophie that her recollections are by no means, ever coming again. Given her lack of current reminiscence, parsing what’s really true and who she will belief is an almost unattainable process.

There’s not a lot in regards to the present or this idea that’s authentic. Hell, there’s even a scene the place Sophie follows the deal with on a matchbook she stumbles throughout. But Surface makes an attempt to make up for its lack of originality by 1) being very trendy and enjoyable to take a look at and a couple of) piling on the mysteries to an nearly overwhelming diploma. The first three episodes function nearly zero solutions. Instead, you’re consistently being launched to new twists in Sophie’s life; even when it looks like a thriller is solved, the reply solely brings new questions.

Of course, that is all properly and good for getting viewers hooked. It has definitely labored for me to this point. It helps that each Mbatha-Raw and Jackson-Cohen are extraordinarily good at ratcheting up the stress. (If you’re in search of one thing to calm your nerves afterward, I’d suggest watching Maya Rudolph have numerous enjoyable in Apple TV Plus’ Loot, the one good present about billionaires.) But there’s no actual sense of the place Surface goes at this level, and there’s solely so lengthy that questions can maintain a present — that’s true irrespective of how creepy the primary suspect is.

The first three episodes of Surface are streaming on Apple TV Plus on July twenty ninth, with the remainder of the eight-episode sequence releasing weekly.