Heist shows are ubiquitous on streaming services, but heist shows where there’s a central couple that have a lot of chemistry with each other are somewhat less common. But most of them are often similar in style, which is slickly-filmed with a lot of pop music and camera cuts. The lighting is about as bright as you can get. A new Spanish heist series follows this model.
Opening Shot: A man and a woman drive down the Las Vegas Strip. “Rui and I were never a normal couple,” says Amber Deval (Silvia Alonso) about the man next to her, Javier Ruiz (Álex González). “In fact, Rui and I were never a couple. It was part of a job.”
The Gist: Amber is a master thief who tends to work alone. But for this job in Vegas, she was paired with Rui, who was good at misdirection and opening the electronic lockbox where the jewels they were supposed to steal were in. As we see a montage of the two casing the hotel and casino and making their plans for the heist, Amber says in voice over that she did the one thing master thieves don’t do, which is fall in love with their partner in crime.
As part of the plan, the two of them get married at a mass Elvis-and-Marilyn themed wedding. The plan works perfectly, and the two of them celebrate in a local motel; Rui talks about the next thing on his wish list, St. Agatha’s Tiara. It’s somewhat cursed, but he loves the romantic story behind it. It also helps that the jewels on the tiara are worth about $240 million. Immediately, gunshots ring out, and as the thieves return fire, Rui is hit. He tells Amber to run; she does, though she regrets leaving Rui behind to die in that hotel room.
Three years later, Amber is working as an au pair for the Villegas family, who are all flying to a remote island for the wedding of Lucia (Alicia Jaziz), daughter of billionaire Emilio Villegas (Asier Etxeandia) to nerdy bird expert Jaume (Jan Buxaderas). Amber is taking care of Lucia’s younger brother Edgar (Eduardo Gómez Chipres). But she’s also there to fulfill Rui’s dream of stealing the tiara, which the Villegas family owns and keeps protected under many layers of security; Lucia is wearing it as part of her wedding ensemble.
Amber’s plan is to steal the jewels in the tiara during the rehearsal, and she has an elaborate scheme planned, including feathers from a rare bird that will distract Jaume. She almost succeeds to get the jewels, when a tsunami alarm goes off. She realizes it’s not real, and is surprised to see who is standing at the door of the vault, waiting to take the jewels themselves.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The slick production style of Suspicious Minds reminds us of the series The Company You Keep, which was Milo Ventimiglia’s first series after This Is Us.
Our Take: Although we didn’t reveal who was standing at the door of the vault, you might have a good idea who it is, given the fact that both Alonso and González are in the promotional material for Suspicious Minds. The series, created by Verónica Marzá, Pablo Roa and Fernando Sancristóbal, is an action heist thriller that’s supposed to be full of twists and turns, but the first twist is one of the least surprising ones we’ve seen in awhile.
That being said, though, we like how the creators go through the steps both Amber and Rui took to get themselves to where they were in that vault, but only after establishing how good they were as a team by showing the Vegas heist first. They both are excellent at their respective strengths and make plans for lots of eventualities that may arise.
It’ll be fun to see them working together and competing for the tiara, depending on the situation. She obviously now has trust issues with him, but the fact that she fell for him to begin with might fill the normally confident Amber with doubts. We also think that Rui has feelings for her, too, and wasn’t just setting her up for an extremely long-term payoff.
It seems that the first season will be taking place in and around Lucia’s wedding, and we still have to get a feel for just how the Villegas family’s hyper-privilege will play into this heist. It seems that Emilio Villegas is a pretty ruthless guy, and Amber knows it; how she and Rui will get back to the tiara without blowing their cover in his presence will be interesting.
One other thing that will likely keep us watching is the chemistry between González and Alonso. It wasn’t as red hot as the show’s writers might have imagines it would be, but there was still a natural rapport that comes through, which should help scenes where they’re fighting as much as the ones where they’re being romantic.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: We leave Amber and Rui trapped in the vault, with Rui unconscious from Amber’s drug-laced kiss.
Sleeper Star: Antonio Pagudo is Julio, the Villegas’ head of security on the island. We get the feeling that his role is going to be more involved than just greeting people and shepherding the tiara to the vault.
Most Pilot-y Line: Amber and Rui talk to the officiant who will run the mass wedding, and when the officiant asks what “their song” is, Rui says “‘Suspicious Minds’, by the King.” Look, it’s plausible that these two have heard the song enough to make it a favorite, but would they pick the song if that wasn’t a theme of the whole series (and its English title)?
Our Call: STREAM IT. There’s enough dumb fun and sexual chemistry in Suspicious Minds to make it fun to watch. It’s not exactly going to tax your brain, but that’s the entire point of slick shows like these.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.