Steal: TV Show Review

Who else missed seeing Sophie Turner on their screen? I know I did. Set for a big year ahead, with a new Tomb Raider adaptation coming our way, she kicked things off as the lead actress in Amazon Prime’s new series, Steal.

Seeing as this is a British show, I've been seeing a lot of promo for it around London for the past couple of weeks, so I wanted to jump straight into it as soon as it dropped on Prime and see what the buzz was all about. Honestly, I had a really fun time with it.

If you’re an office worker, or have ever been one, the setting of this show will feel all too familiar, particularly in episode one. Watching it was especially funny for me, as it was filmed just two minutes away from the office I used to work in. It felt almost uncanny.

Sophie Turner plays Zara, an ordinary office worker in the financial heart of London. She works for Lochmill Capital as a trade processor and, on a day no different than any other, finds herself at the heart of a heist. A group of highly trained armed thieves break into the company and hold everybody at gunpoint, attempting to steal over 4 billion pounds in trades. Zara and her colleague Luke find themselves more involved than they would want to be, as they are part of the team who can process the trades and confirm the transfer with the custodian bank. After approving the transfer and not wanting to risk getting caught by the police, the robbers flee the scene. Everyone is shaken but unscathed and it seems like the story might not have much to say now that the heist is over. But episode one ends with Zara overhearing that the police is suspecting this to be an inside job. And that's when the story really kicks in.

Alongside Sophie Turner, we have the charismatic Archie Madekwe (recently nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star award), and perhaps best known for his role as Farleigh in Saltburn. He plays Luke, Zara's closest friend and coworker, who gets just as tangled in the heist as she does. The two of them make a strong team, with many of the shows’ standout moments built around the scenes they share, where their chemistry really comes through.

Jacob Fortune-Lloyd is another key cast member, playing the detective chief inspector who heads up the investigation into the heist and ends up taking a keen interest in Zara. Much like him, we’re left trying to figure out exactly what happened during, before, and after the heist, and how Zara and Luke fit into the story.

The show is quintessentially British, doing a good job at representing both the hustle and bustle of London's corporate world as well as the grittier side of working-class life, and, of course, sprinkling in the classic pub-going experience we all live for. Not an overly complicated story by any means, but one that keeps your interest piqued throughout the six episodes and makes for a good weekend watch. Perhaps not a show you spend hours overanalysing, or you might notice a few plot holes and some strange character choices being made, but one you can simply put on and enjoy for exactly what it is.

Overall, Steal is an imperfect but addictive binge-watch. I've always had a soft spot for a good British crime show, so I can easily get behind a premise like this one. It's unclear yet if the show will continue with a second season. The story wraps up by the end of episode six, with no real cliffhangers, but with shows these days, anything is possible. If it proves successful, a continuation could always happen.