This is far from the first time it's done so, but Amazon is once again demonstrating that it knows the way to come up with a twisty new thriller series, ideally with some serious crime at its heart. It's turned to best-selling writer Harlan Coben to come up with a brand-new story, one starring Sam Claflin as a bereaved psychologist using strange methods to solve cold cases.
The show's first trailer is out now, ahead of its release on 22 October, and it makes the show look incredibly intriguing, not least thanks to a really bold colour palette. This is extremely noirish stuff, with splashes of green colour lighting up scenes with eery weirdness, and I'm super interested to see more of it.
Claflin, who's at times a really powerful performer, isn't the only big name in the show, though. Bill Nighy is arguably the X factor for the whole thing, playing Claflin's recently-deceased dad, with a twist. Moving back into his family home, Claflin will discover that he's very much seeing ghosts in the most literal sense.
The trailer makes it clear that this will include literal conversations with his dead dad, meaning plenty of time for the audience to get to grips with Nighy's always-magnetic way of delivering dialogue. On top of this, Claflin will have to navigate how to work with the police on cold cases where his insights might be a little hard to explain without accepting the paranormal influence on him.
It's a funky old cocktail of ideas, and much will probably depend on the old classic of whether the cold cases that get solved are entertaining to figure out – any detective or mystery show needs to tread the line between the audience starting to understand something but not being ahead of the genius detective at its heart, after all.
We'll know more about Lazarus when it starts streaming in late October, but don't rule out getting another trailer from Amazon before then. This one's so stylised that people might want a more typical look at how the show will work before it releases, after all.
