Fancy a 10-hour break in Ibiza full of sex, drugs, raves and murder?
Well, Netflix has an ideal getaway in the form of new thriller White Lines, from the brain of Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) creator Álex Pina.
The series follows troubled Mancunian family woman Zoe Walker (Laura Haddock) who travels to Ibiza in search of answers about what happened to her brother Axel (Tom Rhys Harries) twenty years prior.
Two decades after disappearing, Axel’s body has been found and soon more questions about the past come bubbling to the surface.
Zoe finds herself reunited with his best friends: washed-up drug dealer Marcus ( Daniel Mays ), sexual provocateur Anna ( Angela Griffin ), and New Age spiritualist guru David ( Laurence Fox ).
It soon becomes increasingly clear that Axel had some tense connections with the wealthy Calafat family, including a romance with beautiful Kika Calafat (Marta Milans) and rivalry with her brother, ambitious Oriol Calafat ( Juan Diego Botto ).
Plunged deep into the criminal underworld, drugs scene, wild nightclubs, and steamy possibilities with a local bouncer named Boxer ( Nuno Lopes ), Zoe finds dark truths about the past including facts that will change her life forever.
In fact, its the haunted Zoe’s journey that gives White Lines its emotional strength, with Laura Haddock giving a strong melancholy through-line to a show with exciting subplots, gorgeous settings, and dramatic twists and turns.
However, the voice-over device applied to the show may grate on some - as it does with Pina's other series, Money Heist.
There are also some other likeable turns from the rest of the ensemble, with Danny Mays making an empathetic figure as an aged raver who only wants to provide for his family and be with the woman he loves, his complicated ex (Griffin).
Milans also stands out as the sweet Kika, as does Nuno Lopes in the role of the series’ bad boy and unlikely romantic lead, Boxer, who represents the danger and lure of the island for Zoe.
The particularly debaucherous flashback scenes add texture to all for the main characters and are anchored by a charismatic turn from the enigmatic performance of newcomer Harries as Axel alongside a killer soundtrack.
The mystery, naturally, builds into a complicated whodunnit, and the increasingly disturbing machinations and relationship dramas of the Calafat family give a wow-factor soap-opera quality to proceedings.
With lush Instagram-filter worthy shots of blue ocean waters, luxury villas, sensual sex scenes, and bloody confrontations on yachts and in clubs, there’s something of everything you could want for a binge-watch in lockdown from this addictive Ibiza-set thriller.
Verdict
White Lines is a glamorous, violent, sexy, and colourful thriller with a great lead turn from Laura Haddock and a stunning location in Ibiza is a sunny escape for these lockdown days.
White Lines is available now on Netflix.
What do you think of White Lines? Let us know in the comments below.
