By Anne Brodie
Amazon / Acorn TV’s old fashioned pulse pounder Steal is a clever finance thriller that reveals itself slowly and assuredly; but its sense of dread and audacious twists is pure catnip. Set in a London business district high rise, it follows two successful young traders – Zara (Sophie Turner) and her best friend, the slightly less self-confident Luke (Archie Madekwe). They’re close and spend time together. One afternoon, three thieves, armed with machine guns, burst into their office. They are clearly well trained. Terrified staff is on the ground, hands over heads, guns trained on them; Luke manages to signal to a man in a window across the street to send police and is then shot and injured. The thieves mean business. They tell Sophie and Luke, once identifying them as lead traders, to transfer from four accounts into theirs. Four billion pounds in investors’ pensions and insurance money into an offshore account. Sirens tip off the thieves who escape having fulfilled their dastardly mission and police show up. Detective Rhys (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) IDs Zara as the staffer who put through the trade and grill her. Luke’s reduced to tears and cowardice and when staffers are sent home, he hides in a dark closet where he stays, terrified of what may come, and finds wires confirming he’s under surveillance. Zara’s at home frantically working on her laptop revealing to us what really went down. And Det. Rhys sees her escaping her home through a window. Buckle up folks, this riveting six-parter delivers shock after shock. The use of hand held cameras, and a jarring score ramp up the anxiety. Streaming now.