‘12 12 12’ (2026) Apple TV Series Review - A Heist Thriller Lost in Its Own Timelines

Whenever I finish watching most shows nowadays, the one thought that definitely comes to my mind is, "Well, they used to make nice, tight, and quite enjoyable movies out of stories like these." It's very painful (mentally) and exhausting to sit through those same stories when they are forcibly, unnecessarily stretched for an eternity. Yes, those six or eight or ten hours seem never-ending. A great filmmaker can conjure greatness out of any canvas of his choice, be it small or big. A mediocre director, on the other hand, will always numb you with mediocrity, no matter whether the canvas is small or big. Still, I would prefer them to have the smaller canvas because those eight hours don't always swiftly go by. What's more, the stories that they extend to XL size fail to surprise you both in terms of plot and character development because those stories are recycled and unimaginative, which is why some shows resort to superficial tricks like nonlinear narratives to create an illusion of interest and surprise.

12 12 12, created by Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton, is one such series (among many similar series). Every episode of this heist thriller opens with a line explaining that a professionally executed heist takes 12 months of meticulous planning, 12 hours to execute, and, if the culprits aren't found within 12 days, they will never be found by the authorities. How true is this logic? Ask the FBI. All I can comment on is that the show uses this mantra to cut between three different timelines—12 months before and leading up to the heist, 12 hours during the heist, and 12 days following the heist—to produce cliffhangers and thrills. There are cliffhangers, all right (the scene will cut to a different timeline when, say, a character, during an urgent situation, is caught by the police), but there are no thrills. A heist story derives its juice from clever planning, clever red herrings, and clever twists. There is also the question of how the thieves would evade the authorities.

12 12 12 spoils much of that fun by jumping forward in time to show that the characters have come out of a particular mission alive and successful. And so, when it returns to a tense moment during the mission, we already know that, whatever may happen, this person is not getting caught or is not going to die at this point. What's left, then, is to see exactly how the person will overcome the obstacle in front of him, but when you know the final outcome, the process loses most of its appeal. There is also the matter of the process being nothing you haven't seen in other similar shows and films. So, at the level of twists and turns, 12 12 12, if not immediately, then after a while, doesn't feel very shocking. The secrets that it does hold close to its chest are also not that stunning, given that you do manage to accurately guess some of them, while the others turn out to be along the usual lines of Z setting X up as a mole or traitor to Y, only for X to be revealed as loyal to Y and eventually betray Z. Perhaps one might have been gasping at such diversions if one were not so beaten down by the tedium that affects your nerves when you sit through something this long and unoriginal. And once you are mentally detached from the show, your mind wanders in various directions and comes up with some pretty solid answers that put you two steps ahead of the show, thus undermining all its exertions and efforts. This is why 12 12 12 does itself no favors by drawing itself out like a self-important drama of prestigious proportions.

Maybe the creators don't want you to be really awed by carefully thought-out schemes. Maybe they know that you know that robbers in a heist come out victorious, which is why they don't mind showing you the future. Perhaps all Keeble and Appleton actually want is to present emotionally fragile and grieving men out to conquer the world or take vengeance. Paul Galvin (Jamie Dornan), after all, is described by someone as a psychopath, a man who enjoys taking risks and pulling off daring stunts. He apparently has a soft spot for Bobby (Jack Kesy), his elder brother, who also happens to be his best audience. Paul loves to be applauded by Bobby—or at least, that is what someone says about him. Jack Strickland (Anthony Mackie), meanwhile, is all gloomy and determined to catch the person responsible for his colleague's demise. He is an FBI agent, and the man he is looking for is Paul, since he believes Paul shot his partner during a heist. What happens when you are overly determined to catch a target but your colleagues are not on the same frequency? How desperate will you become to complete your personal objective? These questions might sound serious, but fret not; the answers 12 12 12 supplies are mere "gotcha!" twists. They are neither psychologically deep nor dramatically disturbing. They merely indulge in the tried-and-tested conventional game of rug-pulling. The tone of the show is also not so "out there" and eccentric that you can enjoy the twists for their junky absurdity.

The constant shift between different time phases also robs the series of tension. A train collision sequence, for instance, might have been more nail-biting if the tension had been sustained instead of hitting the pause button at a particular junction, only to revisit it in the next episode and resume the thrill. 12 12 12 thinks it's boiling you with anticipation through "we will come back to this later" smirks when, in reality, it's all just terribly deflating. Even a promising scene inside a cabin located in a snowy mountain doesn't reach a delirious pitch, which is unfortunate given the amount of juice that could have been extracted from the fact that the characters begin to look at one another through suspicious eyes. There is no sense of slowly mounting dread or a mood of hostility. All we get are a few lines in which the characters essentially say, "You could be a snitch." Then again, that's to be expected from a show that seems to have spent all its efforts and energies on finding appropriate ways to divide the story between three timelines. 12 12 12 might know when to cut and where to cut from one 12 to the other 12 and the other before returning to the initial 12. What, however, it doesn't know is how to make all the 12s visually and verbally engaging, absorbing, and exciting. Without real creativity, all Keeble and Appleton can do is hide behind ostentatious narrative shifts.

A bad or mediocre show reveals itself in 12 minutes, makes you want to take a 12-day-long vacation, and, if it doesn't evaporate from your head within 12 seconds after the end credits roll, then it starts affecting your taste and your neurons negatively. How true is this? Well, ask all those people who are tired of streaming unreasonably long shows on all these streaming services. You will find material for a psychological thriller just waiting to be greenlit.

Final Score - [4.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 8 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: November 13, 2026, on Apple TV+, with the first two episodes followed by a new episode every Friday.