‘Nemesis’ (2026) Netflix Series Review - An Empty Cat-and-Mouse Thriller

I found this definition of "nemesis" on vocabulary.com: "The word nemesis describes a rival who just somehow seems able to get the best of you. It can be someone you compete against, someone whose skills are nearly identical to yours and yet, your nemesis always seems to finish ahead of you, get a higher grade, and generally make you feel flustered." This is a pretty accurate description of the dynamic between Detective Isaiah Stiles (Matthew Law) and the criminal mastermind Coltrane Wilder (Y'lan Noel). Isaiah knows Coltrane and his gang are responsible for the murder of his mentor, and he knows that this gang is also behind the recent criminal activities across Los Angeles. What's more, Isaiah is so familiar with Coltrane's psychology that he's able to accurately predict what steps the latter would take or why he chose to make certain decisions. Yet Isaiah is never able to catch Coltrane red-handed. He's not even able to get his hands on concrete evidence. All Isaiah has are his gut feelings, his intuitions. Still, since the justice system and law enforcement officers don't arrest anyone based solely on an officer's intuition, many of Isaiah's friends and colleagues begin to dismiss Isaiah's accusations as an unhealthy obsession.

And Isaiah indeed is just too obsessed with putting Coltrane behind bars, so much so that it strains his relationship with Candace (Gabrielle Dennis), his wife, and Noah (Cedric Joe), his son. Coltrane's preoccupation with his heists, too, puts some strain on his relationship with Ebony (Cleopatra Coleman), his wife, but this marriage somehow seems more stable, at least in terms of fidelity, given that, unlike Candace, Ebony doesn't start cheating on her husband. Blame Candace's actions on Ebony, who encourages the former to explore more options as part of a plan she cooks up with Coltrane. Ideally, something like this should have yielded a substantial amount of drama, especially during the scene where Candace realizes who Ebony really is and what her real intentions are. Candace, after all, sees Ebony as a best friend, which should have set the stage for the pain of a stinging betrayal. But if Candace is hurt, Nemesis doesn't allow those feelings to erupt. Given how quickly it jumps to the next event in the plot, it might as well have brushed aside Candace's emotions.

This is what the series does with everything else here. Candace learns something about the baby she lost due to a miscarriage, but what should have resulted in a dramatic confrontation is dismissed with a casual line of dialogue. Noah and Isaiah lose a family member, yet no space is provided for the processing of grief or even a moment of reflection. Even Candace's infidelity is treated more as a plot convenience for a particular situation where Coltrane and his wife threaten to sue LAPD officers. What about Coltrane's teammates? Two of them are saddled with thinly sketched personal lives that merely serve the plot—to be more accurate, they're setups for a death scene where a character sacrifices himself like a hero. Others are provided with generic shots of them working odd jobs. Nemesis, of course, doesn't have room for conversations that deal with the characters' tastes and interests apart from those that purely move the story forward. What's unfortunate is that it fails to even offer the pleasure of listening to the criminals while they work out the details of their heist plans and iron out logistical issues before the final execution. Coltrane and his gang simply arrive at the location and carry out their tasks like well-programmed puppets. Nemesis is not concerned with the fine, minor nuances that go into staging high-risk robberies. It directly cuts to action.

As a result, the show is all highlight reels that continuously press the "adrenaline" button. Every scene is in caps lock; every moment strives to excite your senses. Nemesis is the cinematic equivalent of a storyteller who narrates his tale in a high-pitched voice so that the noise might both hold your attention and lead you to believe that every word, every syllable, is important. But pay attention, and you will realize that you have not only heard the tale before—you have heard it somewhere better. The problem with Nemesis is that everything about it is "external." The performances exist on the surface; the cat-and-mouse game gives rise to various types of shootouts. Never does the series attempt to depict its characters' stressful mental realm through a subjective, psychological lens. There are no mind games, no smart comebacks. When Coltrane, with his lawyers, attacks the LAPD, the meeting holds no intellectual fervor and no witty exchanges. Things are terribly plot-centric and emotionally sterile.

I would like to repeat the same old complaint about Nemesis looking like a two-hour-long feature film stretched for almost eight hours, but there are more troubling concerns to be addressed; chief among them is the recycling of the cliché where teen characters are portrayed as annoying individuals who test the audience's patience. That role, in Nemesis, is bestowed upon Noah. Rather than making us understand Noah's frustrations, the show reduces him to an Irritating Teenager who screams and scowls out of sheer ignorance and sometimes arrogance. Then again, Isaiah and Candace are no better. All they had to do was inform Noah about Isaiah's reasons for forbidding him from meeting Amos (Moe Irvin), but it's one of those things that's frustratingly concealed in the name of "we don't want to hurt the feelings of our son." I think it's safe to say that in such cases, the truth is infinitely preferable to watching the parents constantly shout at and scold their son for doing something they have not explained why he shouldn't do. Of course, Noah's anger, then, is justified. It's just that Nemesis sees him as one of the many chess pieces that need to move a certain way for the game to progress. If only this game were interesting and unpredictable. Nemesis is no fun.

Final Score - [5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times