To help me recover from the trauma that was “Cooking with Paris”, I decided to check out “Hit & Run” on Netflix.
The Israeli-American thriller has been trending in South Africa and I was pining for a decent series to sink my teeth into.
More so, after enjoying the first two seasons of “Who Killed Sara?”, “The Innocent” and “Black Space”.
While the first episode in this 9-part series didn’t immediately hook me, I continued watching.
And, boy oh boy, am I glad that I did.
Lior Raz shares the hat of the writer, creator and actor. He is cast as the protagonist, Segev Azulai. Think of him as Israel’s version of Jason Statham.
“Hit & Run” opens with Segev unhappy about his wife Danielle “Dani” Wexler (Kaelen Ohm), a dancer with the prestigious Batsheva Dance Company, accepting an out of town audition.
His daughter Ella (Neta Orbach), who is as smitten with her stepmom as her dad, makes it hard for him to stay angry with Dani and he begrudgingly accepts her decision. After all, it’s only for a week.
On the morning of her departure, Dani appears rattled by several text messages, which she conceals from Segev.
While en route to the airport, the taxi driver Moshe (Yoram Tollendano), who is also a family friend, agrees to stop at a coffee shop for a takeaway java fix. Unfortunately, Dani is tragically run over while on her way back to the car.
When Segev, who works as a local tour guide, which is how he met Dani, gets that call informing him of what happened, he rushes to the hospital.
Grief-stricken, Segev asks his heavily pregnant family friend, Tali Shapira (Moran Rosenblatt), who is a police detective, to find the driver.
Despite the evidence pointing to a local gang leader, Segev, who has special ops training, starts to realise there was nothing accidental about his wife’s death.
More so after an attack in his home and finding strange missed calls and texts Dani’s phone from Assaf (Lior Askenazy), who, aside from being the director of Mossad, is married.
Meanwhile, Tali tracks down two henchmen who flew into Tel Aviv for the hit and left for New York shortly after.
Convinced that this is linked to his past, Segev heads to the Big Apple. He wants answers but all he finds are more questions, especially when he realises Dani’s father Martin Wexler (Gregg Henry) isn’t who he claimed to be.
“Hit & Run” is a fast-paced thriller with a minefield of red herrings Is it among the best offerings? No.
But that protagonist has that tenacity of a Liam Neeson and the aggressiveness of a Statham to ensure viewers stay engaged.
“Hit and Run” is streaming on Netflix.