Desperate for answers whatever the cost.
Dead Hot follows best friends Elliot (Bilal Hasna, Extraordinary) and Jess (Vivian Oparah) who have trauma bonded over the disappearance of Jess’ twin brother Peter (Olisa Odele) who was also Elliot’s boyfriend. Five years ago Peter disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a severed finger and a pool of blood in his home, now having been assumed dead by those around him. Elliot is finally trying to move on, going on a date with club hook-up Will (Marcus Hodson) who unfortunately then disappears himself, with Elliot again finding a severed finger which later turns out to be a joke. When Will fails to show up however and a cat identical to Peter’s then turns up at the shelter where he works, Elliot becomes convinced that something deeper is going on and there is much more to Peter’s original disappearance than first thought.
Jess meanwhile gets a DNA match on a family app she uses to try and track down Peter, meeting up with Tina (Rebekah Murrell), her apparent half-sister who is having her own share of family issues. With both friends wrapped up in their own personal mysteries life begins to get a little crazy and only together will they be able to push through the lies and finally get to the truth about what happened to Peter all those years ago.
I think I went into Dead Hot expecting a fun little comedy about moving on, maybe touching on some heavier issues but for the most part being a enjoyable time all around, boy was I wrong. Whilst this show still is everything I just listed and more I was really suspired at how well written and developed the mystery aspect was, no shade at all to the writers but I genuinely wasn’t expecting a full on mystery thriller when I sat down to watch this. The writing here was absolutely brilliant and at least twice an episode I was whispering to myself ‘what the hell is going on here?’ It seems like at every turn the narrative went into a completely unexpected direction and the way all of these characters and storylines were woven together was absolutely genius.
Dead Hot felt very ‘millennial murder mystery’ and in the same vein as shows such as The Afterparty, Chloe and Search Party. I really loved the vibes of these friends attempting to unravel the craziness in their lives whilst still maintaining that very chaotic energy and nature. Despite the very well written mystery these kids weren’t seasoned detectives by any means and a lot of the actual narrative was them stumbling into things (most of the time illegally) and just asking the right questions at the right time. It was the kind of show where you can really see yourself in these characters and for me the Liverpool location especially made this because I am so familiar with the city, I really liked being able to watch a show and actually recognise so many of the shooting places.
Like I said above as well as being a genuinely engaging mystery Dead Hot was hilarious and the comedy was seriously on point. I think that despite the tragedy of the situation they were in Elliot and Jess were able to find the funny and their friendship felt so genuine throughout, I was laughing out loud at every single episode. Again I think the Liverpool location made it feel a lot more real for me, mostly because I recognised these locations I’d been to with my own mates and I think because of that I could really imagine myself in these situations, both comedy and drama.
Overall I really enjoyed watching Dead Hot and loved the very funny set up mixed with the genuinely engaging mystery elements. Elliot and Jess made for a fantastic duo and their sleuthing attempts and overall confusion about the extreme situations they were in made for a great watch that had me simultaneously laughing and desperate for answers.
Ramblings of a Supposed Writer 