When we think about our favourite thrillers of recent times – You, Squid Game, The Tourist, Line Of Duty – there are always key ingredients: nail-biting suspense, high stakes, and shocking twists. We want to see inside the minds of the protagonists, be jolted when we least expect it, and on some level, to question our own life choices. 

What we definitely want, is a show that takes a firm hold of our attention and doesn’t let go. And judging by the looks of Apple TV+’s forthcoming psychological mystery thriller series Surface, we’re in for one helluva ride.

Ahead of the global premiere on 29 July, the cast hit the red carpet in New York last night (25 July). Reese Witherspoon posed with the show’s star Gugu Mbatha-Raw and both were joined by the rest of the cast including Markian Tarasiuk, Andres Joseph, Veronica West, Sam Miller, Lauren Neustadter, Christin Park, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ari Graynor, François Arnaud and Millie Brady at The Morgan Library in New York City. 

Set in high-end San Francisco, the new eight-part series stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show), as Sophie, a woman who has suffered extreme memory loss after tumbling from a boat into the ocean and hitting her head. As she slowly recovers, she is told by her friends and husband (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) that she tried to commit suicide; but as she embarks on a quest to put the pieces of her life back together, she begins to question whether or not the truth she is told is in fact the truth she has lived.

Described as “a story of self- discovery which contemplates if we are pre-programmed to become who we are, or if we choose our own identity”, this twisty thriller has one gripping question at its heart: What if you woke up one day and didn’t know your own secrets? 

The supporting cast also includes Academy Award nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Blindspot), François Arnaud (Midnight, Texas), Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk), Ari Graynor (I’m Dying Up Here), and Millie Brady (Pride And Prejudice And Zombies).

In another marker of small screen pedigree, the series has been co-created by Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine, which is responsible for the likes of Oscar-nominated films Gone Girl and Wild, as well as hit TV shows Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere and The Morning Show. You might have heard a little something about the company’s forthcoming film Where The Crawdads Sing too, which stars the actor of the moment Daisy Edgar-Jones (with a little musical help from Taylor Swift). 

The trailer for Surface certainly suggests that we’re in for plenty of twists and turns as Sophie attempts to uncover the truth of why she fell from the boat. “Everyone keeps telling me who they think I am,” she muses. “But if my life was so perfect, why did I try to end it?”

Surface premieres globally with the first three episodes on 29 July 2022 on Apple TV+, followed by one new episode weekly every Friday.

Image credits: Apple TV+, Photos by Dia Dipasupil/WireImage