‘Everybody Loves Diamonds’ is worth streaming

Everybody Loves Diamonds starts off innocuously enough, as a heist series generally does.

Hyderabad: ‘Everybody Loves Diamonds’ starts off innocuously enough, as a heist series generally does. The opening shot shows a large vault totally ransacked and devoid of their contents. This vault is situated inside the Antwerp Diamond Centre (ADC) in Brussels, which is supposedly impenetrable until now.

Inspired by the real-life 2003 Antwerp diamond heist, Prime Video’s latest offering is a cross between comedy and thrills. Traversing between flash forwards and flashbacks, Italian series Everybody Loves Diamonds has movie production values and is a pretty enjoyable watch.

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Leonardo Notarbartolo (Kim Rossi Stuart), the mastermind of the diamond heist along with three members – lock picker Sandra (Carlota Antonelli), alarm specialist Ghigo (Gianmarco Tognazzi) and hacker Alberto (Leonardo Lidi) steal billions worth of diamonds from the ADC on Valentine’s Day night. After destroying all evidence and data files, the foursome decide to cease all communications and leave with newly forged passports.

The plan is perfect, except for Leonardo who also works at ADC by day, a small misstep lands Inspector Albert Mertens (Johan Heldenbergh) straight at his doorstep and he is arrested. Clearly, Leonardo has been betrayed and he hopes to find the person and cash out his share of the diamonds.

The rest of the seven episodes show how the team came together and their motivations to steal the diamonds. Leonardo routinely breaks the fourth wall to share his thoughts with the audience and it’s revealed that he always wanted to do something extraordinary in life.

Acting wise, all four thieves fit their parts and the backstories of the other three – Sandra, Alberto and Ghigo are fascinating. The actions of the thieves inevitably also affect the lives of their loved ones. There is a caricaturish feel to the entire show so one is always a little confused as to whether it’s trying to be funny or thrilling in certain scenes. The story will hold you, but later episodes tend to drag and some scenes could have been chopped, but were retained for the length.

Series: Everybody Loves Diamonds

Streaming on: Prime Video

Director: Gianluca Maria Tavarelli

Cast: Kim Rossi Stuart, Carlota Antonelli, Gianmarco Tognazzi and Johan Heldenbergh