Entertainment
Apple TV’s New Psychological Thriller ‘Last Seen’ Never Plays by the Genre’s Rules
It’s hard not to think of 2026 as the low-key year of Patrick Brammall. The Australian actor and writer has already been carving out a niche for himself through various performances, but over the last several months, he’s become even more of a welcome presence onscreen. In May, he took on the role of Anne Hathaway‘s love interest in the highly anticipated Devil Wears Prada 2, and this month alone sees him pulling double duty for U.S. audiences in two very different TV series. The utterly charming romantic dramedy Colin from Accounts, which Brammall co-created and co-writes with co-star and partner Harriet Dyer, is wrapping up for good on Paramount+ this month (more on that swan song to come), while Apple TV’s thriller, Last Seen, is a polar opposite viewing experience.
The missing-child mystery has long been a staple of the genre, but what the six-episode series written by Kris Mrksa and directed by Christian Schwochow (The Crown) achieves comes through continually pivoting in the direction you least expect it to, pivoting away from a mere whodunit conceit and embracing more of a whydunit that doesn’t withhold its biggest twists for the sake of drama. Instead of trying to pull the wool over the viewer’s eyes until the very end, Last Seen is more interested in exploring the ripple effects that one consequential act can have on two different families — and how long-buried secrets will inevitably be unearthed.
What Is ‘Last Seen’ About?
Loosely based on Ryan David Jahn‘s novel The Dispatcher (chiefly because it transplants the story from East Texas to the fictional seaside town of Port McKenna, Australia), Last Seen centers around former police detective Ian Ridley (Brammall), whose life has been in shambles ever since his three-year-old daughter, Maggie, disappeared from home 11 years ago. Now working as an emergency dispatcher, he’s never lost hope that his daughter is still out there somewhere, but that insistence has upended all of his most important relationships and left him struggling to stay sober.
When a 000 call comes through to Ian one random night, the teenage girl on the other end of the line tearfully admits that she might be the “Mags” he’s been searching for, sending him down the rabbit hole on a search to find his long-lost daughter and vindicate his own suspicions about what happened on the night Maggie originally vanished. His ex-wife, Debbie (Jessica Wren), and their son, Dean (Tobias Muhafidin), are more skeptical about the possibility that this mystery girl could be the child they’ve been mourning, but Ian is driven to revisit all the leads that the original investigation didn’t pursue, much to the chagrin of new Detective Senior Sergeant Izzy Pena (Zahra Newman) and the concern of his sponsor, Donald Reid (Daniel Henshall).
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Ian, Donald’s brother, Henry (Brendan Cowell), and his wife, Jenna (Maxine Peake), have been living an undisturbed existence at their remote farmhouse with their teenage daughter, Sarah (Chloe Jean Lourdes), who bears an uncanny resemblance to a computer-generated sketch of what Maggie would have looked like around the same age…
‘Last Seen’s Big Twists Are Rooted in Character, Not Plot
On the surface, Last Seen looks like any other mystery thriller, with a damaged yet determined protagonist walking a tightrope between uncovering the truth and spiraling back into his worst habits. Yet beneath the familiar investigative conceit resides a much more compelling examination of grief and perseverance. Brammall’s Ian is our initial window into the story, and it’s hard to imagine many other actors striking the balance that he captures. This is a man whose refusal to let go of the past torpedoed his home life, a man who continues to make destructive choices that impact both himself and others, but Brammall infuses him with a likability that makes it impossible not to root for him to some degree. In the moments when Ian is calmly talking a mother through what she needs to do to keep herself and her children safe as the police respond to her emergency call, we can see glimmers of the capable investigator he used to be — and it sits in stark contrast to the instances when he sadly succumbs to his greatest addiction.
It doesn’t take long for the real circumstances surrounding Maggie’s disappearance to be confirmed, allowing the Apple TV series to devote more focus to letting its characters hook your interest. That strange emergency phone call reopens a lot of old wounds for Ian and his family — chiefly his ex-wife, Debbie, who has attempted to move on with her life and is expecting a baby with her new husband, police sergeant Bill McCracken (Bert LaBonté). Understandably, the couple’s dynamic with Ian is a bit strained, but Wren brings a powerful vulnerability to her performance, ensuring that her onscreen relationship with Brammall remains grounded in both the weight of the characters’ shared trauma and the love that still links them to a certain degree.
It’s impossible to ignore the clear physical resemblance between Brammall and Cowell — which may either be the whole point or simply a fun coincidence — but the Avatar actor infuses his role with the gravity required to make all of Henry’s decisions on behalf of his own family understandable, if not justifiable. Peake’s Jenna is a quieter, gentler counterweight to her husband’s more headstrong nature, while Henshall’s performance becomes even stronger once Daniel finds himself torn between two loyalties as the investigation around Maggie’s disappearance is revived. One of the biggest surprises of Last Seen, however, is Lourdes; despite this series serving as her screen debut, she delivers a striking turn that anchors both the story’s biggest emotion and most significant reveals.
Apple TV’s Last Seen asserts itself as the type of thriller that isn’t interested in conforming to the genre’s more predictable rules or structure, with the series’ twists rooted in the characters’ complexities and the moral lines that become easier to cross with loved ones in mind. This seemingly quiet, idyllic town is home to very messy, very complicated people, and the show emphasizes that their decisions — some more spur-of-the-moment than others — can give way to a tidal wave of consequences that leaves devastation in its wake. When the story briefly indulges in a flashback episode set before that fateful day, it does slow the pacing down somewhat, but mostly in the sense that it makes you more desperate to return to the present day to learn how everything will wrap up. Ultimately, this series is more focused on navigating the ripple effects that one devastating crime can create, and attempting to understand what could drive someone to commit such an act, rather than spending the entire season building to a major unveiling. Just when you think you know where the story is heading, Last Seen boldly turns in a completely different direction, resulting in a deeper, more emotional character study than the twisty thriller it’s been promoted as.
Last Seen premieres September 9 on Apple TV.
- Release Date
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September 9, 2026
- Network
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Apple TV
- Directors
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Christian Schwochow
- Writers
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Alexei Mizin, Kris Mrksa, Giula Sandler, Ryan van Dijk
Cast
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Patrick Brammall
Ian Ridley
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Brendan Cowell
Henry Reid
- Patrick Brammall gives a powerful performance as the struggling dispatcher Ian Ridley.
- You’d never guess that this was Chloe Jean Lourdes’ first screen role.
- The series is less interested in big twists or reveals and lets its characters and relationships drive the suspense instead.
- A major flashback episode late in the season does slow the series’ pacing somewhat.
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