Hard Broken (كسرة قلب) is a Lebanese mystery thriller series which consists of a pan-Arab cast, featuring stars from Syria to Saudi. The Netflix series is directed by Amr Salama and the screenplay is written by Khaled Diab. There are 6 episodes with a runtime of about 45-55 minutes.
The ensemble cast of the series includes Muhanad Alhamdi, Rasha Bilal, Talal Jurdi, Douja Hijazi, Elie Mitri, Rodrigue Sleiman, Sara Atallah, Ghenwa Mahmoud, Mohamed Akil, Ruwayda Ali and several others.
Hard Broken Review
The first episode reveals that Adam Al Shayeb and Yasmine Issa were driving to the emergency room when they met up with a tragedy. Yasmine’s stomach was paining strangely and on the way they came across a masked person lying still on the road. Adam gets out to check but lands in a trap, as the person was holding them at gunpoint and drags Yasmine to an abandoned building.
Adam offers to give the person everything, yet they seem to have something else on their mind and end up shooting Yasmine to death, while Adam gets shot in his shoulder. This one incident brings their whole friend group to the investigation tables as police officer Wael tries to figure out the strange dynamics and deceptions that had been festering within their midst.
Right from the start, it’s quite evident that Adam’s friends Lana and Dr. Youssef are hiding something, as they give different descriptions of Adam and Yasmine’s 8th wedding anniversary party and what happened there. But whether they are trying to save Adam or hiding something sinister for their own sake is not clear. When more events of the party are revealed, new characters join the intricate web of lies that runs quite deep.
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The series is essentially a melodrama that doesn’t reveal any big information for the first 3-4 episodes but then begins dropping so many easter eggs that one can’t even keep up or articulate all of them. Out of all the characters the worst part has to be of the police officers, who are on their own tangent and making theories without any reasoning. In an armed accident, if one person is minutely injured and the others drop dead then the less injured are always under suspicion.
However, here the police are convinced from the first episode that the killer is someone from their friend group before any hint or suspicion is even revealed. In terms of mystery, one can definitely applaud that the plot is not as predictable as it seems. How Yasmine actually gets killed and even, who kills her is a fairly surprising reveal. But that’s not all, there are many other shocking hidden secrets and connections that come out of her relationship with other characters.
Muhannad Alhamdi as Adam definitely does a great job of keeping the mystery around his character till the end. Sometimes you suspect that he must be the one behind everything, considering how paranoid and controlling husband he was to Yasmine. But at other times you wonder if he is the one getting played by the people around. One thing that nobody would have seen coming is the real reason behind Saad and Yasmine’s enmity but if you keep an eye from the start, then you might catch on it.
If you are a fan of or used to watching daily soaps, then Hard Broken gives you the same vibe but in a span of just six episodes. It certainly keeps you guessing till the end and often starts to feel frustrating as they keep on running around the same circles. The ending does provide some surprising answers but will make you shout ‘what’, as its credits start rolling without making things completely clear.
Rating: 2.5/5
Hard Broken is available for streaming on Netflix.
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