Nemesis Steals Our Attention with High-Stakes Action

By Elizabeth Paige Richardson | May 13, 2026 | Best TV Shows of the Week

If there’s one thing Courtney A. Kemp knows how to do, it’s making a crime drama that leaves us begging for more. Writing high-stakes, fast-paced action, and gritty characters is her main thing.

So it’s no surprise that she’s starting off her partnership with Netflix with Nemesis, coming May 14. If we learned anything from Kemp’s blockbuster franchise, Power, it’s that things can get messy in the blink of an eye—even when characters think they’re acting in their best interest, things can quickly blow up in their faces. We’re expecting she’ll serve the same kind of emotional drama here as things get tangled up.

Nemesis promises to be a lot more than the typical game of cat-and-mouse in heist thrillers. Criminal mastermind Coltrane Wilder meets his match when Detective Isaiah Stiles fights hard to take him down, but the crime world is a lot less black-and-white than we think. The high-level case will consume everything in its path, including the detective that vows to solve it.

Kemp has called the upcoming series “a hard-hitting psychological crime drama” that has “universal themes of right and wrong, love and loss, and loyalty vs. self-preservation.”

Something else we’re waiting for Nemesis to deliver? A killer cast. From the trailers, viewers have spotted some familiar faces from some of the hottest TV shows out right now, including Matthew Law from Abbott Elementary, playing the lead detective. Co-star Y’lan Noel is best known to fans for his role as Daniel in Insecure, but here he’ll be fighting hard to pull off this heist.

The trailer already shows the kind of gritty crime vibe that we expect from Kemp, producer Tani Marole, and their crew of writers.