Netflix has a new hit show, Who is Erin Carter? Here’s why you should watch it

Until now, Evin Ahmad has only appeared in films and TV shows in her native country of Sweden. But thanks to her performance in Who is Erin Carter?, Ahmad is likely to become a breakout performer in America as well. After this series, there’s no question that Ahmad is a star, as she carries this story by believably portraying Erin as both a capable fighter and a woman who can be emotionally and physically vulnerable. She’s not invulnerable, even though Erin’s fighting skills tend to give her the edge in most of her physical confrontations.

None of this would work if Ahmad couldn’t convincingly emote and make us believe in Erin as a human being. She has needs, she has flaws, and she even makes some costly mistakes that may endanger everyone she loves.

It does take some suspension of disbelief to watch someone of Ahmad’s size overwhelm a much bigger man, but that’s part of the fun of this series. The reason why Erin draws so much suspicion is that she beats up and nearly kills a robber when he makes the mistake of potentially threatening her daughter, Harper (Indica Watson). And by the time the first season is over, Erin will have to call upon those skills several times in order to survive.

Who is Erin Carter? also features very good action chorography for a TV show, which may account for its meteoric rise on Netflix’s series chart. But as good as Ahmad is with the action, she’s even better when she’s verbally sparring with her rival, Penelope Reyna (Charlotte Vega), a local woman who has no idea that Erin could break her in two if she wanted to.

The first episode of Who is Erin Carter? reveals that Erin fled England when Harper (Leila Faith Lopez) was much younger, but it doesn’t immediately reveal what she’s running from. That mystery lingers over the early episodes, especially when the older Harper, and Erin’s husband, Jordi Collantes (Sean Teale), become openly suspicious about the most important woman in their lives. Erin is everything to her family, and suddenly they can’t trust that she is who she pretends to be.

This show also raises the stakes when Erin’s unintentional heroics make her a minor celebrity, which only gives the people she’s running from a way to track her down in Spain and destroy the carefully crafted life that she’s created for herself. Rest assured, most of the big questions about Erin’s past are answered by the end of the first season. But the tension is the best thing about the mystery.