jollibet ‘Prime Target’ Is a Charming Popcorn Thriller

“Prime Target,” an eight-episode thriller premiering Wednesday on Apple TV+, has the juicy vibe of a novel you might pick up at an airport and rip through in a single flight. It has an outlandish premise, beautiful people, and it ends on a cliffhanger every episode.

After an opening scene in Baghdad, where a gas explosion unearths an ancient site, the series really gets underway at the University of Cambridge, in England. That’s where we meet Edward Brooks, a brilliant young mathematician played by Leo Woodall.

Despite good looks that would make him welcome at any college rager, Edward is a loner who spends his days scribbling in his notebook, hard at work on a theorem involving prime numbers. (He doesn’t use computers; what he’s doing is too advanced for those silly things.) When his professor (David Morrissey) gets wind of the puzzle Edward is trying to solve, he panics: Basically, it’s a formula to pick any digital lock anywhere. Oops.

Because of the volatility of his research, Edward ends up in the cross-hairs of the U.S. National Security Agency, which has been spying on high-level mathematicians in case they stumble across the next big weapon. Luckily for Edward, a rebellious agent named Taylah (Quintessa Swindell) becomes his ally.

“Prime Target” doesn’t try too hard to explain the equations Edward is doing, which is fine. It would go over my head anyway. Instead,phwin we get a globe-trotting adventure in which Edward and Taylah are constantly on the run from people who want to kill them because of Edward’s math.

And ultimately realism isn’t the strong suit of “Prime Target.” Woodall became a television heartthrob playing charming cads in Season 2 of “The White Lotus” and in Netflix’s “One Day.” He isn’t the first person you think of to play a shy, conflict-avoidant mathematician. Still, he has a sheepish appeal that works well in this context. And Swindell, stomping around in leather jackets, baggy jeans and motorcycle boots, makes for a cool surveillance expert. The character’s tragic back story is vague, but her fashion sense is kicking.

All of this makes for a show about smart people that still allows you to turn down your brain and have a good time.

Ms. Gentili, 52, was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment in February after taking a combination of drugs, court documents show. Her death prompted an outpouring of grief among members of New York’s L.G.B.T.Q. community, with more than 1,000 people packing the pews at a spirited celebration of her life at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The full scope of the inquiry into the mayor is not publicly known, and it remains unclear why investigators were seeking information about the additional countries or whether Mr. Adams has had dealings with them. But the investigation has focused at least in part on whether, in exchange for illegal donations, Mr. Adams pressured the Fire Department to approve a newjollibet, high-rise Turkish Consulate in Midtown Manhattan despite safety concerns. Investigators have also examined free flights and flight upgrades the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.