Netflix’s Nemesis opens with a familiar setup—a detective chasing a criminal who always seems one step ahead. But once the series moves forward, it becomes something you can’t take your eyes off of. Past the robberies and high-pressure investigations are two men struggling to hold their lives together.
Y’lan Noel stars as Coltrane Wilder, a businessman and former convict secretly leading an elite crew pulling off daring heists across Los Angeles. Opposite him is Matthew Law as Detective Isaiah Stiles, an LAPD lieutenant whose pursuit of Wilder slowly begins to unravel both his professional and personal life. Created by Courtney A. Kemp and Tani Marole, the Netflix crime drama highlights the emotional conflicts inside marriage, and shows that family relationships are just as central to the story as the action itself.
For Noel, Coltrane’s relentless focus became the entry point into understanding the character. “I think just how obsessed he is,” Noel tells ESSENCE. “I just liked the idea of finding a few things you can simply focus on and give all your life and your passion and enthusiasm to.” While Coltrane operates outside the law, Noel saw something recognizable in the character’s tunnel vision. “I wouldn’t necessarily suggest what Coltrane is up to,” he says with a laugh, “but the formula is there.”
Isaiah approaches obsession from the opposite direction. Stiles believes he’s serving justice, but the pursuit comes at a cost. Long hours alienate him from his wife Candace, played by Gabrielle Dennis, and strain the relationship with his son. By the time audiences meet him, Isaiah is already stretched thin emotionally. Law hopes viewers recognize the pressure crushing the character from every direction.
“I hope they give him grace for the lengths he goes to,” Law explains. “This is a man who is literally on the edge.” For Law, Isaiah exists inside a system that constantly demands more from him while offering little in return. “He feels this pressure pushing in on all sides,” the actor says. “He’s not built to succeed in that environment.”
Despite sitting on opposite sides of the law, both characters live by similar codes. Nemesis repeatedly blurs moral lines between the detective and the thief, asking audiences to examine how far someone will go to get what they want.
Part of what gives the series its cinematic feel is the directing team behind it, including Mario Van Peebles, Millicent Shelton, Rob Hardy, and Ruben Garcia. Both Noel and Law lit up discussing Van Peebles specifically, whose influence on Black filmmaking stretches back generations. “That was surreal, man,” Noel says. “You get to speak to somebody who’s a legend as an actor and director.” Beyond his résumé, Noel appreciated how approachable Van Peebles remained on set. “He’s always making jokes,” he says. “And he’s on pushups and pullups more than I could do.”
Law points to a classic movie as an example of what makes Van Peebles such a strong filmmaker. “New Jack City is a cinematic masterpiece,” he says. Watching the director work firsthand allowed him to notice how carefully he approached emotional details inside larger crime narratives. “He always has this presence of family,” Law says. “You feel the familial bonds, the romance, the marriages. He keeps his eye on the cool stuff, but also on the heart underneath it.”
At its core, Nemesis functions as a classic cat-and-mouse thriller, a genre audiences rarely seem to tire of. Both actors believe part of the appeal comes from fantasy and escapism. Law compares heist stories to a modern Robin Hood tale. “I’m going to liberate something you don’t need all that much,” he says, laughing. Noel sees it from the audience perspective. “It’s just fun to see something you wouldn’t do,” he explains. “You get to sit back and project yourself into it for a second while knowing you’d never actually be in that situation.”
Of course, the exciting action scenes remain part of this show’s appeal, but Nemesis works best when audiences are able to examine the people caught inside the chaos.
Nemesis is available on Netflix now.
TOPICS: courtney kemp Gabrielle Dennis Netflix Ylan Noel
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