12 12 12 Premiere Recap: Anthony Mackie And Jamie Dornan's Apple TV Thriller Views A Heist From All Angles — Grade It!

"A high-asset robbery, professionally conceived, is 12 months in planning, 12 hours in execution," we are informed as Apple TV's "12 12 12" gets underway. "A bank robber who is not caught within 12 days... is not caught at all."

Therein lies the conceit for the new series, which launched Friday and which examines a massive robbery from those three points in time. In a moment, we'll want to know what you thought of Episode 1. But first, a quick recap:

Apparently, the heist that we'll follow starts on Christmas Eve in Zurich, Switzerland. Two American brothers —Paul (Jamie Dornan) and Bobby (Jack Key) reminisce about a Christmas when their dad picked Paul up and used his small stature to gain access to a home so he could rob it while the owners were at midnight Mass. (Little Paul entered via an unlocked window.) The Galvin brothers aren't there for the service; at one point, Paul asks Bobby to hand over the weapon he's carrying, because "I said no guns, not after last time. Nobody dies tonight." They also discuss how someone they refer to as "The Holy Ghost" is in Zurich, but Paul reassures Bobby that he's tracking him.

Paul's the brains of a team that's attempting a major job. After he leaves Bobby to keep eyes on the crypt, he messages his other players: a woman who's parked a van in front of Zurich's Swiss Military Academy, and a woman who is secretly cloning her oblivious boyfriend's phone. "We're all where we need to be. Twelve hours starts now," he says. "See you on the other side."

The heist is quite complicated. In addition to the contortionist we met at the top of the show, the operation also involves a tunnel that Paul's guys have been drilling for six months. (At the opening of the episode, a man slides, naked, out of a safe-deposit box and, after rearranging his contorted body back into its normal shape, dons a headlamp and uses keys to gain access to boxes. He finds a worksuit in one, and puts it on. The next is filled with what looks like money, and lots of it.)

Paul is there just as the drill is about to breach the vault's wall, but the formerly-naked guy on the inside signals for him to stop: There's a mercury tilt switch in the floor, an antiquated device that will set off some kind of alarm if the drill's vibrations come any closer. Did Paul miscalculate?

We'll find out later. Because then the action jumps back in time to the first month of the 12-month planning phase. Paul is working on a fishing crew in Marseille, France. He's living with a woman named Severine (Agathe Russell); one morning in bed, he discusses his desire to settle down with her there, but she's worried he's a hunted man. "It's ben a year," he notes. "The FBI aren't connecting me to Newark." She abruptly announces that she's pregnant, and he happily says he can send for the $4 million he's got stashed away somewhere. She doesn't want the money ("I don't like what it cost") but he maintains that it's for their family.

Paul's dreams of a happy life with Severine and their kid take a hit when he goes to buy her an engagement ring and the jewelry shop is hit by a crew of thieves moments after his arrival. But when one refers to Paul by his last name, Paul realizes that the store's security camera has been on him since he walked in: Is it possible the FBI has found him, after all?

He's knocked out by a taser. When he comes to, Bobby is there, confessing that he made some "bad investments" that got him in trouble and took Paul's $4 million. Now there's an outside group that wants Paul to pull off a complex job for them, and if he refuses, they'll kill Bobby, Severine — everyone. So really, what can he do?

Then we skip to the first of the 12 days following the heist. At Zurich Police Headquarters, FBI special agent Jack Strickland (Anthony Mackie) gets a tip about Paul — whom he's clearly been pursuing for some time. "I can deliver him to you," a text message tells Jack. "Over this New Year holiday, an American-led gang is gonna steal 800 million in those Swiss Franc notes," he tells his Swiss law-enforcement counterpart, Lena (Sallie Harmsen). He just doesn't know where the crime will take place.

As they drive to a bank with an alarm that keeps going off, seemingly for no reason, we learn that Jack was on the FBI team that dealt with Paul's Newark truck-robbery job — and he made a bad call that led to an agent's death. Now, he's sure that he's very close to taking down "the biggest banking heist in the history of Europe."

The guards at the bank won't let them in — which apparently is normal there — so Lena takes off. But Jack explores a nearby cathedral and, after seeing some water vibrating in a bucket, busts his way into a room that has access to the nearby subway tunnel. After climbing down and narrowly avoiding getting squished by a passing train, Jack realizes "It's happening now!" As he continues down the tunnel, he finds the dead and bloody body of Paul's drill operator.

The safe deposit vault has been breached, and when Jack steps inside, he realizes it's been cleaned out. As he's screaming his frustration — he missed the job! — he's surprised to see Paul enter the vault. There's a little bit of banter about how Jack and his guys refer to Jack as "The Holy Ghost," but then he takes off running, and Jack quickly follows.

Meanwhile, Lena chats with some uniformed police officers who've pulled up outside the bank and quickly realizes that they're imposters. They race away in their pilfered cruiser, and she follows in her car, chasing them through the tight turns and tiny alleys of Zurich. Eventually, she plays chicken with the criminals' car and loses, with her car flipped on its roof and the thieves getting away.

Meanwhile, Jack chases Paul FOREVER and winds up cornering him... only to see that the man in the knit cap he's been running after is actually Severine's father, Serge (José Garcia) — there was a switcheroo at some point! Jack uses Serge's phone to call Paul. "You stole from me, Galvin," Jack tells the surprised man on the other end of the line.. "Now you're gonna know how it feels."

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!