Harlan Coben and Netflix

When my friend had posted a review about one of the series “Stay close” I started watching it and lost interest within couple of minutes. Somehow the British way of story telling is difficult to relate for me as I find it way too slow or erratically paced. Accent can be addressed by subtitles and familiarity with faces will get adjusted as the scenes go by, but they do lack that hook to capture the audience from first scene in most of the creations is my humble opinion. After reading a bit about the author Harlan Coben, I decided to give that series a try and ploughed on, hop-skipping and jumping across many scenes. In the end, it wasn’t that bad as I had perceived with the final episode having so many twists than a coir rope. The entire series of 8 odd episodes happen in past and present mode, where the events of one night that happened decades ago, comes back to haunt the characters involved in present day world. It is almost as if, the past casting its shadow on present, making the future questionable for the individuals. And every character has some or other surprise, of different sizes and calibres, related to the core plot. Some gets killed, shamed, arrested, beaten and eventually the story reaches its end with a knotty situation, that could potentially tail back all the way to the events of the past, sowing the seeds for a similar meltdown possibly in upcoming future. Though it felt as if each of the 40+ minute long episode can be cut short to half hour, there were too many twists to follow and unless the series is binge watched, people will loose track quickly. The plotting is also very complicated and quite detailed in a manner of speaking, which ensures a rich climax. But enduring 320 minutes of spiralling sequences for the last 40 minutes of hurried reveal felt like an over kill. 

Harlan Coben is an author tailor made for Netflix is probably the most cliched comment. Like the brand’s logo, his works are dark and bloody. There are always a unsolved murder, an alcoholic or mentally affected person related to the deceased, tonnes of secrets which unravel on their own, making one wonder what the hell the investigators where doing all since!! And apart from the predictability of whodunnit, the theme is the recurring aspect of the 3 series of him that I had a chance to watch. I liked “Stranger” a bit more for it was slightly quick paced and so was “Safe”. But again, the lead characters are much more smart in crime solving than the local police force, with the plot involving some of the police themselves in the crime!! The Polish and Spanish based stories of his were even slower than the British ones and I had given the series a skip, hoping that the books will be more interesting. But I doubt if that could be possible, for the makers have literally turned every page of his novels into a scene on screen!! Will post the book reviews once done. But would surely recommend “Safe” “Stranger” and “Stay close” for thriller buffs if dark mysteries are their genre.