Run Away: Run Towards

I'm a big fan of Harlan Coben's adaptations on the screen -- I've reviewed 10 of his series here since 2017 - and am happy to lead off the New Year (once again) with a review of his latest, Run Away, an 8-part series that went up on Netflix on New Year's Day.  I'd say this eleventh Coben series I'm reviewing is, once again, one of his best, because:

• Lead actor James Nesbitt puts in a standout performance.  I've been enjoying his work since Bloodlands, tied in my opinion with the superb Blue Lights (in which Nesbitt doesn't appear) as a tour de force story taking place in Northern Ireland.   Nesbitt expertly delivers the wide range of human emotion required in Run Away, and is especially effective with his blend of heartbreak and fury.
• Coben's specialty is packing in all sorts of major clues at the beginning, like people being killed for apparently no reason, then coming up with a plausible explanation in the final episode.
• Also lighting up Coben's narratives are at first seemingly incidental characters, whom you find yourself really caring about as you're drawn into their personalities and stories. Elena Ravenscroft (played by Ruth Jones), a private detective (formerly police), is such a memorable character.
• Speaking of police, it was great to see  Alfred Enoch (Raych in Foundation! and Dean Thomas in four Harry Potter movies) as the indefatigable DI Isaac Fagbenle.  His partner, redhead Ruby Todd (played by Amy Gledhill) was very good, too.

Now, as you may have noticed, I'm talking more about characters than story here, because I don't want to give anything away.  But, trust me,  you'll have butterflies in your stomach and tears in your eyes (of joy and sadness) when you see Run Away.

 

Missing You: Don't Miss This Top-Notch Coben

I binged the five episodes of Harlan Coben's Missing You, which just went up on Netflix today.  I've watched who knows how many Coben stories on the screen -- if you want an idea of how many, just search on his name on this blog -- and I gotta say, I think Missing You is one his very best.  I know I say that about Coben's stories in just about every review of one of Coben's works brought to the screen, but that's because it's true every time I say it.

[And no warning about spoilers ahead, because there won't be any ... ]

First, the stars in this series include Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses), Richard Armitage (MI5), and James Nesbitt (Bloodlands), you can't go wrong with that.  And every other part in the series is well-acted, too.

Next, the story takes place in the UK.   When it comes to police detective stories, you usually can't go wrong with that, either.

The plot is classic Coben -- the series is taken from Coben's 2014 novel of the same name, which takes place in New York, and I haven't read -- with love affairs (frustrated and otherwise), complex parent-child relationships, cops of all ages and both genders, a loathsome villain, cold-blooded killers and killers who don't want to be -- all wrapped up in a plot that's seems so complex as to defy resolution, and yet--

Well, as I said, I don't want to give anything away.   I will mention that the story on the screen, whatever it may have been in the novel, is very woke, and that's fine with me.  The relationships, apparent and revealed, all make sense, and provide an excellent nesting and motivation for the story.

Last but not least, one of the things I most enjoy about Brit movies and TV series is picking up a phrase or two, the slanger the better, that I didn't know before.  Missing You delivers on that score as well, with a phrase for a certain part of the anatomy that was new to me.  So hey, I'm happy to say I learned something watching this short series, as well as very much enjoying it, on this first day of 2025

Stay Close: Watch Soon

I thought a good way to start off the New Year would be a review of Stay Close, Harbin Coben's latest mini-series, on Netflix.  I've enjoyed all the series based on his novels, and Stay Close is one of the best.

[Believe or not, no big spoilers ahead.]

Lots of things to like in this classic Coben scenario of a woman about to be married, but, oops, she has a past with a different identity, in this case, just about knocking on her front door.

Among my favorite ingredients:

• James Nesbitt as Detective Broome -- I think of Broome as a British (actually, Northern Irish) Bosch, because, well, Nesbitt looks and acts a lot like Titus Welliver as Bosch, indefatigable, taking it on the chain, heart of gold. Nesbitt was excellent in Bloodlands, and, powerful, again, in Stay Close.
• 'Ken' and 'Barbie' are great villains, with a psycho banter and style right out of Clockwork Orange.
• And speaking of 'Barbie,' the women in Stay Close are every bit as dexterous with weapons as the men.  Refreshing to see, including in the protagonist Megan (very well played by Cush Jumbo).
• Another memorable character, Harry Sutton by Eddie Izzard.  And good to see Richard Armitage (MI5) again.

Now, as to the plot, I don't want to give too much away, so here's what I'll say.  This is a very complex story, with multiple victims and multiple suspects, and the ending surprised me, and since I'm usually pretty good at spotting who did what, I'd say it's likely to surprise you.

Which is a good thing.  Stay Close is easily bingeable and eminently rewarding,

The Missing Season 1: Worth Finding

Checking in with a review of The Missing, which I saw over a couple of nights on Starz On Demand earlier this week.   It's much in the new tradition of The Killing, Secrets and Lies,  Broadchurch, and its American remake Gracepoint - which is to say, excellent in its portrayal of the impact of the crime on the victim's family and people in the town, a place with no shortage of plausible suspects - and in some ways The Missing is even better.

The special power of The Missing in contrast to those other crime shows no doubt stems from the fact that the crime at hand is a kidnapping not a murder - or, a missing boy who we learn pretty early on survived his being taken - which makes the parents much more active in pursuit of their child and hence the kidnapper than the parents of the murder victim in the other series.  Indeed, whereas the police are the central characters in the other series, the father - Tony Hughes - takes that role in The Missing, and is given a riveting performance by James Nesbitt.   Tony is most assisted by Julien Baptiste - a retired French detective brought back to the case after he retired from it and the police when the initial investigation in 2006 turned up nothing, and now believes there's a chance of finding the missing boy, Ollie.  Julien is a class act and a memorable detective - wonderfully played by Tchéky Karyo - who more than anyone other than Tony (including Tony's wife Emily, well played by Francis O'Connor last seen as Mr. Selfridge's wife) believes Ollie may be still alive and can be found. But even he comes to believe that Ollie was killed, which leaves Tony alone in his belief, pursuing his son in the face of all reason, except he turns out to be right.

The press are portrayed as villains in just about all of the other series - not the killers or kidnappers, but getting in the way of the police at every turn - and in The Missing, the free lance reporter, looking for a lift in his career, is almost as despicable as the kidnapper.   But he's fortunately as vulnerable to blackmail as the people he's been threatening and manipulating for information, and near the end provides some crucial clues.

I guessed who the kidnapper was - a combination of being around and not being brought in for any questioning always raises my suspicions - but the ultimate question is not who was responsible for Ollie's kidnapping, but will Tony, now totally alone again in his pursuit of his son, ever find him. The ending is ambiguous, but, I think, hopeful.  If I'm interpreting what's on the screen correctly, Tony has tracked Ollie down to the Eastern European place where he now lives.   We know that the boy is Ollie, because he has drawn the same picture that Ollie drew before he was kidnapped.   When Tony shows the boy, now almost a teenager, the picture, the boy doesn't respond.   But I think the most likely explanation is that Ollie needs some time to process this.   Or, even if this boy is not Ollie, someone drew the picture in the snow, so Tony can't be too far off.  Why he and we are deprived of seeing him reunited with his boy is a good question.  Probably the creators of the show thought an outright happy ending would be too easy or trite.

But in any case, even without an unambiguously happy ending, The Missing concludes its first season on a more positive note than the other series, and that's a plus in my book.  It's coming back for a second season - with a new case - and I'll definitely be watching.



different kinds of crimes