Harlan Coben’s New Netflix Thriller Is a ‘Bosch’ Replacement That Needs More Courage
It’s a mysterious, complicated and winding world Harlan Coben world, and we simply live in it. The crime novelist has seen a series of interesting adaptations in recent years, including the hugely popular I miss youthe surprising and innovative supernatural thread Lazarus, and the next I will find you. His latest release on Netflix, Run away (co-created with Robert Hull), follows a man desperately searching for his runaway daughter who discovers a haunting and villainous web after someone murders someone connected to her. It’s a gripping story where you can’t really trust anyone (a Coben staple!), and nothing is what it seems. That said, it sometimes drowns in melodramatic flair, and some flourishes prevent the performances from creating belief-forming moments. Quite, Run away East an often amusing but not entirely successful thriller.
What is “Fleez” about?
Simon Greene (James Nesbitt) seems to have it all, at least until her eldest daughter Paige (Ellie de Lange) runs away from home. After six months of fruitless searching, Simon discovers that the girl, now exhausted, looks worse while playing guitar as a busker in a public park. Simon’s altercation with Paige’s drug addict boyfriend, Aaron Corval (Thomas Flynn), degenerates into Simon publicly attacking the young man.
Paige disappears again before Aaron is found violently dead in a way that suggests he knew his killer.. Desperate to bring her home, alongside detectives Fagbenle (Alfred Henoch) and Todd (Amy Gledhill), who are searching for the culprit of the murder, Simon must solve several related investigations as private detective Ravenscroft (Ruth Jones) makes the rounds of another case in which Paige is involved. Oh yeah, and some young assassins (Jon pointing And Maëva Courtier-Lilley) are on a mysterious road, killing seemingly ordinary strangers.
Harlan Coben’s “Run Away” is a little too melodramatic
Run away has a little bit of everything: a family full of secrets, a dirty criminal underbelly, a girl who disappears more than once, a cute young couple on a murderous road trip… Like Lazarus and a host of other Harlan Coben mysteries, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes and a growing web of secrets are revealed as the narrative progresses. Inhumane situations, heinous violence, betrayals and crazy surprises pile up, making for a gripping watch. These aren’t always easy pivots to believe, but overall they’re entertaining. As with many of Coben’s tales here, it quickly becomes clear that you never really know anyone, and that his best twists and turns are personal. Run away keeps you guessingand the complex narrative works where it counts.
Performance is a bit mixed. Enoch is excellent as Detective Fagbenlewith a charm and obsessive investigative style that is engaging to watch. His dynamic with Gledhill’s equally interesting Detective Todd rings true, and they would be great additions to any investigative series. Jones is an interesting and unconventional detective who has more going for him than expected, giving the character a watchable vibe. Series lead Nesbitt is largely solid as Simon (he has serious Bosch moods, and it’s not just the white hair), although there are moments in his performance that seem a little too stiff in some parts and incredibly elevated in others. Unfortunately, this is the case for a number of main characters. Technically, Minnie Pilot is in the series as Ingrid, Simon’s complex wife, but she is dramatically underused, destined for flashbacks or a hospital bed for most of the time. Run awayExecution time.
See James Nesbitt in the first images from Harlan Coben’s latest Netflix series
“Flee” is coming soon.
“Run Away” has its charms, but it’s far from Harlan Coben’s best adaptation
One of Run awayThe biggest flaw is that there’s a melodramatic undertone that doesn’t really work. Memories are often recreated with a dreamlike haze, while naturalistic lighting shrouds the present-day world in visible shadows, a banal and often excellent element of so many dark and twisty investigative films and series. Here, however, the shadows can be too harsh without the black realistic style to make them stand out. The performances sometimes falter in this context, largely due to the way the scenes are staged and edited. At a key traumatic moment at the end of the first episode, for example, Nesbitt’s pained exhortation is not believable, as is the later reenactment when Ingrid stops him from following Paige after she first disappears. Run away is peppered with small moments exhibiting extended logic or performances that would benefit from a tighter script or another take.
Run away is a fun story, full of violence and surprises that will leave the audience in suspense. It features highly watchable characters, who break away from predictable tropes with unique details and interesting performances, and there is some genuinely solid acting throughout the series. That said, its melodramatic style perhaps veers toward intentional camp, but it sometimes undermines a series with greater suspenseful potential. Nesbitt is an excellent protagonist, but between the show’s style, direction, and editing, it’s chock-full of at least one oddly performed moment per episode. (This is true for almost everyone in the cast except Driver, simply because she spends most of her time Run away sidelined.) It’s a little crazy and likely to engage viewers, but we can’t help but want a little more.
