Missing Lisa

A lot of ridiculous plot twist, only topped by an ending that makes zero sense, but some nice locations.

I don't really understand the bad reviews here. Granted, the side-stories (the different dangerous encounters), are maybe a little bit over the top but for the rest this series is a masterpiece. Beautifully filmed, the music is great and it's all about intense real feelings: the longing for adventure, feeling trapped in normal life, prejudging, extreme and raw grieve, sorrow, the impact of lies and the impact of having the feeling to have no roots at all. About friendship, complex and forbidden love, mortality and killed innocence. About trauma and loneliness. And even about honest feelings about the complexity of having children (not all sunshine, not at all).

Maybe it's because I recognize a lot that I like it, but it's certainly not as a bad as sometimes written here. Also the GR5 is a character and a vocation to the beauty of European nature.

It touched me and I want to see it again.

As a patriot and an admirer of local Flemish television & cinema, I see it as my duty to globally promote the great films and TV-series that are being made in my home country. Since 2010, Belgium - and Flanders in particular - has brought forward quite a few qualitative TV-series that can easily compete with the finest productions that Netflix has to offer, notably "Beau Séjour", "Tabula Rasa", "Undercover", "The Twelve" and "The Day". The expectations for "GR5" were set extremely high as well, since it has many things in common with the aforementioned series: an original plot concept, unexpected story twists and plenty of suspense/atmosphere. I really enjoyed the series, no doubt about that, but in the end it's not as impactful and staggering as I hoped it would be.

GR5 stands for "Grand Route 5", which is the name of a famous European hiking path of more than 2.000 kilometers, from the West-coast of the Netherlands all the way down to Nice in the South of France. Five years ago, 18-year-old Lisa mysteriously disappeared whilst she walked the GR5 all by herself. She was supposed to undertake the long trek with her four closest friends, but they all bailed out last minute. The guilt-ridden friends now decide to walk the distance after all, to shoot a documentary in honor of Lisa and hopefully uncover new clues that lead to her.

The long hike naturally reveals copious amounts of dark secrets from the past, between the friends mutually as well as between Lisa and her parents. Each of the friends also still battles their own personal demons, and they regularly get confronted with the fact they all hurt and disappointed Lisa tremendously. Some of the "revelations" are clever and tense, but sadly there are also the usual cliché twists and predictable liaisons. But hey, there's nothing a little bit of "suspension of disbelief" can't solve. At least the atmosphere is always stressful, and the filming locations are phenomenal. I read a lot of criticism regarding the acting performances, especially of the young cast members, but I sincerely disagree. Violet Braeckman and Boris Van Severen are multi-talented, and they receive good support from enthusiast new-arrivals Laurian Callebaut and Saïd Boumazoughe. The denouement is a risky and guaranteed to divide audiences. Personally, I didn't like it at first, but when it sank it completely, I do feel it's a very courageous and refreshing ending.

The story could be told in less episodes, maybe 6 instead of 8, because there is a lot of talking and establishment and even repetition in the first few episodes.

As in every good mystery series there are some clever detours and I especially liked the human story of Ylena's character.

Overall he story continues to intrigue and you want to know what happened to Lisa. At the end, you are then left a bit hungry because that very question is not fully answered. Many secrets do come out in the course of the series, but Lisa's is kept. In the end it turns out that all the characters had to undertake the trip themselves to come to terms with their past.

Please give this really excellent TV production a fair chance and don't believe the 3 previous very bad reviews!

This is an excellent series. It had all the ingredients of a thrilling crime series and a compelling family drama. The only remark i have is that it's sometimes a bit confusing because of the many flashbacks. But as the story progressed and the link from the past to the present becomes clearer, the series gets even more strength and depth.

I found Violet Braeckman excellent as Zoë, the real "main" character, and she is supported by an really excellent and large cast who come in and out of the story. Lucas Van den Eynde and Viv Van Dingenen were also compelling as Lisa's parents. But to me Braeckman was a revelation and i hope to see more of her in the future.

The atmosphere on walking the hiking trail Grande Randonnée 5, with the heavy physical effort and mutual tensions between the different characters was (in my opinion) superbly depicted.

Also important to mention are the utterly superb locations we are able to see on the route of the GR5.

In short: to me GR5 is top notch. . . an excellent piece of television.