Harlan Coben's Shelter

Not sure why people are saying there's so much profanity in this series. It's honestly not that much, the first f word wasn't until 19:50 minutes and the first s word was at 17:23 minutes (not like another review said there was so many within the first 15 mins - no clue what show that reviewer was watching...as reading that review I thought it was going to be very liberal with the profanity), as it honestly wasn't that much profanity, only 9-10 instances in the whole first episode, and they were very spread out within the episode and then had 2-3 within two or three sentences of dialogue. Also they're teenagers - maybe spend some time with them, as they curse a lot when not in the company of adults, so yeah...I found that it was actually pretty realistic. The background music has a bit of profanity, but the character's dialogue isn't bad...at least in the first episode.

Also if you've read the novel, yes some characters have been changed a bit, but Harlan Coben was HEAVILY involved in the production. I've only watched one episode so far but this seems to be ramping up to definitive Coben's twists and turns. Can't wait to see what else is in store.

I'm trying to write this without spoilers.

The first two episodes are great, a captivating fast moving thriller with plenty of action and appealing characters.

Then episode three gives us a warning of what is to come as it starts to go off on a couple of weird tangents.

By episode 4 the writers had evidently lost inspiration and started writing random we have a load of boring filler.

It is hard to work out what went wrong. Were the writers left unsupervised? Were the first two episodes just to trick viewers into watching what they actually wanted to write?

Whatever happened, end result had us reaching for our phones.

This series, adapted from the book of the same name, sees teenager Mickey Bolatar moving to New Jersey to live with his aunt after his father is killed in a car crash and his mother is institutionalised due to her drinking. On his first day at his new school be befriends Ashley, a new girl, but shortly afterwards she vanishes, he suspects foul play. Things get stranger when the local 'crazy old woman, known as 'The Bat Lady' addresses him by name and tells him that his father is still alive. With new friends Ema, a goth girl, and the somewhat nerdy Arthur 'Spoon' Spindell he starts trying to find what happened to Ashley. Inevitably several old secrets are exposed as well as dangers being encountered.

I read the book some time in the last year so was interested in seeing how it would transfer to the screen. For the most part it is fairly faithful to the source material. There are some obvious changes. The fact that Mickey now lives with his aunt rather than Uncle Myron this is kind of understandable given that Myron is the protagonist in many of Coben's books so he is unlikely to want him introduced on film/television as a secondary character. The second change is less explicable; Coben's books, even the ones aimed adult readers, don't contain much swearing but the amount in this series is somewhat ridiculous; there would scarcely have been more if Quentin Tarantino had been brought in to work on the script! Mickey is a likeable protagonist although his character seems bland whenever Ema or Spoon are around as these characters are so much more fun. The cast is sold although those playing the high school jocks look too big and too old to still be at school... obviously this is hardly the first show to make such casting decisions. The story provides a decent number of twists and there is a nice sense of danger even if we know certain characters are highly unlikely to be harmed. Overall I enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend it as family viewing due to the excessive swearing.

Interesting plot and characters. I always enjoy the mysteries that have a historical element to them. Cold cases, unsolved disappearances, wrongful convictions. I have to say though - the language in the thing is exaggeratedly foul. Gratuitous use of the f-bomb. Coben didn't write that way. He didn't need to throw in excess bad language in order to make his point or create the mood of the scene. To me - not an informed critic - just an avid reader and viewer - it takes a LOT away from the show. The screenwriters make it sound like they can't write a sentence without using the word f--. Pretty disappointing.

The series on whole for story telling is average and surprisingly enough for Harlan Coban very predictable.

That said though I think the hype around the writer is why other reviews are negative as people expect brilliance from this type of show.

It's a good show and with obvious flaws, it has two fantastic positives in Adrian Greensmith (Spoon) and Abi Corrigan (Ema). I found the pair of them so interesting, funny and lovable. They carried the show from start to finish by pulling on your every emotion during the journey.

Don't be put off by the negativity but instead go into without expectation and just enjoy the show.