The Stranger

I have tried . I really have. I tried with Safe; I tried with The Woods; and I really tried with all 10 episodes of this dreck. The only saving grace of this, as it was with Safe, was the cast. The story goes nowhere and takes for ev err to get there. So I must let you go and not see you or anything by you ever again. Furthermore , I must warn others not to make the same mistakes I've made with you, in hopes they won't fall, as I did, for the allure of an interesting trailer, showing a decent looking plot with at least one famous name in the cast. That decent looking plot will all but disappear by the end of episode three to be replaced by never-ending tangential plot lines that drop into the abyss, never to be resolved, no matter how banal or un-connected to the original story they may be. Don't make the mistake I did of waiting until the final episode to see if they can tie it all up because they can't and don't and frankly who cares by that point. But Harlem Corben, I'll not let you crush my dreams of a finding a great British detective series on Netflix. It just won't be yours. But mark me down as happy that Netflix is so delusionally proud of these that they emblazon the thumbnails with his name. So much easier to avoid them that way.

I found this enjoyable, interesting, and entertaining, which I think was the show's intent, I am surprised by some of the outbursts from others - this is a TV show and not life or death?! Worth a binge in my opinion.

Binge-watched the full series today, and happy to report that it was well worth it. Certainly keeps you on the edge of your seat and unlike so many series nowadays, it doesn't leave you waiting for another series - it actually has an ending! Great acting throughout, a good story and definately worth a watch.

This eight-part ITV mini-series based on a Harlan Coben novel provided three hours of breathless lockdown entertainment for my wife and I. With more twists and turns than a Pleasure Beach rollercoaster, you couldn't rest for a second before the next plot turn came around the corner.

Richard Armitage is the happily married solicitor whose life is turned upside down and inside out when a mysterious young woman reveals to him a dark secret of his wife, which eventually leads to their separation and even deeper consequences as matters progress. Turns out that this young woman has made a cottage industry unearthing skeletons from other prominent citizens resident in Armitage's seemingly blissfully happy village, but what at first seems to be a simple get-rich-quick ruse turns nasty when the local coffee-shop owner is murdered.

But of course that ain't all, not by a long-shot. Being a Coben adaptation, there are about a bazillion sub-plots raging and cross-cutting in the background, including a cantankerous retired cop who won't give up his old flat to a property developer, a teenage girl supplementing her income by selling sexual favours via an online sexting app, the narcissistic big-shot at her beck and call, an embezzlement scandal at the local boys football club, a soft-drug-fuelled silent rave held by the local teenagers which goes horrendously wrong for one young lad who ends up naked and near-death in hospital and as for the poor alpaca which becomes a ritual sacrifice at the party...

And there's even more, as Armitage's old rake of a father, who owns the property company trying to buy out the reluctant home-owner, also has a dark secret from his Casanova past and just to top it off, there's a crooked cop who'll do anything to finance the medical bills to find a cure for the mysterious illness his daughter is suffering.

I'm almost breathless just recounting all this. Anyway, while it's all completely bonkers and fantastical, somehow all the connections make a sort of crazy sense leading to a satisfying conclusion when the mystery of Armitage's wife's disappearance is finally solved.

With an interesting and varied cast including the likes of Jennifer Saunders, Paul Kaye and Steven Rea, the pace never flags as intrigue is piled on intrigue and one cliffhanging situation leads to another.

Dull, it certainly wasn't.

I've read through some of the reviews and notice quite a few didn't like it. My only complaint was that they tied up the end in less than ten minutes when they could have went on for at least one or two more episodes. Nonetheless, we loved it and enjoyed the suspense and how everything was tied together.