Hold Tight

This six part Polish series, based on the book by Harlan Coben, is set some months after a young man died of an apparent drug overdose. His mother blames his friend Adam. Adam's parent suspect something is wrong with him and his friends are pressuring him not to talk about something... then he disappears. Meanwhile a pair of kidnappers, a man and a woman, are snatching women off the streets.

I thought this was a solid thriller series. As one would expect in a story by Harlan Coben there are some nice twists before we learn just what has happened. There is plenty of tension, especially in scenes involving the kidnappers; the man is particularly unpleasant. The setting is impressive with the parents' homes in a modern, wealthy neighbourhood contrasting with the rundown areas where their children go to hang out. The acting is pretty solid throughout. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of previous adaptations of Haran Coben's books.

These comments are based on watching the series in Polish with English subtitles.

"Hold Tight" starts promisingly, but soon slows to a crawl and the story doesn't seem to advance for at least 2-3 episodes (out of only 6). It also has an unwelcome emphasis on women getting kidnapped, beaten, murdered, and in general victimized. There are a couple of interesting twists near the very end, but it may be another case of "too little, too late". Well-acted by all, but a disappointment in comparison to other recent Harlan Coben series, including the also Polish "The Woods" (with which it shares two characters). 6/10 on the whole.

I didn't love Hold Tight as much as I expected to; I didn't enjoy the changes that were made. Ordinarily I can separate the adaptation from the book and view them as separate entities but I feel as though reading the book is the only reason I understand the motivation of some of the characters, and that they weren't written as well in the adaptation. I felt as though the heart of the novel was the father/son relationship and the parent/child relationships across all the characters which I feel has been marred in the adaptation by having so strong a focus on the younger characters and introducing some that are superfluous. I understand why some characters had to change, as the adaptations can't have Hester or Loren, and Pawel is a good way to amalgamate the roles of Hester and Mo. I didn't like the changes made to Ania's character to compensate for the loss of Susan though, I feel like Mike was so central to the book - his heart, his character, his impact on others - and I missed that in the series.

The real gift of Harlan Coben's writing is his unique ability to take readers on an emotional journey - to create hope and fear, to put us in the shoes of his characters and invest in their wellbeing - it's not all about the mystery, it's about the connection. I did not feel that connection with the characters in this series - not between each other and not between them and the viewer. This is a real shame as other adaptations have successfully created that bond and drawn us in completely - something about this one just seems clumsy and as though the writers and actors themselves didn't connect with the source material.

A thriller that lacks the wild twists and turns, for the most part its predictable and anticlimactic. The middle four episodes are filler and delay tactics. Acting is decent.

The number of low scores tells me that either 1) the reviewers are unable to follow films with subtitles, or 2) they watched the dubbed version. Both speak to the value of those same reviewers' opinions. This is not perfect, but it IS very well written, filmed, directed, and acted. It's also, virtually, the perfect length at six episodes. Watch it!