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.

The plot is intriguing but there is a lot of incompetence in this show which makes it a bit frustrating. Plot holes and unrelated story lines as well. I wish I could rate it higher.

"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 was excited about this one as I watched other Coben adaptation, unfortunately this one is simply boring and hard to stay awoken while watching. You can try if can't find anything else.

Yet another modern day drama where insolent teenagers have the upper hand. What ever happened to parenting and discipline ? The parents of Kaja were just wet lettuces, she was never reprimanded or questioned once about her behaviour, they just sat looking at her as she flounced upstairs ! As for Adam's parents - they were the ones who needed therapy, from HIM ! What a pain.

The story was too long, too drawn out, and with lots of fast forwarding I cut down the episodes from 49 minutes to around 30, so got through it much quicker. Thankfully.

As for the translation issues. I NEVER do dubbing, with subtitles at least you hear the actors voices instead of some American doing the overvoicing while sat in a studio watching the film.