The Woods

A popular prosecutor solving his sister's murder back in 1994.

After the success of Harlan Coben's two series based on books "THE SAFE" and "THE STRANGER", He teams up with Netflix for the third tv series based on his book "THE WOODS" which this time in distinct Polish flavor.

Author's books usually starts with a single plot and uncovers more mystery with twists and turns, which was meticulously given in the tv series as well, but in the case of THE WOODS, it missed giving what we saw in the other two accomplishments.

Curtains raise, In 1994, End of the summer in Poland, four kids go missing into the woods, two found dead into the founds some days later and two found was still missing. Twenty-five years later one of the kids Artur found dead and was identified by the protagonist a reputed prosecutor Pawel. Kamila is one of the missing kid who is the beloved sister of Pawel. He sets a course to find what happened to his sister which is leads to twists and turns into the story.

The screenplay will take between 2019 and 1994 as Prosecutor takes his narrative back and forth when he founds out clues which are left to him by a stranger. Later episodes uncovers the one responsible for the murders and, more crucially, the events that actually took place that fateful night of kids gone missing.

As usual, we can correlate author's previous novel with this one, as this one also uncovers more than one mystery, hence each and every episode is important. One thing I really felt great is the translation of an English novel to a European series with the same texture of the atmosphere, characters.

Overall, It is a decent series but it is not a standout one among the creator's other books based novels. But it is good to watch if you like mystery and crime genre.

I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to series. If the first few episodes are not spellbinding I'll just give up.

I'm at episode 4 at the moment and I'm still watching, so it can't be bad. Actually I'm quite enjoying it. It's based on a Harlan Coben novel and he also is als the executive producer I believe.

The story gets complicated as it intertwines the disappearance of kids from a summer camp 25 years ago with more recent events. I don't want to give anything away. The acting is solid and the production values are good. I really enjoyed the camera work used during the summer camp scenes.

Word of advice. Don't listen to the English dubbed soundtrack, It is horrible and lifeless. Rather read the subtitles.

I read a book. I also watched two previous Harlan Coben's tv series. Based on previous experience I was expecting something similar to Safe or Stranger. And it is not the same! Not at all!

What I found annoying about Safe and Stranger was the fact that all that middle aged average families live in the houses that most people living in UK won't be able to afford. And here we have Poland. And polish scenery. And public sector worker living in the flat like many other polish people!

I also loved summercamp. I remember going to the ones like the one from The Woods myself.

And series is in very slow pace, what helped to create atmosphere and gave time to reflect on the events, however I can imagine that for many people the show will be boring.

The Woods - B (Good)

Coming from Poland, I believe show did a good show making it viewable for anyone around the world. The cast as young and older versions match, so their performances makes you care for ark of their characters. With six episodes, I found the show very bingeable. Young Pawel (Hubert Milkowski) and Laura (Wiktoria Filus) performances standout as grieving young lovers with guilt.

I did feel, as there were four stories going at the same time; Past camp murder and disappearance of kids, Past story about his mother, Present rape prosecution case and then Present Police investigation into him in reference to new death made it bit complicated as story's focus keep shifting to all these four elements and the current rape prosecution case ends on very lacklustre result.

If the story focused primary was on past camp mystery and current murder case it would have intensified the series as they should have been the prime focus due to their connection. Overall, the show is a good attempt and doesn't disappoint.

First of all: I really don't like polish tv series, they're dull, with horrible acting and every actor speaks like having lockjaw, so when I turned "The Woods" I was very cautious and expected turning tv in circa 10 minutes. Well, turned out I watched four episodes at one go and today I finished last two. I loved locations and cinematography, acting is very good, also music is quite good. If you like scandi noir and tartan noir with its slow pace, twists and "nothing as it seems" plots - you'll be delighted as I am.