The Five

The disappearance of a young boy some decades previously is the scene setter for a complex mystery drama from the pen of Harlan Coben. When the child's DNA appears at a crime scene, the four friends charged with his care must confront the ghosts of their past and resolve the mystery and conflicting hopes of their present life. The plot successfully weaves in and out between mystery thriller, police procedural and personal drama. The four lead characters are well written and, crucially, well contrasted. Each actor can hold the screen in progressing the narrative and the different personal narratives dovetail very well. are The casting of their younger selves is excellent. Good supporting cast too, with back stories complimenting the central narrative. Tight direction keeps us apace with the many twists and turns in the plot. The end is both surprising and convincing. Really superior drama. Strangely, considering the addiction to series these days, the story is so self-contained that it's hardly likely to spawn a sequel. Nevertheless, writing and direction and acting of such high calibre that some future collaboration would be welcome.

This was a non-exceptional mystery drama with UK accents. The sound creation team should be shot. At least 2 times per episode during some dramatic scene they play this awful, piercing noise. It's like a clue that something is serious and you need to be annoyed to make sure you notice.

I was intrigued right from the first episode my one major complaint is the almost consist loud annoying music, which accompsnied any movement, running, sitting, observing! Why

Finally finished watching this with my partner and what a superb ending (don't worry, no spoilers!). With the exception of the nonsensical notion that the main characters, despite not being policeman and worse, being witness to the crime in question, are constantly allowed to be involved in the investigation, this series was perfect...

An excellent story (I shall have to pick up a couple of Harlan Coben novels I think), incredible acting across the whole cast, a great soundtrack, well-rounded characters, superb casting (especially where different actors were required for the same characters 20 years apart). I could go on, but in short, if you haven't started this already, do! It's still available on Sky/Now TV Box Sets at the time of writing.

It's shows like this and Utopia which so many US TV shows (which seem to get all the plaudits) really should take note of. No dragging out of episodes where you wait 6 episodes just to get 1 new piece of information. No leaving cliffhangers at the end of the 1st series to leave it open for a 2nd. None of this 'oh well you've got to get through the first 2 seasons, but then it gets good, honestly'. Just a perfect one off series which is rounded off properly and if anything moves a little too quickly. Seriously, each episode contains the equivalent of around 3 'US season finale' type moments, you'll find yourself rewinding just to make sure you'd seen things right.

The squealing sound effects were so distracting and annoying in episode one, I couldn't continue to watch. Too bad since the premise was interesting.