Dans les bois

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.

This is an intriguing, twisty, heartfelt drama from the mind of the great Harlan Coben. It's great that he is so focused on opening our eyes to talent across the world, and doesn't assume that the best actors come from America. Make the effort to watch this with the subtitles instead of the English language dub; the dub loses all of the emotion and intonation from the rather wonderful Grzegorz Damiecki, who really brings home the heartache of a man who has lost everyone he loves and is searching for answers.

This six part mystery is centred on Pawel Kopinski, a Warsaw based prosecutor who is forced to revisit a tragic event from his past. A man's body is found and items found with him point to a link to Pawel; at first Pawel doesn't recognise him but then realises he is a friend he last saw at summer camp in 1994. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that one night four teens disappeared from the camp in the woods, including Pawel's sister. Two bodies were found and the others assumed dead till one died as an adult; Pawel must consider the possibility that his sister is still alive. While he is trying to uncover the truth he is also dealing with a rape case where the father of the accused, a prominent journalist, is applying pressure to have the case dropped.

I haven't read the book so I can't say how this compares; I did enjoy it though. The mystery quickly got me hooked and the way the stories played out in two different time lines worked well. The woodland setting of the 1994 storyline was suitably atmospheric; brightly lit by day as the teens enjoy their camp but suitably sinister once darkness falls. Plenty is packed into the six episodes as suspects emerge in each case and blame is pointed at the camp's owner. The cast is impressive, most notably Grzegorz Damiecki as Pawel and Agnieszka Grochowska as Laura Goldsztajn, the owner's daughter in the scenes set in the present and Hubert Milkowski and Wiktoria Filus as the same characters in 1994. The rest of the cast is pretty good too. The various questions are resolved in the final episode; some details the viewer is likely to have figured out while others provide a nice surprise.

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

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.

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.