Stay Close Series Review: Shadows From The Past This Time Harlan Coben Made A Hole In The Water Spoilers!

Starring: Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage

Director: Lindy Heymann, Daniel O’Hara

Streaming Platform: Netflix (click to watch)

Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Netflix’s 2021 closes with the miniseries Stay Close an English thriller-drama, a new adaptation of a novel by Harlan Coben, released today on December 31st in time for an alternate New Year’s Eve, with a good marathon instead of a party. on TV. Composed of 8 episodes, the miniseries is part of the mega agreement signed by the American crime novel author Coben with the streaming platform. Stay Close is a British production starring Cush Jumbo and Richard Armitage, the latter already in The Stranger and The Innocent also by Coben and always English. At the center of the story is Megan, a mother whose peaceful existence is turned upside down when some ghosts from her past re-emerge and who also involve other people in a continuous interweaving of stories typical of Coben’s style.

Stay Close Story Plot

The storyline of Stay Close takes us to a small British town where Megan spends her family life calmly, between work, 3 children and a husband she loves. But Megan hasn’t always been what she is today and one day her past comes knocking on her door, triggering an unpredictable chain of events.

Overwhelmed by these events, Ray ends up a photographer who makes do with small jobs, still depressed by the loss of his girlfriend who worked as a dancer in a local nightclub. The girl disappears the same night as a violent man who tormented her. And that disappearance of 17 years earlier still haunts detective Broome who today is grappling with a new missing boy, the son of a rich man who also field ruthless killers to find him.

At the heart of Stay Close is Megan a mother of a family, three children, a husband and a cottage on the outskirts of an English town. Its history is intertwined with that of a nightclub, where the daughter goes to celebrate the carnival and where the son of a very rich man disappears who moves seas and mountains (and murderers) to find him. And this kidnapping is intertwined with a series of mysterious disappearances that haunt Detective Broome, starting with the disappearance of a man 17 years earlier which is a bit of Broome’s worry. The story of a photographer Ray, once in love with a local dancer, who was tormented by a violent man, also fits into this story. Many stories from the past that come back to the surface to complicate the lives of the various protagonists.

Stay Close Review and Analysis

Harlan Coben created the procedural miniseries. The serial adaptation of his novels into miniseries, despite having always different settings and characters, led to the birth of a similar story that is declined for a variable number of episodes between 5 and 8, but which has some fixed points: c ‘is always a woman who has a past to hide, which suddenly comes back, leading to a series of discoveries about the past and the present.

If in the past from The Stranger to Suburbia Killer and Vanished into thin air, the formula had always worked with declinations perhaps close to the soap but without ever being flat, with Stay Close it seems to have run aground. The previous “episodes” of Coben lived on continuous twists that made you want to go on and not break away, while here all this is missing. The miniseries goes on in a confused way, missing the contribution of a real underlying mystery from which the protagonist is running away. The attempt to expand the story to several characters united by a single mystery makes the yellow lose its strength and the final resolution appears easily predictable with a pinch of intuition.

The setting is incorrect. The distances between the various places seem too close to be credible that a person can disappear for 17 years without a trace and without encountering any of his old acquaintances. Especially if she works in the local nightclub as a dancer. The actors seem out of context and listless, starting with Cush Jumbo who limits himself to the homework to bring home the proof without giving anything more.

The sudden appearance of Barbie and Ken two killers who arrive singing and dancing, not only increase the confusion, but above all they appear out of context, disconnected from the narrative ensemble built up to now. The result is a muddled ensemble that risks winning over the viewer with difficulty. A shame because for a new adaptation of Coben, British and with this cast, we could have expected a lot more. Coben’s factory work would perhaps need the hand of a craftsman.

The eight-episode miniseries wisely mixes the atmosphere of an English town with the immediately effective characterization, in a few lines and a few details, of the characters, united by a delicate, calm and at the same time extremely effective English humor, with a direction that insists on the former. plans to capture micro expressions that may reveal more to the viewer than the character would like. The pastel colors of suburban life mix and contrast with the purple of the Vipers photograph, the venue at the center of the story, and the flashbacks of the past, moments of darkness in which you need to shed light to find the truth.

The narrative scheme is that of the classic thriller with the final twist, in which everything will be overturned with respect to what was known and with respect to the clues scattered, both for the characters and for the spectators, in the story. Thanks to a close-knit and well-chosen cast, including an old acquaintance of The Stranger (Richard Armitage, here in a practically opposite role) and some perfect additions such as the characters with whom we are immediately able to empathize with Harry, the lawyer of the addictive slum starring Eddie Izzard and sweet Lorraine, the director of Vipers who lends her face to Sarah Parish. There is no shortage of surreal moments such as even a musical in this so typical English thriller and so sui generis at the same time. If you are passionate about the crime and classic thriller genre, this is the binge watching serial product for you. The miniseries suffers only from some found a little too soap in the sentimental turns of the characters, and in the central part, where two episodes less would have perhaps helped to keep the narrative pace higher and the arrival at the final epilogue.

Stay Close Review The Last Words

Stay Close by rediscovering the atmospheres and stylistic features that characterized the previous serial works by Harlan Coben, here enclosed in the English humor and in the characterization of the characters immediately effective and poised, with a strong and determined woman at the center. a past to hide, which finds itself entangled in a case bigger than her. Without conspiracies, but with the characteristics of the classic thriller yellow for fans.