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SAFE de Harlan Coben affiche série
Affiche de la série "Safe"

[Review] “Safe” (2018) by Harlan Coben: A Canal +/Netflix series

The distinctive feature of Safe, the new TV series created by Harlan Coben, is that it is a collaboration between French premium channel Canal+ and Netflix. And the result is that the series is broadcasted on C8 in France and on Netflix in the rest of the world. The opinion and TV series review of Bulles de Culture on this British thriller with eight episodes.

Plot:

After his teenage daughter goes missing, a widowed surgeon (Michael C. Hall) in an affluent neighborhood begins unearthing dark secrets about the people closest to him

Safe : A new Harlan Coben’s TV show

SAFE by Harlan Coben image 2
© Red Production Company / MATT SQUIRE

After the adaptation for cinema and television of two of his novels (Tell No One, No Second Chance), American crime writer Harlan Coben continues to enjoy to put his world in television series. Thus, after The Five (2016) and Just One Look (2017), here is the TV series Safe for C8 in France and Netflix in other countries. This one puts us back in the heart of a community whose tranquility will be disturbed by a double event, the disappearance of a teenager and the death of an other one.

Families, friends, neighbors: The reverse of a community

SAFE by Harlan Coben photo
© Red Production Company/MATT SQUIRE

In this community at the heart of the television series Safe, several neighboring families and their loved ones will be put on the spot. One of these families is the one of surgeon Tom Delaney, played by actor Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under, Dexter). A widowed family man, he will see one of his two daughters, Jenny (Amy James-Kelly), disappear with her boyfriend Chris (Freddie Thorp). And it is this double disappearance that will upset the apparent balance of this community. To go in search of his son, Tom thinks he can rely on Pete, his best friend played by the comedian Marc Warren (The Good Wife). But friends or neighbors, everyone has their secrets in Safe.

Then the other important families in the series are:
– The family of the cop Sophie Mason, played by Amanda Abbington (Sherlock), a divorced mother — her ex-husband (Emmett J. Scanlan) is not far away as he lives in a camper-van near from the house — who lives a relationship with Tom;
– the family of Zoe Chalal, a French teacher played by French actress Audrey Fleurot (Spiral, A French Village) whose son Chris is Jenny’s boyfriend who disappeared with her during the evening;
– the family of teenager Sia Marshall (Amy-Leigh Hickman) — the one who organized the famous party where everything seems to have started — who goes with her parents to chain the most absurd behavior, and so funny at some points, as her family and her will be overwhelmed by this situation, which has disturbed their small provincial and bourgeois world.

Classic plot and polar know-how

SAFE by Harlan Coben photo
© Red Production Company/Ben Blackall

In the program of the TV series Safe, there will be a disappearance, a murder, some family secrets and even some secrets between friends, the shadow of the past on the present (like Tom’s wife who died of cancer), characters with many sides — some scenes are moreover reviewed from different points of view over the episodes —, police investigations and inquiry of a father who will learn of course gradually that he does not know his neighbors… and especially his relatives.

So the TV series Safe adopts the usual starting point with disappearance to undermine then the apparent links of a community. All with a rather good cast — with, among others, the comedian Michael C. Hall known for his portrayal of the complex character of the Dexter series and the actress Amanda Abbington who played the much-missed wife of Dr. John Watson in the Sherlock series —, an original soundtrack composed by Ben Onono — especially for the catchy song for the credits — and author Harlan Coben‘s know-how, accompanied by screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst (The Driver, The Five), who is still clever to create thrilling stories.

In short, Safe is a classic television series that will seduce the fans of the genre. Note that the series concludes at the end and that according to its creator, it should not have a season 2.

To learn more:

  • Safe is broadcasted in France on C8 from Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at 9 PM. The series will also be available in streaming and replay on French platform myCanal
  • Safe is available in streaming on Netflix in the rest of the world since Thursday, May 10, 2018
Jean-Christophe Nurbel

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