Missing You
I have to admit that I need to start each new year with a transplanted Harlan Coben miniseries. Damn you Netflix! You've created this addiction in me! Since 2020 Netflix has started each year off with a bang by dropping an addictive Harlan Coben adaptation invariably with Richard Armitage in some role. I mean, there's a fair amount of James Nesbitt too, but he's like the extra special sauce only available once in awhile. Last year though Fool Me Once left me feeling unfulfilled. By not focusing on the story that mattered and having a lackluster and unsympathetic lead in Michelle Keegan it made for a forgettable series. Unless you're me and spend all your time thinking how it could have worked if certain things had been changed. I mean, they had Joanna Lumley, literally anyone else could have made that work! Which is why when they announced that the new series was starring Rosalind Eleazar I breathed a sigh of relief. Best known as Louisa Guy on Slow Horses I knew in my bones that at least we had a lead that could carry the show. And I'm sorry if you're a fan of Michelle Keegan, but she was unable to rise to the challenge that is the flawed yet sympathetic lead needed for a Harlan Coben miniseries. And while Rosalind Eleazar is wonderful, her family secrets, her father's murder, her lost love, her second chance with her soulmate who just happened to be in So Solid Crew, that isn't what I loved about this series. This series begins with Kat finding her ex on a dating app. He disappeared out of her life overnight over a decade earlier without an explanation. See aforementioned family secrets and father's murder. Of course this leads her to investigate what really happened to her ex Josh. Traumatic revelations, eventual reconciliation, yadda yadda, you get the picture. But it's that picture on that dating app that is what draws you in. Because Josh's picture was being used to catfish people. It was a whole operation run by Steve Pemberton at his dastardly best. He was kidnapping and killing people once he'd gotten a hold of all their assets. He kept them prisoner in a farmyard, chained up like animals. But because of one woman searching for the love of her life this huge vast network of horror is brought to it's knees. But what really gets me is that these criminals, who, aside from their leader, aren't the brightest bunch, saw a picture of Ashley Walters and went, yeah, this hottie will bring the ladies to the yard and just used it on a public platform. Not really thinking about the consequences of what might happen if someone who knew him saw it. And, in fairness to the underlings, this is a man who just disappeared off the face of the Earth and a really dedicated copper couldn't find him, so, it would appear that this picture would be fair game. Then all the stars aligned and the exact wrong person saw the profile and started to pick at the thread. The whole sweater started to unravel, and while she's off trying to find answers about her own life she just incidentally stops evil in it's tracks. That's why I love this series so much. The random nature of the universe. Everything has to happen just right for all the dominoes to fall. Of course this is fiction, so Harlan Coben is able to put the dominoes exactly where he wants...but this still felt feasible. One of those too weird to not be believable stories. Damn. I admit it. I'm a Harlan Coben addict. I can't wait for the new year.
Who would have thought when Harlan Coben signed his five year multi-million dollar Netflix deal in 2018 it would bring about this interesting subgenre of transplanting his American stories onto British soil with beautiful house and cars you doubt any of the characters can actually afford and Richard Armitage always on hand. I for one am glad this came about. They are immanently bingeable and tie everything up so nice and neat at the end with a large helping of loss that they are perfectly suited to the times we find ourselves in. Not to mention the casting, oh dear lord, it's like someone stole a peak at my list of favorite actors and brought them all together for one project. Or that Richard Armitage is actually getting to show what a great actor he is. I feel so bad for some of the productions he's ended up in, yes, I'm looking at you Hobbit franchise! The miniseries follows Cassie, a stripper, who left that life behind seventeen years previously and is now about to get married to the father of her three children when she makes one little mistake and her past life bleeds into the present with a trail of bodies, often at the hands of a young couple who are musical theater buffs and whose "thing" is choreographed killing. It's riveting and absurd all at the same time. And while I was able to guess the real serial killer due to that old system of means, motive, opportunity, and casting, leaning heavily on the casting, the reveal is so magnificently acted that figuring out who the killer is in advance doesn't diminish the reveal. But what made me really love this production was Eddie Izzard. I have been a fan of Eddie since I first saw Dressed to Kill when it aired on HBO in the summer 1999, right after the David Bowie VH1 Legends episode aired that Eddie just happened to narrate. The following year was the first time I saw her on stage. I have seen Eddie on stage almost more times than I can count, and the most recent time in 2017 I actually got to meet her. Eddie as the drug addict lawyer Harry Sutton who helps anyone down on their luck was the linchpin of this series. Troubled yet wanting to do better, wanting to help. The dinner Harry has at Cassie's house with her family, for a moment it shows what Cassie's life could be with the past and the present as one. But more than that, I am very glad that someone on the production is obviously an Eddie Izzard fan and added a little something special to the set design. I mean, they HAD to name that pet shop Harry runs his law practice out of Hannibal's Animals after Eddie's bit about strapping two elephants to your feet and skying down the alps right? I mean, there's the other possibility that it's named after the TV series she and Richard Armitage both played killers on... But I like to think it's about the elephants.
