The coastal metropolis of Good makes a très beau backdrop for this French adaptation of Coben’s 2002 New Jersey-set novel Gone for Good, however that’s kind of all this five-part thriller has going for it. It’s the story of Guillaume, a younger man who suffers a dreadful loss in 2010, however then repairs his life simply in time for all of it to crumble once more in 2020 with the disappearance of his girlfriend. So unravels a sophisticated crime story with a needlessly repetitive construction.
The dialogue veers between perfunctory exposition (“Bear in mind, we have now to rise up early on your mum’s funeral, like anyone may overlook”) and melodrama, the characters are bland or cliched, the performances uncharismatic and the story sadly lacks any convincing surprises. And whereas Harlan Coben thrillers virtually all embrace flashbacks to a long time earlier (typically counting on a wig to de-age an actor by 20 years, with… variable outcomes), right here, the time jumps between 2010, 2017 and 2020 confuse somewhat than have interaction. What it lacks in appeal, it makes up for in gunfire and shootouts with preposterous villains. Good seems to be good although.
12. The 5 (2016)
Watch on: NOW (UK), Fubo/Directv (US)
This was the primary of the UK Coben diversifications by Crimson’s Nicola Schindler, Richard Price and writer-producer Danny Brocklehurst, and whereas it laid down a foundation for what was to observe, the components wasn’t fairly there but. It’s in regards to the disappearance of a five-year-old boy within the Nineties, and the winding path to discovering out what actually occurred 20 years later when a bunch of grown-up childhood buddies together with the lacking boy’s brother reunite to find the reality.
At 10 episodes, The 5 is over-long and feels convoluted, however its principal challenge is character. The lead solid of Tom Cullen, Lee Ingleby, Sarah Solemani and O-T Fagbenle are individually robust, however have little or no chemistry with one another, making them unconvincing as a bunch of lifelong buddies who had been supposedly inseparable as youngsters. Add to that some nasty sexual abuse plot threads, an ending that entails an unlimited coincidence and a significant suspension of disbelief, and The 5 doesn’t actually add as much as a lot. It’s nonetheless very watchable, with all of the hooks and tips in place to drag you thru the plot, however is in the end too dominated by contrivance to be correctly satisfying. That stated, it’s maybe the one crime drama to characteristic a high-speed foot chase involving a detective leaping over a number of caravans, so there’s that.
11. Juste Un Regard/Simply One Look (2017)
Watch on: All4 (UK), not at the moment accessible to stream within the US.
