Nothing Stays Buried Forever ("Safe" review--"What I'm Streaming")

Harlan Coben is one of those authors whose books I’ve been reading for a coon’s age (however long that is), because he consistently delivers deliciously-twisty tales peopled with complex characters.

Recently, he’s also gotten into film productions, so as soon as I saw he had a new TV series out on Netflix—Safe, following 2016’s The Five and 2015’s No Second Chance—it was an easy choice as to what I’d be streaming next.

Short verdict? Wow. (No, really. Wow.)

Yeah, okay, I can do better than that. (And totally spoiler-free, natch.)

Set in a suburban area somewhere in England, Safe mostly takes place within the walls of a gated community. (Picturing beautiful large houses on ample lots, with wide, well-manicured lanes gently wending their way through the well-heeled neighborhood? Cool, then you’re in the right ballpark.)

Dr. Tom Delaney (Michael C. Hall, of “Dexter” and “Six Feet Under” fame) has been trying to make a life for himself and his two teenage daughters following the death of his wife a year earlier, but it’s been just as hard as you’d expect… especially with the elder daughter, 16-year-old Jenny, knowing a bit more than perhaps she should. 

So, when Jenny goes to a party one night—with her older (just-out-of-high-school) boyfriend, Chris—it’s everything Tom can do to wait— and hope—that she returns, no worse for wear, at a reasonable hour.

Problem is? She doesn’t return… and neither does Chris. They’re both missing, the next day… gone, without a trace.

Until, that is, Chris’s body is found… but still, with no sign of Jenny.

From that point, it’s imperative that Tom find his daughter—alive—because Chris’s devastated parents are ample evidence of how very much he doesn’t want to go through that particular trauma. 

But, finding Jenny proves to be elusive… even for fellow-community-resident and friend, Detective Sophie Mason (the ever-wonderful Amanda Abbington), and her new partner, young, big-city go-getter Detective Emma Castle (Hannah Atherton, in a fine role). 

Making matters worse, the high schoolers who were at the party have no particular incentives to tell the absolute truth about anything they did, saw, or knew to much of anyone, cop or not… and nor, it seems, do most of their parents (who only want for nothing bad to befall their children). And then there are all those secrets--past and present--that everyone has. The whole reason any of us ever keep secrets is because we don't want certain things to come to light, so... 

By the end, countless avenues have been explored—and discarded—before the real culprit(s) is/are unearthed. One of the wonders of Safe, though, is that those numerous avenues never feel like “red herrings” (the kinda-sorta obvious-to-the-viewer suspects that police must waste some time on before discarding and moving on to the next likely candidates); here, everything feels organic—a natural progression of thought processes and investigation—and not merely “for show” (or “for dramatic storyline continuation”).

And, just for the record, I’d considered, and discarded, and considered… and discarded, the real culprit(s) more than once, before the denouement. (This $h!t is complicated, yo!)

I’m not sure I’ve zoomed through an eight-episode series so quickly before; I worked out to seven (of eight) episodes—in two days!!!!—because of how very into the whole mystery I was. 

Safe is the real deal, folks. Compelling, confusing, thought-provoking, and endlessly-tantalizing, with a lot of really fine performances. 

Or, shorter… Safe is pure Harlan Coben gold, through and through. :) 

Thriller-lovers, do yourselves a favor and watch this one. You're not likely to regret it for a moment.

~GlamKitty