This is one of many mini-series produced and published by Netflix that it is an adaptation of Harlan Coben’s novel. Like his other novels, this one also features gritty crime in a fast-paced storyline with multiple characters hiding their own truths.
The series opens with the pleasant domestic blissful beach vacation of Jacek Ławniczak and Greta Rembiewska, along with their two children. Immediately, viewers become aware of Greta’s painful memories and her struggles to recall the past events in order to reconcile and make peace. She has been a sole survivor of a tragic fire incident almost fifteen years ago. It seems that her brain has blanked out that traumatic episode.
But the past comes roaring back in quite a dramatic fashion with the discovery of a photo on the anniversary of this incident. That photo opens a chasm between Jacek and Greta as he fears for his very existence and decides to confront the most likely culprit. It leads to his sudden disappearance as he gets kidnapped and brutally tortured by a violent criminal.
These series of events help Greta to recall that fateful night of fifteen years ago and come to terms with the incidents happening in her life since her husband’s disappearance. She also needs to reconcile and then confront the parents who are still grieving for their children’s loss in that fire incident and somehow blame her for not remembering the real perpetrators.
Like I said, it is a plotline full of twists and turns. Few of these twists managed to held the series together like the kidnapping of Jacek and the monstrous behaviors displayed by his abductor. Otherwise, the series failed to impress me as a thriller because the screenplay feels flat and the characters come out as two dimensional.
It’s good for a one-time watch or to watch in the background while continuing with your work.