There’s a certain type of series that hits the mark after a few weeks of festive fun, the kind with a simple plot, easy-to-remember characters and a minimal number of episodes – and which is forgiving if you catch five. -a one-minute nap in the middle of a given installment.
Netflix’s new thriller I miss you hopes to be that kind of show. Adapted from the Harlan Coben novel of the same name, it is the latest entry in the streamer’s Harlan Coben collection (consisting of eight shows, excluding I miss youalthough it is likely that most people are not really aware of it until Fool me once). As with the Fool me once adaptation, this new series transplants the action from America to the United Kingdom (fans of the books might find this move noticeable, but for anyone jumping straight into the series, everything should feel natural here.)
In I miss youthe plots intertwine and diverge, all revolving around missing persons detective Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar). When Kat matches her ex-fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters) on a dating app, eleven years after he ghosted her, she is kicked out. While reinvestigating the murder of her police officer father – thanks to the terminal illness of his killer Monte Lebrun (Marc Warren) – in her spare time and the cases of two missing persons during her work time, Kat uncovers possible connections with Josh, making it imperative that she finds him.
This sounds a little more complicated than it actually is, and I miss you is actually quite adept at immediately establishing its premise and protagonist. The first episode opens with a shocking scene of a panicked man on a horse in a dark rural landscape, interspersed with blurry moments of a blonde woman. The man, we later find out, is Rishi Magari (Rudi Dharmalingam), and he has disappeared, although the series’ initial focus on him is slightly misleading. It was pushed aside pretty quickly for the second missing person, Dana Fells (Lisa Faulkner), who is introduced later in the series.
- Netflix continues to conquer the Harlan Coben market with I miss you trailer
- Cory Branan strikes a chord on “Missing You Fierce”
Kat’s introduction, right after Rishi’s, is designed to tell you exactly who she is: charming, sexy, funny, smart, independent. While having a drink with a gym bro (Busted’s Matt Willis, to the delight of British thirty-somethings everywhere) and then stopping a knife attack in the pub kitchen, Yo missingYou’re sending the message that this is a woman not to be messed with and that she’s going to do what she wants. Eleazar’s performance is excellent, both as present-day Kat – focused, loving and yet slightly emotionally closed off – and in flashback, where she is bubbly and filled with joy.
Around Kat is a network of friends and family. Her mother Odette (Bridget Zengeni) and her “aunts” are fun to watch, and it’s easy to see why they’re such a strong support system for each other. Kat’s friends Stacey (Jessica Plummer) and Aqua (Mary Malone) are initially presented as independent and interesting, but unfortunately they quickly become one-note and in service of Kat’s obsession with finding Josh and the real killer of his father, which is a waste of both. actors. Stacey’s job as a private investigator requires her to wander in and out of scenes in various costumes to try to trap cheating partners, as if she were a bad friend from a 1990s rom-com, while helping Kat with her investigations in parallel. Meanwhile, if Aqua isn’t sitting at a bar or leading a yoga session, she looks suspicious and is clearly hiding a very big secret.
Secrets are, of course, the bread and butter of a show like I miss youbut sometimes it feels like there are too many. Josh, Aqua, Stacey, Odette, Kat’s boss Stagger, and even Kat’s mother Odette and father Clint (Sir Lenny Henry) were all hiding or hiding something. Thrillers need a secret or two, but having every character hide something from Kat is excessive and diminishes the impact of the show’s key mysteries.
And that’s before the show even gets to its “bad guys,” a group of guys led by creepy dog breeder Titus (Steve Pemberton), who Kat is investigating (unbeknownst to him). No animals are harmed, which is the best thing that can be said about this plot. It’s unrealistic, and that’s no less true when it comes to a TV thriller. And when it finally ends, there are too many unanswered questions, all of which poke holes in this story. While I miss you connects Kat’s case to her investigations into Josh in tangential ways, it often feels like we’re watching two different TV shows unfold.
Where the show succeeds is in its performances, which are strongest among the older, more experienced cast. Even through flashbacks in which he remains largely silent, British comedy legend Henry is charismatic and commands attention every time he is on screen. James Nesbitt actually only appears in one scene, as crime boss Callighan, and yet he’s having so much fun that an entire series revolving around him wouldn’t be welcome. Warren, again only appearing properly for one scene, is satisfyingly unsettling as suspected cop killer Monte Leburn, while Zengeni as Odette exudes warmth and love and is exactly the kind of person everyone aspires to be later in life.
Despite all the complications mentioned above, after five short episodes (all of which last around 45 minutes), I miss you is easy viewing. Netflix is hoping it’ll be a New Year’s binge session, when fatigue, a possible hangover, and a potential return to real life require nothing more taxing than sitting in front of the television. And it should rack up a significant number of viewers because of that, at least.
I miss you premieres January 1 on Netflix
