3 reasons Harlan Coben’s The Stranger should be your next Netflix binge-watch
by Mads Lennon


Harlan Coben’s The Stranger is Netflix’s latest slow-burn thriller series and their third Coben adaptation. Is it worth your time?

What would you do if a random person approached you and told you something that threatened to upend your entire life? That’s the concept of Netflix‘s latest thriller, adapted from Harlan Coben’s book, The Stranger.

If the name “Harlan Coben” sounds familiar, that’s because Netflix has previously adapted two of his other novels, Safe, and The Five, to varying degrees of success. I can’t speak on those series but I was impressed with The Stranger. The following list details the top three reasons you should check it out.

3. It’s very good at building tension.

The first episode introduces us to Adam Price, played by Richard Armitage. Adam is a seemingly happy family man with two sons of his own. But his entire world is flipped on its axis when a mysterious stranger (played by Ant-Man and the Wasp star Hannah John-Kamen) approaches him in public to tell him a devastating secret about his wife, Corinne.


Despite his immediate desire to forget what she said, Adam can’t help but follow up on what the stranger told him. Unfortunately, his worst fears are confirmed and he unwittingly stumbles upon a dangerous conspiracy that goes deeper than he could have ever imagined.

2. The twists are actually surprising.

There is a surprising moment involving an alpaca in the first episode. I won’t elaborate any further. But seriously, this series has some shocking twists and turns.

1. The acting is fantastic and the characters are genuinely interesting.

Armitage and John-Kamen are excellent in their roles as is the rest of the cast including actors like Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Anthony Head, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders, and more. Plus, the characters are interesting, everyone is hiding something.

You never know what sordid detail is going to be revealed next and you’ll find yourself getting drawn deeper and deeper into the twisted web in the hopes you can learn the truth once and for all, just like everyone involved in the show.
Next: 9 celebs that believe in the paranormal

Have you watched The Stranger on Netflix? Are you planning to check out the new thriller? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Season one of The Stranger is currently available on Netflix.

ANONYMOUS CRITIC@AnonymousCritix

Watched The Stranger on @NetflixUK. 4 out of 5 stars. Interesting, thought provoking writing, excellent acting. Twists coming out of your ears. Excellent drama, making me think of watching the other Harlan Corben drama on Netflix. Good work.

The Stranger Season 1 Review: A cracking adaptation of Harlan Coben’s book

By Salome G
| February 3, 2020
TV Blogs

In a thriller, a stranger is usually not a good thing. After all, the stranger is often the one who torments the protagonist and/or a series of throwaway victims. The stranger in The Stranger is no different.

She doesn’t kill you or even touch you, not physically. Instead, she comes into your life and she drops a bomb on it. And you know what? I think I’d rather fight her.

Because what she does exactly is tell you a secret. You didn’t know it was a secret, because someone you probably love has been keeping it from you. But there she is, injecting it into your life like poison into your veins. If you’re lucky, that’s all she does. But maybe she wants something else from you.

Why does she do it? Although she clearly gets material gain from some of it, she also believes that secrets should be known. That’s certainly a noble thought, but not all secrets are the same, of course. Some are harmful, obviously, but others cause more harm in being known. In any case, they’re all here, waiting to be revealed.

Because although it’s based on Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name, this new series from Netflix (and showrunner Danny Brocklehurst) isn’t an exact copy of the book. So if you’ve read the book, as I have, there are still surprises.

One of the biggest changes for the series is moving the story to an unnamed burg in northern England. (Despite the fact that Coben has also created the UK-set shows Safe and The Five, most of his books, if not all of them, are set around New Jersey and New York.) Richard Armitage stars as Adam Price, a solicitor who’s happily married to Corinne (Dervla Kirwan), mother to their two boys, Thomas (Jacob Dudman) and Ryan (Misha Handley).

One day, Adam’s at his sons’ football club when a stranger (Hannah John-Kamen) approaches him. She has a secret about his wife. He doesn’t want to believe it, but she’s introduced enough doubt that he can’t help but wonder. And then everything unravels from there.

I don’t want to say too much, because everything is so intricately tied together that revealing the wrong detail could upend the whole story. But I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that Corinne goes missing soon after the stranger appears. And whether the secret has anything to do with her disappearance is one of the mysteries that fuels the series.

Because suffice it to say, Adam isn’t the only one the stranger approaches. The Prices aren’t the only ones with secrets. And as Adam, along with characters like DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran), work to uncover those secrets, we can’t resist being pulled in with them.

Griffin and her partner, DC Wesley Ross (Kadiff Kirwan), begin their part in the story by investigating another strange incident. A local teenager, Dante (Kai Alexander), has been found unconscious in the woods. The same night, the headless body of an alpaca is found. Are these two things connected? And how do they fit in with everything else that’s going on?

While I’m not going to spoil that, I will say that there are enough connections between everyone in this community that viewers will likely be riveted. The show is designed to keep your attention, keep you binging one episode after the other and it certainly accomplishes that goal.

Because if you stop to think about it, you might have a hard time suspending your disbelief at some of the wilder contrivances. However, since it moves so speedily, you’re never given that much time to dwell. Nearly every episode ends with a cliffhanger, or another sudden shock, so that your greedy brain wants to move onto the next episode, the next reveal.

Because while secrets can disrupt your life, few of us can withstand the temptation of learning one. Look, for example, at how popular gossip is. Most of us like to know what’s really going on behind closed doors. And with this show, we can find out, at a distance, where no one really gets hurt. Because it’s not real, and the stranger can’t really ruin anyone’s life.

8.5/10 – While, again, some of the connections that are made frankly strain credulity, this is a cracking adaptation of Harlan Coben’s book.

Fun fact: While, on the show, Terry’s alibi is that he’s at a conference about censorship, in the book version of The Outsider, he’s actually listening to Harlan Coben speak.

Intimidation : pourquoi l’adaptation du roman d’Harlan Coben est une réussite

Par Journaliste Figaro Damien Mercereau Mis à jour le 07/02/2020 à 16:12


CRITIQUE - Netflix diffuse depuis le 30 janvier la série adaptée du best-seller du romancier américain avec, au casting, Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders et Hannah John-Kamen.

En mars 2015, Harlan Coben dévoilait aux États-Unis son nouveau roman intitulé The Stranger. Un thriller haletant dans lequel un avocat, Adam Price, apprend de la bouche d’un inconnu que son épouse lui a menti en prétendant être enceinte. Lorsque ce père de deux enfants confronte la femme avec qui il partage sa vie depuis plusieurs années à cette révélation, celle-ci se volatilise sans lui donner d’explication.

Où est-elle? Pourquoi avoir inventé cette grossesse et la fausse couche qui s’en est suivie? «Tout a commencé quand je suis tombé sur un site de fausse grossesse», nous racontait l’auteur américain en 2016. «Ces ventres en silicone, ces échographies truquées, cela m’a semblé tellement ridicule… On pense que ce que l’on fait en ligne est anonyme mais “Big Brother is always watching you”. C’était un bon tremplin. Même si ce n’est évidemment pas la technologie qui m’intéresse dans cette histoire mais les gens, leurs secrets…»

Avec ce mystère et cette disparition, le romancier américain utilise les ingrédients phares et terriblement addictifs de chacun de ses livres. «The Stranger est un de mes romans les plus complexes», affirme Harlan Coben. Publiée en France sous le nom d’Intimidation, son adaptation en une série de huit épisodes par Red Production Company rentre dans le cadre du contrat d’exclusivité signé entre le romancier américain et Netflix. En août 2018, les deux parties se sont entendues pour mettre en image, en films ou en séries, quatorze des best-sellers du natif de Newark.

Forts de leurs premières collaborations sur les séries The Five et Safe , Harlan Coben et le scénariste anglais Danny Brocklehurst se sont une nouvelle fois associés pour opérer la transformation d’un roman aussi riche et addictif qu’Intimidation en une série efficace. Une mission réussie grâce à un casting porté avec brio par Richard Armitage (Lucas North dans MI-5, Thorin dans Le Hobbit) dans le rôle principal d’Adam Price et à de subtiles modifications scénaristiques. Si l’histoire originale prend place dans le New Jersey si cher aux yeux de Harlan Coben, l’adaptation a traversé l’Atlantique pour s’installer en Angleterre.

Autre différence majeure, l’inconnu du livre n’est plus le dénommé Chris Taylor mais une femme jouée par Hannah John-Kamen. Cette dernière, habituée à incarner des personnages à fort caractère que ce soit dans Game of Thrones, Ready Player One, Ant-Man ou encore Black Mirror, donne une tout autre dimension à l’inconnu. Celle d’une femme pugnace extrêmement charismatique, sûre d’elle, convaincue du bien-fondé de ses actions et qui ose tenir tête aux hommes, même les plus redoutables. Dans ce thriller addictif, les huit épisodes d’Intimidation défilent aussi rapidement que les 450 pages du roman. Jusqu’à un dénouement totalement inattendu.

Deux autres séries adaptées des romans d’Harlan Coben sont attendues dans les mois à venir sur Netflix: The Woods (Dans les bois) puis The Innocent (Innocent). Côté livres, le nouvel ouvrage du romancier américain, The boy from the woods, sort en mars aux États-Unis.

‘The Stranger’ hooks viewers in with secrets, mystery

February 10, 2020

By Chelsie Derman
Reviews Editor

“The Stranger,” Netflix’s latest binge worthy mystery series, leaves viewers dying to watch its addicting storyline unravel. The compelling British series made its debut on Jan. 30.

Centered on the seemingly normal Price family, hell breaks loose when a stranger approaches the father of the family, Adam Price (Richard Armitage), and reveals that his wife faked her last pregnancy. As the father of two sons, and the almost-father of the child he lost through a miscarriage, he questions the integrity of his wife and becomes hellbent on finding out the truth.
Price, the main protagonist, struggles as his family falls apart (Instagram).

Outside of the drama surrounding Price and his lying wife, gravitating mysteries arise around the town. The pounding, heart-racing music in the background, along with the snippets of flashbacks and odd clips — such as the naked, terrified boy racing through the field — advances the story’s suspense. Even when mysteries are solved, more questions arise— who did it? Who’s lying? Who’s the stranger?

“The Stranger” is based on the Harlan Corben novel and was adapted and written by Danny Brocklehurst. On screen, the show does an excellent job of making the storyline come alive, through the character’s raw emotions and the pounding music which emphasizes how crazy and confusing everything has become. With all the mysteries thrown at the characters, their lives have, in a sense, turned upside down.

Not only does the show’s town mysteries, such as the naked boy and the decapitated alpaca, add to the suspense of the story, but throughout the show, I couldn’t help but wonder how Price’s lying wife and these odd occurrences were connected.

The titular character, The Stranger, plays a crucial role in the storyline. The character is known for approaching people in their day-to-day lives, revealing that she is aware of their secrets. The Stranger typically runs away after receiving blackmail from her victims to avoid answering any questions.

By the end of season one, the show successfully answers the questions that were raised and leaves the viewer satisfied. The story wraps up in an appalling, unexpected way that left my heart racing until the very last scene.

“The Stranger” forces viewers to question whether they can really trust the people around them and raises an alarming question — who is actually on our side?

It is easy to binge watch “The Stranger,” as the show never fails to keep you on the edge of your seat. The suspense, characters and music all add to the development of the story, making it a thrilling watch. I highly recommend this show to anyone who loves a good mystery and enjoys watching the startling truth unfold in front of them.

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From original series like Stranger Things and The Crown to TV favourites such as Sherlock, Doctor Who, Friends and more, check out the all-time best series currently streaming on Netflix

[...]

The Stranger

Following on from 2018's Safe, this is the second collaboration between Netflix and bestselling thriller writer Harlan Coben. It's a classier, sturdier affair, albeit stilled crammed with unlikely twists. Richard Armitage holds it together as the comfy upper-middle-class dad whose world is destroyed by - you guessed it - secrets, lies and perhaps even murder. Watch on Netflix

[...]

The Stranger on Netflix: Will the series get a second season?
by Sandy C.

The Stranger on Netflix is packed with all sorts of secrets, but will they spill over to a second season?

Netflix’s The Stranger is a puzzling ride packed with secrets and mystery. I’ll be the first to admit, though, that not all of these secrets are gold, and not every moment in the series is fun (or worth it). But there is one thing The Stranger definitely is, and that’s entertaining!

Despite the foggy twists and turns, the forgettable side plots, and the bizarre conclusion, The Stranger is incredibly addicting. Once viewers tune in for an episode, they can’t look away and need to stick around to see how it all ends. Sure, the finale is a bit disappointing, even I have to agree, but I’m also pretty sure we all go in watching this knowing it is classified as trash tv gold.

The final episode of The Stranger season 1 leaves us with many questions and the possibility of more stories. No spoilers ahead, but two characters are hiding a huge secret. And if the series taught us anything at all, it’s that secrets never stay hidden for long.

Will what these two characters are hiding stay covered for long? Season 2 could feature some strong revelations. There’s also the possibility of two other characters reuniting once again.

Finally, another route The Stranger season 2 could follow is the journey of different characters in another town. The story could focus on how lies and secrets hurt and ruin lives.

Film + Tv Reviews@KingReviewsGuy

#TheStranger - Dayum what a series this was! Psychological miniseries which made me question myself. Had a lot going on making it highly addictive that I couldn’t stop watching.

Would give a rating of 9/10

#Netflix #thestrangernetflix

Monday, 10 February 2020

TV review: The Stranger, Netflix (2020)

I wasn’t the only person impressed by this police procedural, as the following tweet seen on 4 February demonstrates, though watching two episodes didn’t allow me to grasp the identity of the female character Dannielle refers to here.

After searching online for information about the novel this eight-episode Netflix miniseries was based on, I quickly uncovered a Newsweek story dated 30 January that included this:

‘The Stranger’ on Netflix is an adaptation of Harlan Coben's 2015 novel of the same name, but some big changes have been made on the way from page to streaming service. Most noticeably, [the] Stranger has been turned from a male character into a female one, played by ‘Ant-Man’ and ‘The Wasp’'s Hannah John-Kamen, and the story has been moved from New Jersey to a British town (the series was filmed in and around Manchester in the north of England).

To start with the second observation in Newsweek’s story: the British setting makes this series look and feel, for Aussie viewers, very much like standard end-of-week drama fare, the kind of show you might see on the main Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) channel on a Friday night, when people are at home and the kids have been put to bed. I have watched this species of drama for a long time, and especially enjoyed ‘Silent Witness’ (a kind of low-key UK version of ‘CSI’) and, more recently, ‘Vera’ (where the top cop is a woman of mature years, as in ‘The Stranger’). Naturally, I loved ‘Spooks’, the BBC1 TV series that ran from 2002 to 2011 and that screened on the ABC. It starred Richard Armitage, who plays Adam Price in ‘The Stranger’.

I have read some of Coben’s novels but I don’t remember anything from that experience. All I remember is that I was entertained and the same was true when I watched ‘The Stranger’ on TV.

In the miniseries the plot gyrates madly from one moment to the next, you are never left waiting long before the next twist diverts you. Just as you thought you were getting on top of the story, something else happens to draw your attention to another facet of this gem. It’s a kind of divertissement, of course, for which we turn to genre fiction (see that last link, above).

Modern genre fiction provides other attractions as well, and in ‘The Stranger’ you get some stereotype-busting casting – notable in this regard are Kadiff Kirwan as a gay, black cop and a groundskeeper (I couldn’t find his name in the IMDB credits list) who sits on the autism spectrum. The presence of many people of colour in the cast list for this film makes it stand out from comparable productions, such as the British TV series ‘Midsomer Murders’, which started airing in 1997, is still going strong, and is predominantly Anglo.

The use of technology to progress the plot in ‘The Stranger’ is also well done. Often a text message from a family member will provide the trigger for a change of direction in a conversation, in the same way that, traditionally, someone entering a room or receiving a phone call might have done. In a film where youth is a theme this tactic is obviously important.

The narrative in this miniseries comprises two separate storylines, one involving children and another involving adults. The main storyline, involving adults, challenges preconceptions about the world. A central premise is that privacy has been eroded by the internet. The fiction turns on facts delivered by a woman (the stranger of the series title, played by Hannah John-Kamen) who tells others compromising information about their loved ones. Armitage’s Adam Price is one of the people who receive such information, in his case when he is at a sports club for a soccer match in which his youngest son, Ryan (Misha Handley), is competing.

You are however constantly hearing people hide secrets, in a way that, you think, will be harmful to them. The dialogue, furthermore, is not always true-to-life; you frequently feel frustrated as people behave in ways that militate against their own best interests. On several occasions you wish that people would leave things to the police rather than taking action themselves. So, the movie is not entirely realistic but is, rather, designed to maximise suspense; you cannot have any idea, at the outset, how matters will turn out.

The use of music is effective and good casting demonstrates the amount of thought that went into planning the enterprise. Secondary characters do as much work as the principals, and this adds to the feeling of quality you get from the series. Different episodes were written and directed by different people, so I won’t list them, and Coban helped write the screenplay.

The title draws the viewer’s attention to how people can preserve secrets regardless of proximity. This is certainly true of Adam’s eldest son Thomas (Jacob Dudman), but it applies equally to others, including Adam’s wife Corinne (Dervla Kirwan). The performance of Brandon Fellows as Thomas’ friend Mike Tripp stood out, for me, due to its quality but all the leads are good, and secondary characters are solid.

It requires a total stranger to show Adam how little he knows about people he cares deeply about. Ancillary reverberations this series creates stem from notions of the fragility of life and the importance of small things. People telling lies can have a major impact on the lives of others. It seems to be saying that all of us function to maintain quality of life; there are no easy targets when it comes to the maintaining wellbeing of the community. It takes a village.

Posted by Matthew da Silva at 4:42 am

"The Stranger" — New must-see Netflix thriller based on novel
Arts & Entertainment

Courtesy of PRIMETIMER

Where can you watch an ominous stranger reveal news of a fake pregnancy to a dedicated father? An insanely trippy teenage rave? A mysteriously decapitated alpaca? A beloved missing mother? Secrets that unravel, destroying families and the whole community in the process? The answer is in the new Netflix original series “The Stranger.” Released on Thursday, Jan. 30, “The Stranger” is based on the book by renowned American mystery novelist Harlan Coben.

“The Stranger” features a star-studded cast of British actors who played roles in other well-known movies and television series such as “Captain America: The First Avenger” actor Richard Armitage, “Game of Thrones” actress Hannah John-Kamen, “Downton Abbey” actress Siobhan Finneran and “Skins” actress Lily Loveless, among others. These actors do not disappoint, giving beautiful and believable heartfelt and emotional performances in this series.

In addition to the incredibly talented cast that brings the show to life, it is the story itself and the way in which the plot unfolds that truly make “The Stranger” stand out. Every episode is a roller-coaster ride of revelations, atrocities and twists keeping viewers in complete suspense and shock. In fact, the ability to keep the curious audience equally confused and engaged throughout each episode and the entire series is not an easy task, but it is well-achieved here. In each episode, more secrets are revealed and tension continues to build, ultimately leading toward another revelation and a climactic end. It is within about the last five minutes of every episode that all hell breaks loose with one twist after another, leaving the viewer with no choice but to click “Next Episode” as fast as they can.

Beside the actors and the plot, there are several technical elements that allow the story to elicit the emotion, suspense and dramatic effect it desires to achieve. The foreboding, mysterious and intense music coupled with each scene creates a sense of unease among the audience. The camera angles and aesthetic shots directed by Daniel O’Hara also add to the show’s overall effectiveness.

Fans of mysteries, crime procedurals, psychological thrillers, dramas and simply anything dark will most likely enjoy “The Stranger.” More specifically, fans of “Twin Peaks,” “Broadchurch” and “Black Mirror” would probably also enjoy “The Stranger,” considering that it has a similar dark tone.

It is unclear whether or not there will be a second season of “The Stranger.” Although there is an immense amount of potential for a second season, the finale of the first season answers enough questions and provides enough closure for it to remain a limited series. It is rare for a television series to have such a satisfying ending. However, season one of “The Stranger” provides the ending its audience desperately craves and deserves after trying to piece together the puzzling plot all season long. If there were to be a second season, it would most likely be as well-received and binge-watched as the first one. Either way, Harlan Coben’s “The Stranger” has left its mark on the Netflix community as the new must-see thriller show of 2020.

The Stranger ★★★★★
Posted on February 16, 2020 by Richard [The Humpo Show]

The Stranger
Channel: Netflix
Starring: Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders, Shaun Dooley, Paul Kaye, Dervla Kirwan, Kadiff Kirwan, Jacob Dudman, Ella-Rae Smith, Brandon Fellows, Misha Handley, Anthony Head, Hannah John-Karmen, Stephen Rea
Creator: Harlan Coben
IMDb Rating | 7.5
Humpo Show Rating | 9.5

The Stranger Netflix review

The Stranger follows the lives of suburban families whose secrets and lies are made public by the appearance of a mysterious woman.

Family man Adam Price (Richard Armitage) is approached by a woman who tells him that his wife, Corrine, faked her pregnancy (and also her miscarriage). Adam decides to investigate those claims, which he finds to be true, and he later confronts Corinne about her lies. She admits to them, but doesn’t tell him why, saying that she’ll tell him everything later that night, but before she gets the chance, she goes missing.

Meanwhile, their eldest son Thomas goes out to a party with his friends Mike and Daisy, and the following morning they wake up to news that a decapitated alpacha has been found in town (the head is in the three’s possession). And to cap things off, their classmate Dante ends up in a critical condition in hospital after been found by the police in a forest, naked and unconscious.

These are just two of the storylines that run throughout The Stranger, but there are SO many more. There is one concerning Heidi Doyle (Jennifer Saunders) and her daughter, Adam’s father Edgar (Anthony Head), and police officer Patrick Katz (Paul Kaye) – all of which involve the stranger, who leaves a path of destruction with the secrets she has revealed…sometimes using blackmail as a tool.

The show is addictive, absorbing and what modern audiences would definitely call a ‘mind-fuck’ of an experience.. Coben has created multiple storylines that continually cross over, with DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) at the heart of it all as she tries to solve the various crimes that have been committed within this tight-knit and affluent neighbourhood.

This has been one of favourite recent TV shows purely because of how entertaining every episode is, the overlap between storylines, the mystery surrounding the secrets and characters, the adrenaline-fuelled moments where things begin to unravel or heat up, and the close calls that happen regularly. Even the theme song, ‘Monster’ by Walking on Cars, is brilliant a perfect fit for the show!

Furthermore, I was impressed with the acting performances across the board, with Armitage, Finneran and Kaye the pick of the bunch. Kaye was excellent as Patrick in his own manic way, one scene in his car stood out to me and shown how desperate and on edge he really was. Finneran’s DS Griffin and Armitage’s Adam gave performances that covered a wide range of emotions and scenarios, but they were utterly believable in their displays of agony and grief.

The Stranger is a fantastic show that has twists and turns aplenty, but also has an underlying message, or a bit of a question, at its heart – would you want to know a secret, even if it changes your life completely?

The Stranger, Netflix review - strong cast grapples with labyrinthine plotting
Adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel is improbable but watchable

by Adam SweetingSaturday, 15 February 2020


This eight-part mystery from Netflix is based on the titular novel by American writer Harlan Coben, who has formed a production company with Rochdale’s own Nicola Schindler, the production brains behind Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax and many more. The action has been transposed from New Jersey to Manchester – the one in England, not Massachusetts – and a strong and varied British cast does the heavy lifting, but there’s something in the mix that never quite feels right. Maybe it’s that things that seem par for the course in America’s moronic inferno can look hilarious in a homely British setting, or maybe the narrative just treads on implausibly thin ice too often for comfort.

Nonetheless, most of the building blocks for a powerful thriller are all present and correct. Richard Armitage is stolidly persuasive as Adam Price, a successful lawyer trying to cope with the disappearance of his schoolteacher-wife Corinne (Dervla Kirwan) amid accusations of stolen money and an unsettling secret from her past. Siobhan Finneran (pictured above) plays down-to-earth DS Johanna Griffin roughly halfway between Vera Stanhope and Janet Scott in Scott & Bailey (another Schindler product), while Paul Kaye’s Patrick Katz is the most leprously rancid bent copper in living memory. Jennifer Saunders, as Griffin’s cafe-owning friend Heidi Doyle, looks as if she’s been installed as a spot of light relief, until she’s suddenly engulfed by a grisly fate.

The theme is a kind of worm-in-the-bud idea, the notion that lurking within the things dearest and most familiar to you is a deadly secret that will suddenly burst forth and destroy your life as you’ve known it. The Stranger (whose name we belatedly learn is Christine) is the deliverer of these shattering revelations. Her trail of destruction begins with her accosting Adam Price at a bar and casually bludgeoning him with the news that his wife had faked the pregnancy and miscarriage she’d seemingly suffered two years earlier. For proof, she gives him the address of the website from which she ordered the prosthetic baby-bump and bogus ultrasound images. Adam confronts Corinne with his new-found knowledge, after which she suddenly disappears.

One strand of the story is Adam’s search for his wife while he tries to cope with looking after their two sons, but as the series progresses that becomes obscured in a thicket of plotlines that add a smokescreen of confusion and leave you feeling like you’re running around in a badly-lit maze. There’s a bizarre subplot about a drug-fuelled rave where teenagers go ape on bad drugs – particularly Mike Tripp (Brandon Fellows), who gets dosed with PCP and ends up beheading an unfortunate alpaca.

Another thread centres on Martin Killane (Stephen Rea), a grumbly old ex-detective fighting off workmen trying to bulldoze his house. Cue the introduction of Anthony Head (pictured right) as smarmy property developer Ed Price. Familiar surname? Yep, he’s Adam’s estranged dad, though Coben’s yarn-spinning entwines them back together as the show goes on.

Ultimately, the Stranger (Hannah John-Kamen) is the catalyst in setting all these plates spinning, as she blackmails, intimidates or humiliates her unsuspecting clientele with dirty secrets gleaned from her obsessive internet-trawling. The way we’re becoming prisoners of mobile technology and the online world’s infinite potential for harm emerge strongly as themes.

It’s the kind of show where you keep saying “this is ridiculous!”, but end up watching it all anyway. Interesting, though, that Netflix is prepared to underwrite a programme that could (perhaps with a few trims) fit neatly enough on ITV. The march of the super-streamers knows no boundaries.

Why Netflix show The Stranger, starring Richard Armitage, isn't your typical true crime series

Manik Sharma

Feb 26, 2020 18:00:35 IST


There are few shows that start like Netflix’s The Stranger. Adam (Richard Armitage) is sat at a bar inside the clubhouse of the local football team his wife helps run and his younger son plays for. A woman walks up to him and tells him his wife faked a pregnancy two years ago and the miscarriage that followed. Also, that the two sons he does have might not be his either. ‘I’d get a DNA match done if I were you,’ this woman (the stranger) says before leaving. All of this happens inside the first five minutes of a beguiling opening act. What follows is a complex labyrinth of familial and local secrets that intertwine to leave Adam sandwiched between more than just two slices of bread. Released to little noise Netflix’s The Stranger has acquired quite the reputation as an bingeable mini-series, and none of it is unjustified.

After Adam is tipped by the mysterious woman he decides to confront his wife, the eminently likeable Corinne (Dervla Kirwan). While she doesn’t deny nor respond to Adam’s perfectly understandable outburst Corinne has the look of guilt on her. ‘There is more to this’ she says before walking away and leaving poor Adam simmering in anger. A day later, she disappears altogether. Meanwhile, it turns out that Adam isn’t the only person ‘The Stranger’ has approached with a secret. Turns out there are others, some of them, this woman has blackmailed for money in what she later claims is her ‘mission to expose everyone’s secrets’. Wouldn’t that be revolutionary, disrobing the world of every personal lie it wears to keep the fabric from splitting down the middle? It is a question that perpetually teases each bend in The Stranger, the idea that everyone has something to hide. Though there is nothing proprietary about that claim there is something unique, though somewhat unexplored along its edge – what happens when we pretend to suffer just so we can be loved?

As Adam loses sleep, both over her wife’s inconsistencies and her having now gone missing, in jumps local policewoman DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) and her partner Wes (Kadiff Kirwan) who happen to be investigating a dead alpaca (pig) and a naked boy found in the woods on the morning a midnight rave party. There is also the small matter of financial irregularities at the football club Corinne is the treasurer of and a rogue police officer covering up some indecent secrets about a local bigwig. There is so much to pack in this show that sometimes it can be too much of disco rig, shimmying one way and jerking the other. But that is one of the joys of The Stranger. It is not a procedural, with the deadbeat brooding of two central detectives. Neither is it as drab and depressing as the UK’s other missing person original The Missing. Instead, both Griffin and Wes are hilarious. In one scene Wes, gifts his senior officer a giant penis shaped cake asking her to ‘join tinder for good’. The kids in the series are especially funny, cutting through the macabre realism of everything the adults are dealing with.

Played with measured angst by Armitage, Adam’s eyes sockets deepen as the show goes on. From his father to a close friend he used to trust, multiple secrets land in his lap and all of them in one way or another, lead to the mysterious woman. Though the series can at times toss too big a ball of wool to be able to quickly knit it into shape, it remains anchored and consistent on one end, the hiding of secrets, even from your loved ones. One of the key takeaways, in fact, is this suggestion that we often claim victim hood as a way to gaining sympathy, love, attraction and care. A woman Adam hunts down calmly explains to him why she faked her pregnancy like Corinne’s. ‘People were nice. They started paying attention. They started opening doors for me,’ she says, as Adam, looking on, lets his shoulders drop. He might have pushed his wife to it, he thinks. It’s a novel, yet universal idea really, the attempt to manufacture sympathy among other emotional needs.

The Stranger has so many red-herrings and blind curves, you surely won’t see many coming. It isn’t built like a typical noir or true crime series, nor is it tonally one way or the other. It won’t dizzy you with dread or saddle your senses with police-speak. Nor does The Stranger, incredibly, dwell, extensively on loss the way many shows would. It is instead fastened to the idea of doubt, the nagging sense that you, and everyone you know has both lied and has been lied to. Adam, as we learn later, has held onto a secret of his own. But though there may be a woman on a mission to unmask these lies, Adam, through tragedy, learns that living without keeping a secret, simply isn’t possible. There is only one truth, the one you choose to tell.


Updated Date: Feb 26, 2020 18:00:35 IST