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#TheStranger #RichardArmitage feature in Jan 25-31 Heat magazine (UK)

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Heute in der neuen #TVSpielfim: Kritik zu „Ich schweige für Dich“ (The Stranger, Netflix)

The Stranger preview: Harlan Coben’s latest Netflix series is packed with twists and turns
Pip Ellwood-Hughes

Nothing is as it seems in Harlan Coben’s latest Netflix drama The Stranger, which is released on the streaming service today.

This article contains spoilers from the first three episodes of The Stranger. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know what happens.

Ahead of the full series premiering, we’ve watched the first three episodes to see what it’s all about. The Stranger tells the story of Adam Price (Richard Armitage), an architect and family man whose life comes crashing down following an encounter with a strange woman (Hannah John-Kamen).

Seemingly living a happy life with his teacher wife Corrine (Dervla Kerwin) and their two kids Thomas (Jacob Dudman) and Ryan (Misha Handley), Adam’s world is thrown into chaos when he’s approached by the woman and told that his wife had faked her pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. Demanding to know how she knew this information, Adam is left further reeling when the stranger tells him to check the paternity of his children.

At first Adam doesn’t believe what he’s been told but as he digs deeper into Corrine’s activities, he discovers that the stranger could be telling him the truth after all. He confronts Corrine, who eventually tells him there’s more to the story than he knows and gives him the name of a woman she knew that had faked a pregnancy.

After that Corrine disappears leaving Adam hunting for clues in a bid to try and find out what on earth is going on.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the first three episodes of The Stranger is that the story isn’t solely focused on Adam. While that plot is a driving narrative, there are plenty of sub-plots going on around it. The stranger isn’t only messing with his life but it turns out she knows lots of things about lots of his friends and neighbours too including café owner Heidi (Jennifer Saunders) whose daughter is making money in way that she wouldn’t want the world to know.

While the stranger goes around causing mayhem, a mystery unfolds involving teenager Dante (Kai Alexander) who is found naked and unconscious in the woods by police officer Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) and her partner DC Wesley Ross (Kadiff Kirwan). That discovery comes after a decapitated alpaca is found in the town and a link between the two events is quickly established.

Three episodes in and there’s A LOT going on, possibly too much to be honest. The central mystery involving Adam and Corrine is by far the most compelling part of the story so it’s a little frustrating that so much time is spent on the kids from the various families and their part in what happened to Dante.

Richard Armitage is as reliable as ever though and he makes a strong lead for the series. The makers have found plenty of reasons to have him wandering around without his shirt on and in black underwear (not that we’re complaining) but he does a good job of embodying a man who realises he may not know all that much about the woman he’s been sharing his life with for a number of years.

Another person of note in the cast is Jennifer Saunders who is playing it straight as Heidi and she’s actually very good. Without getting into too many spoilers, we’d suggest perhaps not getting too attached to her but it’s refreshing to see her step outside of her comfort zone.

By the end of episode three, The Stranger could go in a bunch of different directions. The secrets are piling up and the mystery is looking pretty complex so how that’s going to look by the end of the final episode is anyone’s guess. The show does enough to hook you in and at only 8 episodes long, it’s not a huge commitment.

Our fear right now is that it’s going to continue to get overly complicated rather than paying time and attention to the storyline that people find the most interesting – Adam and Corrine.

The Stranger is available on Netflix now.

The Stranger spoiler-free review: a binge-worthy UK thriller
Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran and some oddball elements elevate this very serviceable mystery thriller…


Louisa Mellor
Jan 30, 2020


Secrets! Everybody’s got ‘em. Sordid little lies tucked away behind incognito tabs and fake online usernames. Maybe you diddled your expenses or your mortgage application or your son’s clarinet teacher. Let’s say you robbed Peter to pay Paul, then knocked Peter over the back of the head with a golf club and fed his remains to Paul’s pig. Whatever foul canker you’ve shoved so far up inside your folds nobody could ever find it, you’d better hope that you don’t get a visit from the Stranger.

The Stranger is Netflix’s new UK thriller, adapted by Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless, Exile) from the 2015 novel of the same name by crime mystery superstar Harlan Coben (The Five, Safe). It’s about a mysterious woman who goes around spilling people’s darkest secrets. She turns up, whispers a devastating truth about a loved one in your ear and then whoosh, she’s gone.

Where, who, how and why are all questions the series dutifully ticks off over eight highly bingeable instalments. Be warned: this is precision-engineered viewing designed to keep you on the sofa lazily slurping up twist after twist. Every episode bar the last ends in three minutes of frenzied discovery that leave our characters tossed in a variety of perils. Watching it in one hypnotised go is more or less a contractual obligation.

The Stranger’s binge-ability works greatly in its favour, because it keeps you too busy to reflect in any depth on what you’re seeing. The ‘hang on, what an enormous contrivance’ thoughts won’t arrive until you’ve rushed through the lot, and by that point, you won’t be thinking about it much at all. It’ll just leave you fed and full, like a tasty M&S carbonara.

The highlights are in the cast. Hannibal’s Richard Armitage is a strong lead as lawyer and family man Adam Price, while Happy Valley’s Siobhan Finneran is so capable and likeable as detective DS Johanna Griffin that if you were ever murdered, you'd want her as lead investigator in your case. The pair of them easily cushion any jolts over bumpy dialogue.

The Stranger herself (gender-swapped from the book at Coben’s behest) is played by Black Mirror’s Hannah John Kamen. She wreaks havoc around the unspecified Northern town (it’s Stockport), unearthing shameful acts and confronting people with realities they don’t want to face. Some lies even come out without her involvement, as if her mere presence in the local area is a kind of laxative for difficult-to-pass truths.

Those three are joined by Stephen Rea (Counterpart, The Crying Game) as a curmudgeonly former police officer whose legal battle Adam is fighting, Dervla Kirwan (Strangers, Ballykissangel) as Adam’s wife Corinne, Anthony Head (The Split, Merlin) as a local kingpin property developer, neighbour and colleague Shaun Dooley (Broadchurch, Gentleman Jack), Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) as a local café owner, and Paul Kaye (Vera, After Life). There are a dozen other characters, almost all with their own storylines and revelations on top of that lot. Underpopulated this series isn’t.

Quite the opposite – it’s stuffed with character and incident. Like colourful pins on a whiteboard encircled by multiple threads, almost everybody we meet comes with a mystery to solve. Adam and Corinne’s eldest son Thomas (Jacob Dudman) and his schoolfriends are part of a parallel investigation that weaves in and out of the main story. The teen plot isn't acted with many shades of light and dark, but it keeps things moving.

It all keeps moving. The Stranger is thoroughly plotted, with carefully allotted motivations and mini-mysteries for all, even if none manage to reveal any particular human truths. A does X to B because they’re jealous of C, which makes C do X to get back at A. It’s a thriller with all the planning Post-Its in all the right places. Wherever there’s a question, there will be an answer – if you haven’t already guessed some of the more generic twists. Seasoned thriller viewers will predict many, but there's such a high volume that another surprise will be along any minute.

Its humour is another highlight. A stab of Brocklehurst’s former writing gig on Shameless comes through in some of the more comedic and unexpected elements, adding blessed brightness to a genre often mired in noir. Unnatural thriller elements like car chases and lengthy foot pursuits are softened by naturalistic humour, helped along by Kadiff Kirwan’s DC Wesley Ross (or ‘the infant’ as Johanna calls him) sight-for-sore-eyes Jennifer Saunders, and Shaun Dooley’s matey neighbour Tripp.

It’s an enjoyable and entertaining series that, while it doesn’t leave a lasting impression, also doesn’t allow any time for boredom. The transition from the US-set book – a world of lacrosse clubs, guns, domestic flights and ad execs proselytising on the American dream – is successfully done and keeps the whole thing's feet on the ground, give or take a little tedious stoner philosophising inherited from the novel about whether secrets are cancer or whether they could even be like, maybe, good?

All in all, there's plenty to recommend it, and plenty of lesser ways to spend six and a bit hours in front of Netflix. Have at it.

'The Stranger' Review: The miniseries is a compelling watch and a remarkable piece of storytelling


By Aharon Abhishek
Published on : 00:30 PST, Jan 26, 2020


This is a spoiler-free review

Everybody has a secret. Some may kill to keep it that way, and some come perilously close to killing to know what it is. And again, how big is the secret is a perception. Secrets are like those resounding slaps flush on the face. And eventually, secrets come with their share of trust. And 'The Stranger' starts off with a secret being revealed. And that's enough to set the tone for what can be rightfully termed as a gripping, psychological thriller. Based on Harlan Coben's novel by the same name, the eight-part miniseries follows Adam Price (Richard Armitage), an ordinary man whose life changes when the Stranger tells him a devastating secret about his wife.

It is a picture-perfect life for the Prices. Teen sons, a beautiful and loving wife, a good home and all that until a stranger pops up and plants the seed of doubt. And all this happens so quickly that anyone in Price's place could just ask themselves show it all went wrong.

And this is probably the least of Price's problems. The thriller also weaves in multiple storylines that lend greater depth to the series making it a more compelling watch. While those who have read the book would know how it ends, 'The Stranger' as a streaming service content piece deserves a watch simply because of the crisp and tightened storyline and the raw emotions bared out by an impeccably-talented cast.

'The Stranger' has a few changes when compared to the book. While it may be a more condensed version, the events take place in the UK instead of the US and also changing the character's genders from the book. And it works. Apart from Armitage, the series boasts of a slew of talented actors in Siobhan Finneran ('Happy Valley' and 'Downton Abbey'), Hannah John-Kamen ('Ready Player One' and 'Ant-Man and The Wasp), Jennifer Saunders ('French and Saunders'), and Dervla Kirwan ('Goodnight Sweetheart').

'The Stranger' believes in the idea of hitting people bloody hard at their weak spots and that makes the series a gut-wrenching watch. Directors Daniel O'Hara and Hannah Quinn manage to ensure that the feeling of something sinister and suspenseful is just around the corner never leaves. They put Corrine Price (Kirwan) in a state where she cannot reveal details to her husband and that puts him and the lives around the family at stake.

The miniseries is a compelling watch and a remarkable piece of storytelling. Each plotline is meticulously crafted to bring out the intrigue factor.


With this, Netflix can count on some staggering viewership numbers.

'The Stranger' arrives on January 30 on Netflix.

The Stranger – Netflix Series Review (4/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Jan 30, 2020 | Netflix, Reviews

THE STRANGER is a new Netflix series based on the novel by Harlan Coben. It might seem strangely supernatural at first, but it really isn’t. Everyday lies and secrets are plenty to create the plot of this thriller. Read our The Stranger series review here!

The Stranger is a new Netflix series in the thriller, drama and mystery genres. While the first episode might make you think something supernatural is at play, that’s not the case. Nor will the story attempt to make you think so. The eight episodes in this series are extremely interesting and you should be hooked from the very first episode.

Also, let me tell you this without giving any spoilers for The Stranger. This series is full of twists and turns along the way. And you will be shocked and surprised a few times. Mostly by how the smallest secrets can result in really awful events.

Richard Armitage plays Adam Price

Okay, the main protagonist isn’t always very recognizable. Most international audiences probably got to know Richard Armitage as a bearded dwarf in The Hobbit trilogy. However, in The Stranger, Richard Armitage very much looks like himself as Adam Price.

If the name Adam Price seems familiar, it might be because the Netflix series Ragnarok (released the day after The Stranger series) is created by Adam Price. Yes, it does seem like a freak accident that the protagonist in one Netflix series has the same name as the creator of another series. And that the two are released one day apart!

While Richard Armitage is really good in The Stranger, I care a lot more about many other characters. Mostly because they all have secrets and we need to figure out how they impact their lives.

Trying to solve a lot of the mystery, we have two police detectives. They’re played by Siobhan Finneran (A Confession) and Kadiff Kirwan (Black Mirror episode Nosedive) who have brilliant chemistry in a comedic way.

Also, we have Stephen Rea as a retired police officer turned private detective. He is a huge part of this story as he tries to help Adam Price (Richard Armitage).

You should recognize most faces in this cast

Along with the main characters, we have the always wonderful Anthony Head as Ed Price (the father of Adam Price). Anthony Head was recently in Feedback (read our review here). His character in this new Netflix series is more along those lines than our dear Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Also, Jennifer Saunders (from comedy duo French and Saunders and the Absolutely Fabulous series) is playing a very serious role in The Stranger. Something she does damn well, so she could easily branch out more into drama. If she wanted to, of course.

As the son of Adam Price, Thomas, we have Jacob Dudman. If you’ve watched the series The A List which is a BBC production out on Netflix now, then you’ll recognize him from that.

Hannah John-Kamen plays the title role of “The Stranger” who sets everything into motion. She also has a sidekick who is played by the wonderful Lily Loveless from Skins. Unfortunately, Lily Loveless isn’t nearly enough in this series but both her and (especially) Hannah John-Kamen are amazing in it.

You probably know Hannah John-Kamen from either the Killjoys series on SyFy or as Ava (aka “Ghost”) in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Also, she’s been in Game of Thrones and two episodes of Black Mirror. First in season 1 and then again in season 3 of Black Mirror. Basically, she does a lot of genre productions.

The ending of The Stranger on Netflix

This is not one of those “The ending of The Stranger explained”-pieces because this Netflix series doesn’t require one. All will be answered by the ending of The Stranger. And yes, some answers are also given along the way, of course.

Now, you will probably have guessed some of the plot twists and mysteries. I know I did, but to be fair, I also make all kinds of guesses while watching a mystery such as this. After all, even a broken clock is right twice a day, so I don’t want to toot my own horn too much.

No, that’s wrong. *toot toot* I did manage to guess key plot points for The Stranger ending which I am quite proud of. However, so will you if you pay attention. This is not a supernatural story of anything else along the lines of sci-fi. It’s a thriller with drama and mystery.

The ending of The Stranger is very satisfying because it gives you all the answers. However, be warned that it might not be the answers you expect or even want to hear.

Watch The Stranger series on Netflix now!

The Stranger really is a tight and awesome series told over eight episodes. The series is based on the book by Harlan Coben who is also the creator of this series. I have not read the book so I can’t say if it follows the book. I don’t even know if it’s a good adaption, but I can say that The Stranger is a damn good Netflix series.

Harlan Coben also wrote the novel which the brilliant French 2006 movie Tell No One (org. title Ne le dis à personne) is based on. If you haven’t watched that one, I really recommend it.

The directors of the episodes in The Stranger series on Netflix include Daniel O’Hara and Hannah Quinn. Daniel O’Hara has previously directed episodes of the 2018 Netflix series Safe which was also created by Harlan Coben.

Hannah Quinn has directed for a few TV series but also worked as an Unit or Assistant Director in various capacities on huge blockbusters. These include movies such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Gladiator (2000), Children of Men (2006) and The Martian (2015).

If you like a good thriller with a realistic and intense mystery, then The Stranger is definitely for you!

All 8 episodes in Season 1 of The Stranger are out on Netflix globally from January 30, 2020.
Details

Created by: Harlan Coben
Directed by: Daniel O’Hara & Hannah Quinn
Stars: Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Hannah John-Kamen, Jennifer Saunders, Anthony Head, Stephen Rea, Paul Kaye, Shaun Dooley, Lily Loveless, Dervla Kirwan, Jacob Dudman, Brandon Fellows, Kadiff Kirwan, Ella-Rae Smith, Jade Harrison

Netflix Review: 'The Stranger' loses itself in anonymous, bland thrills
Harlan Coben's latest adaptation hits Netflix on January 30th.

Brian Lloyd

Despite the fact that it's stacked with a decent cast, featuring the likes of Richard Armitage, Jennifer Saunders in a rare dramatic role, Hannah John-Kamen, Stephen Rea and Paul Kaye, 'The Stranger' barely makes itself worth knowing.

From the very first episode, it's painfully evident that 'The Stranger' is going to be one of those shows that will consistently try and pull the wool over your eyes and misdirect you at every possible turn. To be clear, this isn't the same as a mystery with a complex plot or something like that. No, what 'The Stranger' does is lay out the pieces of the story and puts a big red marker around them so that you won't forget them.

About 15 minutes or so into the next episode, you're probably on your way to figuring out the rest of the series and it's not before long that, yes, it goes exactly as you'd expect. It doesn't help that the actors, talented as though they may be, barely push themselves out of any kind of comfort zone. It's not great stretch to imagine Richard Armitage in an everyman role, nor is it hard to believe Stephen Rea as a cantankerous old git. Likewise, dropping in Anthony Stewart Head as a sleazeball property developer is, again, not that hard to imagine.

Really, that level of unimaginative casting is indicative of 'The Stranger' and its major problems - that it's all so obvious, and so telegraphed, that it's hard to stay watching it. By the end of the third episode, even if there are twists and turns aplenty, it's not interesting enough to keep you going. In the same way that you grow to expect some kind of twist, it's hard to get excited about it. Moreover, the direction throughout isn't nearly sharp or inventive enough to keep a bland script in the air.

'The Stranger' might hold some kind of interest to fans of Harlan Coben's work and are desperate to see it adapted to screen, but really, there's far better on offer than just this.

TV review Television
The Stranger review – was she ever even pregnant?!
3 / 5 stars 3 out of 5 stars.

Everyone harbours a secret that could ruin them, don’t they? They certainly do in this addictive Netflix thriller based on the Harlan Coben page-turner. Don’t make any evening plans
Tim Dowling

@IAmTimDowling
Thu 30 Jan 2020 16.50 GMT Last modified on Thu 30 Jan 2020 16.53 GMT

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Dervla Kirwan Richard Armitage The Stranger
Question time … Dervla Kirwan and Richard Armitage in The Stranger. Photograph: Netflix
Imagine the horror: you are busy getting on with your safe, middle-class existence, singing aloud to Springsteen with your kids while driving through suburban streets on your way to the dads v lads football match (actually it already sounds like a nightmare), when suddenly a stranger turns up, tells you a terrible secret then disappears, leaving you with nothing but all the information necessary to blow up your entire life.

That is the premise of The Stranger, an eight-part Netflix thriller predicated on the notion that everybody harbours at least one secret with destructive potential. Adam Price (Richard Armitage) is a lawyer with two kids, a vivacious wife called Corinne (Dervla Kirwan) and not much to concern him beyond his woeful goalkeeping. Then, after the match, a total stranger – a young woman in a baseball cap (Hannah John-Kamen), with a manner both flirtatious and menacing – drops into the seat beside him and tells him that Corinne’s pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage from two years before had been entirely faked.

The stranger has no obvious motive for the reveal, and does not stick around to elaborate. But, with his wife away, Adam follows up on the accusation and discovers some corroborating evidence: a credit card payment to a website where the equipment needed to fake a pregnancy – false positive test kits, counterfeit ultrasound photos, Latex bellies – is sold. It all looks preposterous, but still – it’s there. When he confronts Corinne, she doesn’t deny it. Nor does she explain. “This isn’t what you think,” she says. “There’s more to this.”

A fug of the supernatural hangs over the opening minutes of The Stranger: a bonfire in the woods; a naked man running away from someone or something in the dark; a decapitated alpaca in the town square. Thankfully, this soon dissipates into something more procedural, otherwise the viewer might never get a handle on what is happening.

DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) and her parter Wes (Kadiff Kirwan) are investigating the dead alpaca, the naked boy found barely alive in the woods, and the connection between them – if any. Corinne’s secret looks as though it might take a back seat, at least temporarily. As she said, there’s more to this. The secrets soon begin to pile up. The Stranger has her work cut out.


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Harlan Coben’s book, on which the series is based, is set in and across the United States. Here, the action has been shifted to a tight-knit community in the north of England (it is filmed in and around Stockport, but the fact that we are in Greater Manchester is never referred to). The result is an extreme claustrophobia: I wouldn’t want to contradict the notion that evil can lurk in the most anodyne of settings, but it is hard to credit that so much of it could be packed into so small an area. If you had never managed to accidentally murder a pair of backpackers over a long weekend, you wouldn’t amount to much in this town.

Also, everybody knows everybody; none of the characters ever need to be introduced. For a community so shot through with dark undercurrents, they all talk a lot. And they are nosy. In the circumstances, the idea that anyone managed to keep a secret from anyone else begins to seem improbable, if not impossible.

A strong and sprawling cast (Stephen Rea is also in it, as is Jennifer Saunders) work hard to keep all the balls in the air, and you will feel a strong urge to watch the second episode immediately, if only to clear up a few things. Without wishing to spoil anything, I can tell you that the second episode only muddies the waters further, and the third episode further still. More characters turn up, with even more secrets. It is addictive, if not entirely satisfying – like chocolate in Dry January.


As Adam, Armitage provides the closest thing we get to a still centre in the shifting plot. His quest for the truth is the only narrative thread, you feel, that couldn’t be turned on its head at any moment. One of the main ideas at play here is that there are secrets that are better off staying buried, but in your own personal quest for The Stranger to make any sort of sense, you will be propelled at speed through the entire thing. My advice is: don’t make any evening plans.

The Stranger: Review der Pilotepisode von Ich schweige für dich
Harlan Cobens Mysterythriller The Stranger aka Ich schweige für dich ist für Netflix zur britischen Serie geworden und steht seit heute zum Abruf bereit. Was los ist, wenn eine Fremde mit unglaublichen Infos das Leben eines Familienvaters durcheinanderbringt, besprechen wir im Pilotreview.


The Stranger (c) Netflix

Netflix hat den Mysterythriller The Stranger (hierzulande „Ich schweige für dich“) von dem US-Autor Harlan Coben als achtteilige Miniserie adaptiert und dabei ein paar Änderungen vorgenommen. Die Gravierendste: Es handelt sich um eine britische Serienproduktion von UK-Drehbuchautor Danny Brocklehurst (Brassic, Shameless (UK)), die anders als die Vorlage nicht in New Jersey spielt, sondern in und um Manchester herum gedreht wurde. Darüber hinaus ist der Fremde aus dem Titel eine fremde Frau, gespielt von Killjoys-Star Hannah John-Kamen. Vorlagengetreu wirft sie in der ersten Episode, die wir heute unter die Lupe nehmen, das Leben eines stinknormalen Familienvaters aus der Bahn.

Besagter Familienvater ist Anwalt Adam Price (Richard Armitage), der mit seiner Frau Corrinne (Dervla Kirwan) und seinen beiden Söhnen ein beinahe zu perfektes Bilderbuchleben führt, das nicht einmal spannend genug für die Lindenstraßen-Vorlage „Coronation Street“ wäre. Wäre da nicht die mysteriöse Fremde, die eines Tages aus heiterem Himmel auf ihn zukommt und ihm zusteckt, dass Corrinne ihre Schwangerschaft, die mit einer Fehlgeburt endete, simuliert hat und seine Söhne vermutlich auch nicht von ihm sind. Adam hat zunächst keinen Grund, ihr zu glauben, stellt dann aber ein paar Nachforschungen an und findet heraus, dass seine Frau tatsächlich Produkte eines zwielichtigen Online-Versandhandels bestellt hatte, die fingierte Schwangerschaftstests und falsche Babybäuche verkauft.

Die Detectives Griffin und Ross © Netflix
Die Detectives Griffin und Ross © Netflix
Gleichzeitig lernen wir die Polizistin DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) kennen, die sich gerade von ihrem schnarchenden Mann getrennt hat und mit ihrem Partner, DC Wesley Ross (Kadiff Kirwan), den bizarren Fall eines enthaupteten Alpakas untersucht. Kurz darauf erhärtet sich der Verdacht, dass dieser Fall etwas mit dem komatösen Schüler zu tun haben könnte, der nackt und bewusstlos im Wald aufgefunden wurde. Über ihn wird schließlich die Brücke zur Haupt-Storyline geschlagen, denn der verletzte Dante ist ein Klassenkamerad von Adams und Corrinnes Sohn Thomas (Jacob Dudman), der in der Nacht des Vorfalls mit seinen Freunden auf einer Lagerfreuerfeier war... und womöglich noch ganz andere Leichen im Keller hat.

Als Adam seine überrumpelte Frau Corrinne schließlich zur Rede stellt, versucht sie erst mit einer kaum glaubhaften Ausrede alles auszubügeln, merkt aber schnell, dass sie damit nicht weit kommt und vertröstet ihren Mann mit dem Versprechen, ihm zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt reinen Wein einzuschenken und der ominösen Aussage, die Sache sei viel größer ist, als er es sich vorstellt. Hört Ihr das? Das ist der Verschwörungsthriller-Zugs, der gerade eingefahren ist. Alle einsteigen, bitte!


Das mit dem „späteren Zeitpunkt“ und dem „reinen Wein“ wird dann aber doch nichts, denn am Tag, als Adam und Corrinne sich aussprechen wollen (und sie als Lehrerin des Jahres ausgezeichnet wird), verschwindet sie wie vom Erdboden und lässt Adam mit seinen Fragen, Ängsten und den beiden Jungs allein zurück. Unterdessen hat die Fremde bereits ein weiteres Opfer im Visier: die beste Freundin von Ermittlerin DC Griffin, gespielt von Jennifer Saunders in einer ausnahmsweise ernsten Rolle, was Fans von Absolutely Fabulous äußerst bizarr finden müssten.
Fazit
Dass The Stranger ziemlich langweilig mit einem normalen Bilderbuch-Familienleben beginnt (und auch optisch entsprechend unspektakulär eingefangen ist), kommt der ersten Folge ziemlich zugute, denn so hat der in die Normalität preschende Mystery-Plot die Möglichkeit, größten Schaden anzurichten und entfaltet als Kontrastprogramm zu Vater-Sohn-Fußballtagen und Kombi-Familienkutsche größte Wirkung.

Was hat es mit der geheimnisvollen Fremden auf sich? Wieso hat Corrinne ihre Schwangerschaft vorgetäuscht? Und wie passt der Fall mit dem enthaupteten Alpaka und der beinahe fatalen Teenager-Party zum Rest der Geschichte? Es riecht regelrecht nach einer größeren Story mit weitreichenden Verschwörungen und Geheimorganisationen, von der wir nur die Spitze des Eisbergs gesehen habe. Hinzu kommt, dass auch Adam nicht der unschuldige ins Abenteuer stolpernde Saubermann zu sein scheint, wie eine Anmerkung von Corrinne andeutet. Für den Auftakt einer Mysteryserie mit zahlreichen nagenden Fragen gar nicht schlecht, so weit.

Nur bei den vermeintlich amüsanten Nebencharakteren wird es ärgerlich. So zum Beispiel bei Griffins Scherzkeks-Partner DC Ross, der als Comic-Relief-Cop angestrengt witzig wirkt (ohne es zu sein) und vor allem bei Thomas' Mitschüler Mike (Brandon Fellows), der als übergewichtiger Spaßvogel im bunten Hawaiihemd wie Klößchen von TKKG den Gaumen nicht voll bekommt. Auf anstrengende Abziehbilder wie diese können wir in einer Serie, die sich sonst zu Hundert Prozent Mystery und Drama auf die Fahne geschrieben hat, getrost verzichten.

Verschwörungsthriller-Fans oder Freunde britischer Krimikost mit angepinntem Familiendrama, wie Broadchurch oder The Bay, sollten am ehesten mal reinschauen. Speziell, wenn noch etwas zum Bingen benötigt wird und man nach dem Auftakt, in dem uns obendrein Anthony Head vorenthalten wurde, nicht aufhören möchte.

The Stranger, review: Jennifer Saunders thriller is macabre and gruesome – but it’s also funny
Netflix's new adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel shows its machinery so nakedly that it almost defies you to switch off

Ed Cumming @EdCumming
5 hours ago
You don’t cast Saunders in a thriller unless you’re playing it partly for laughs

The Stranger (Netflix) is a Danny Brocklehurst adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel, transposed from New Jersey to Manchester. It’s billed as a psychological thriller, which is usually code for the plot revolving around suburban shagging rather than spies and guns. Richard Armitage plays Adam Price, a lawyer with an enviable life: good job, big house, fashionably landscaped garden, two friendly and accomplished sons. Best of all, he is married to Corinne (Dervla Kirwan), bright, gorgeous and a a popular teacher at the kids’ school.

One day, with Corinne out of town at a conference, Adam attends a “dads and lads” football match. A mysterious woman (Hannah John-Kamen), a man in the novel, approaches him in the bar afterwards to change his life. She tells him that Corinne faked a miscarriage and suggests he run a paternity test on his boys. She tells him to call her The Stranger, then drives off before he can get a picture of the numberplate. When Corinne returns, Adam confronts her, having checked an online clue the Stranger gave him. She admits she owes him an explanation, but says she needs time to prepare. Then she vanishes, too, leaving Adam to look after the kids.
So begins the unravelling of the Prices’ apparently perfect life. Most thrillers would shy away from introducing a character as “The Stranger”, who arrives and lobs mysteries into people’s lives, and it takes some chutzpah to be so brazen. Who is she and what’s her game? Stay tuned to find out.

Meanwhile, a parallel plot is underway, involving a boy from school who is found naked and injured in the woods after a rave. DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) and sidekick Wes (Kadiff Kirwan, no relation to Dervla) are on the case, as well as investigating the gruesome murder of an alpaca. This is where things start to get weird. Perhaps this is just prejudice against more familiar subjects, but what might seem noirish in an American setting gains a comical aspect in Britain. It’s macabre and gruesome but also funny, in that Hot Fuzz-ish way. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be, but then Jennifer Saunders arrives as Johanna’s best mate, Heidi, and you don’t cast Saunders unless you’re playing it partly for laughs. What does the Stranger have in store for her?

There are enough unanswered riddles to draw out over eight hours of drama. Armitage and Dervla Kirwan are convincing as the professionals harbouring dark secrets, while Finneran makes a suitably beleaguered detective, trying to do her job while worrying about how to leave her husband. Kadiff Kirwan is more out of place as her bumbling junior.

The bigger question is whether you care enough to wait for the answers. The Stranger is a curious beast, an almost-pure mystery, which shows its machinery so nakedly that it almost defies you to switch off. Whether you binge the entire series in an afternoon or hurl the controller out of the window in frustration will depend mainly on your tolerance for being mucked

The Stranger Review: Secrets Hold The Key To This Gripping Miniseries
January 30, 2020Kevin LeverReviews
The power of secrecy becomes an undeniably rousing start for The Stranger, the Netflix miniseries based on Harlan Coben’s novel. It strikes at the very heart of how someone is perceived, and how far someone is willing to go to keep their secrets concealed.

This is at the root of the show, that everyone has secrets, and everyone has something to hide. Richard Armitage stars as Adam Price, a lawyer with a perfect life and a perfect family, and it’s all shattered when a mysterious stranger provides him with damaging information. The story balloons from there, becoming a mystery thriller about the chase to uncover who this stranger is, and how it all connects.

The Stranger Season 1
Dervla Kirwan, Richard Armitage – The Stranger. Photo Credit: Netflix.



Over its eight episodes, The Stranger juggles a number of stories and leads, but it’s with its main character Adam, and its co-lead DS Johanna Griffin (played by Siobhan Finneran of Downton Abbey fame), where its best moments come. Their arcs are far more fleshed out and believable, and luckily, they are the majority of the focus on the show.

Some of the side characters and their stories prove lacking as they go on, mostly from their writing not quite gelling with the larger, looming issues. Perhaps it’s all red herrings to throw off the scent of what the show is truly trying to say, but from an eight-episode perspective, it does bring down the overall show in the process.

Richard Armitage makes a fantastic lead here, his brooding and slow descent as time weighs down on him giving Armitage plenty to work with as his character reaches his wit’s end. Siobhan Finneran, as well, plays Johanna with a careful kindness, where she’s reading everyone while a personal, devastating weight is on her shoulders to get it all right.

The Stranger does end up buckling under the weight of its own secrets, a small irony. There are times where the withholding of evidence does hurt key scenes or moments, or characters conveniently don’t tell people they normally trust something that could fit the puzzle pieces together and blow the whole story wide open.



These sorts of things are prevalent in any mystery series, and while some shows do manage to move past this, The Stranger ends up lagging a little because of it. There are times where it feels like the show may be stalling, but it comes and goes, as there’s always another reveal that pulls you right back in and makes these issues start to fade.

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The Stranger Season 1
Richard Armitage – The Stranger. Photo Credit: Netflix.



And yet, The Stranger sticks its landing. While the journey can most times be more important than the destination, mystery thrillers do need to resolve in a somewhat satisfying way; The Stranger does, and makes up for some of the aforementioned troubles. Those troubles are early enough that once pushed through, the latter half of the season more than makes up for it.

The terrific cast and sharp filmmaking go a long way, as well. Most of the show takes place with affluent families with comments on income inequality and luxury apartments tearing apart old, fond neighborhoods. These asides, while distracting from the main story, do end up making an impact and show that wealth and happiness aren’t entirely one and the same, while photographing the different locales rather well.

The Stranger’ gets lost in anonymous and bland sensations

By Antwan Echeverria -January 28, 202086 0



Despite being stacked with a decent cast, starring Richard Armitage, Jennifer Saunders in a rare dramatic role, Hannah John-Kamen, Stephen Rea and Paul Kaye, “ The Stranger ” is barely worth it to be known.
From the first episode, it is painfully obvious that “ The Stranger ” will be one of those shows that will constantly try to pull the wool over your eyes and orient you in every possible turn. To be clear, it’s not the same as a mystery with a complex plot or something like that. No, what ‘The Stranger’ does is arrange the pieces of the story and put a big red marker around them so you don’t forget them.

About 15 minutes later in the next episode, you’re probably about to check out the rest of the series, and it’s not that long ago that it is going exactly as you would expect. It doesn’t help that the actors, however talented they are, barely get out of any kind of comfort zone. It is not very difficult to imagine Richard Armitage in a role of everyone, and it is not difficult to believe Stephen Rea as an old fool. Likewise, it’s not that hard to imagine that Anthony Stewart Head is a sleazeball real estate developer.

Really, this unimaginative level of casting is indicative of “ The Stranger ” and its major issues – that everything is so obvious and telegraphed that it’s hard to keep watching it. At the end of the third episode, even if there are a lot of twists and turns, it’s not interesting enough to continue. In the same way that you expect some kind of twist, it is hard to get excited about it. In addition, management is not precise or inventive enough to keep a bland script in the air.




“ The Stranger ” might interest fans of Harlan Coben’s work and desperately hope it fits the screen, but really, there is much better to offer than that.

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The Stranger review: Richard Armitage leads the compelling and addictive Harlan Coben Netflix series

PIP ELLWOOD-HUGHES
19 MINS AGO
The Stranger

Following our reaction to the first three episodes of Harlan Coben’s Netflix series The Stranger, we’re now delivering our verdict on all eight episodes.
If you want to avoid spoilers for The Stranger, stop reading now.

The Stranger is an eight episode adrenaline-filled ride that throws family man and lawyer Adam Price (Richard Armitage) into a spiral when he finds out, via a stranger (Hannah John-Kamen), that his wife Corinne (Dervla Kirwin) has been hiding some pretty big secrets from him.
As Adam confronted his wife, his son Thomas (Jacob Dudman) and his friends Daisy (Ella -Rae Smith) and Mike (Brandon Fellows) were caught up in another mystery involving a student called Dante (Kai Alexander) who was found naked and unconscious after a night of drink and drugs at a party.

As we explained in our preview after three episodes, a lot happens in a short space of time and The Stranger doesn’t waste any time. It’s quickly established that Adam and his family are only one target of the stranger, who has dirt on everyone in the town including local café owner Heidi (Jennifer Saunders) and Adam’s dad Ed (Anthony Head).


The Stranger, and her accomplice, come in and out of the lives of the show’s central characters as they drop bombshell after bombshell. All is eventually revealed by the final episode but it’s fun to watch it unfold and we won’t ruin the ultimate climax, or the bigger surprises along the way.

Where The Stranger succeeds is in the fast-paced way the plot unfolds and how quickly it draws you into the middle of the lives of the characters. You can’t help but feel for Adam, expertly played by Richard Armitage, as he tries to hold his family together after Corinne disappears once he finds out her secret. You care about Heidi when she contemplates paying off the stranger to protect a dirty secret she has over her daughter that could ruin her future.
Police officer Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) also becomes a character you care deeply for. From the moment she discovers the death of someone close to her, she’s a woman on a mission to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Finneran layers her character with so much humanity that you can relate to her, and you root for her throughout.
There’s no doubt though that this is Richard Armitage’s show. He’s a favourite with UK audiences but here he’s a little bit Jack Bauer and we like the edge to his character. As the series progresses, he becomes progressively more unhinged in the search for the truth and you find yourself happily sitting in his sidecar and joining him for the journey.
Where the show falls down is with the unnecessary sub-plot involving the kids. In our initial preview we criticised the plot but hoped that it would somehow link into the main story. It doesn’t. Instead the show spends lots of time with Thomas, Daisy and Mike frantically plotting and getting their stories straight over what happened to Dante and why a decapitated alpaca was found in the middle of the town.

The whole plot adds up to absolutely nothing and it’s just a big distraction. The Stranger really didn’t need it and had it been removed, this would have been a 5-star show. Also we don’t know in what world you can cleanly decapitate an alpaca with one swing of a spade. C’mon now!
That quibble aside, The Stranger is undeniably addictive. It was made for Netflix’s auto-play feature and once you get into the groove, good luck turning it off. The writing is very tight, the performances fantastic and the twists come thick and fast. Each episode ends with dramatic music and fast-paced cuts, and it makes you want to keep watching.
Could there be a second series in the future? There’s enough of a plot there to continue it should Harlan Coben and Netflix choose to, and given how quickly we binged the first series, we certianly wouldn’t be opposed to it.


Cast: Richard Armitage, Dervla Kirwin, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders, Paul Kaye, Hannah John-Kamen, Anthony Head, Stephen Rea Creator: Harlan Coben Number of Episodes: 8 Available on: Netflix Release date: 30th January 2020

REVIEW SUMMARY
THE GOOD
Richard Armitage and Siobhan Finneran are excellent

Fast-paced with plenty of twists

Dangerously addictive

THE BAD
The sub-plot involving the kids comes to nothing