It’s a new year, which means Netflix is back with a new Harlan Coben adaptation. The prolific author continues to churn out new series at a pace just slightly faster than his published works. It’s a lucrative deal for both sides. Netflix loves content, and Coben remains one of the best content mills around. The New Year’s Day releases draw the most attention and bring me here today to talk about Run Away.
Based on the 2019 novel, Run Away follows Simon Greene (James Nesbitt), a father in desperate search of his daughter. As you might have guessed, Paige Greene (Ellie de Lange) is a runaway, but this is a mystery thriller, so there’s more going on here than meets the eye. After a confrontation with Simon, Paige’s boyfriend turns up dead. Both father and daughter are suspects, but this is a mystery thriller and there’s something else afoot. It’s up to Simon to solve the case before Detective Issac Fagbenle (Alfred Enoch) pins it on him.
There are plenty of moving parts in Run Away. Apart from the Greenes, there’s a mysterious private investigator (Ruth Jones) with her own case and a duo of quirky assassins (Jon Pointing and Maeve Courtier-Lilley) gunning down a list of targets. These disparate threads eventually come together as part of the show’s twist-heavy narrative. The series works double time, throwing new wrinkles at you and hoping that the fast pace keeps you from thinking about them. It’s when you try to make sense of it all that you realize the pieces don’t exactly fit together. The mystery became too much for me by the time a secret cult was revealed to be part of it.
Despite all the focus on other characters, Nesbitt carries the show as Simon. At first, it seems the show will be a two-hander with Simon and his wife Ingrid (Minnie Driver). Instead, Ingrid remains absent from much of the action, a profound misuse of Driver. That leaves Simon as our protagonist, and Nesbitt does an admirable job with some shallow characterization. He’s given slightly more depth than everyone around him, who seems to change personality depending on the most recent twist. That’s not entirely fair. Some of them are just one-note, like Simon’s other daughter Anya or Fagbenle’s partner, who he happens to be sleeping with.
Run Away is never boring, a change of pace from the last Coben offering. That doesn’t mean it’s quality either. It might keep you off your phone, but it won’t deliver anything you haven’t seen in countless other mystery thrillers. Like the airport novel it’s based on, the show will occupy your time when there’s nothing else to do. Afterward, it will quietly leave your brain, never to be thought of again.
Run Away is currently streaming on Netflix.