Genre: Crime Thriller
Platform: Netflix
Time: 5 episodes x 45 minutes each
Director: Nimer Rashed. Isher Sahota.
Cast: Rosalind Eleazar (Kat Donovan). Ashley Walters (Josh Buchanan). Richard Armitage (Ellis Stagger). Jessica Plummer (Stacey Embalo). Charlie Hamblett (Charlie Pitts). Steve Pemberton (Titus).
Plot: Detective Kat Donovan is surprised to see her ex-boyfriend Josh on a dating site after he split from her seven years ago. He soon blocks her and vanishes from the website. An Indian origin man is kidnapped. So is another British single mother whose son comes looking for answers and also hints that she was seeing someone. Kat is sure that her enquiries to the missing persons is linked to Josh and her dead detective father since her boss Ellis Stagger is being needlessly obstructive in her enquiries …
I have heard the name Harlan Coben but unfortunately haven’t read any of his books, one of which is the source for this mini-series. The good thing about the mini-series is that it is in 5 parts and tightly written. This is why I like such mini-series/ full series that stop after some episodes and don’t go on for multiple seasons. My feeling is that with multiple seasons after season 2, the stories just get stretched further and further.
From that perspective, Missing You is superb as the tension never lets off. We also get a small view of what a black female officer faces when she leads the investigations – not racism but a general tendency not to cooperate just because she is a woman; that is not explicitly said or demonstrated but in the way in which most other characters behave with her.
Kat is an obstinate officer who is determined to find out what happened to her ex-boyfriend and why he ditched her at the last moment after being engaged to him. She is sure that her father’s murder by a criminal is not what it was supposed to be and there is more to it than what meets the eye as her superior keeps telling her to drop the case.
This is a superbly written mini series that uses the police procedural template to look at characters and their foibles. If I say anything more there would be too many spoilers; so, I end it with these words – see it; you won’t regret it. This is part of the Harlan Coben collection of stories available on Netflix; so if you like this one and its somewhat dark proceedings, you will surely like the others too.
Script – 5 out of 5
Story – 4 out of 5
Direction – 5 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Total – 4.6 out of 5
Hi Rammesh,
Thanks for this (spoiler-free!) review; will start watching ‘Missing You’ this evening.
Agreed completely on how, usually after two 2-3 seasons or 1-2 sequels, most films/TV serials wear out their novelty factor. Naturally, there are tons of exceptions.
Harlan Coben:
Like you, I have yet to read even one of his books…over 35 of them so far… translated into 46 languages and sold 90 million copies (per Wiki).
At least twelve of them adapted for film/television. That probably puts him just ahead of John Grisham, as far as American writers go.
Thanks,
Robin