(MINI SERIES) Missing You - A Pretty Decent Adaptation of Harlan Coben's Novel

This latest series from Netflix was released beginning of the year and immediately reached the Top 10 Watched in Indonesia. Since the premise sounded intriguing and people seemed to dig it, I decided to give it a try after finishing another series. It did not take long for me to finish and I managed to complete it during the weekend. OK so here's more on the series. 

Brief Story Line

Kat Donovan (Rosalind Eleazar - Class of '09 mini series, Slow Horses TV series etc) was the lead Detective for a missing person case and reporting to her superior Detective Chief Stagger (Richard Armitage - Ocean's 8, Berlin Station TV series etc). While investigating, a teenaged boy named Brendan (Oscar Kennedy) approached Kat specifically and requested her help to find his missing mother. Despite her skepticism, Kat still tried to help Brendan.

Meanwhile Kat's best friend Stacey (Jessica Plummer - The Decameron TV series, The Girl Before mini series etc) recommended her to use a dating apps as she had been alone for more than 10 years. To her surprise, Kat found the profile of her missing fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters - Top Boy, Bulletproof TV series etc) in the apps and tried to find out more. Things became more complicated when the terminally ill convicted murderer of Kat's father Monte Leburne (Marc Warren - Van der Valk 2020 TV series etc), revealed a shocking information before he died which made Kat looked into the case differently.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

The reason why I was intrigued by the series was not only the premise but also due to the name Harlan Coben. He is a well known mystery novel writer whose books have been adapted into several films and series (two of the most recent ones were Fool Me Once and Shelter which I have watched and enjoyed). Anyway, this series started off with an interesting scene that would have significance at latter stage. After we were introduced with the lead character Kat Donovan, the story was moving in a steady pace that did not feel slow or rushed.

What made me admire the series was the multiple plots which might or might not have any links but as I continued watching, the connections were more apparent but not too surprising. There was however, one thing that I did not see coming during the finale and I thought it was the biggest twist of them all. The missing person case was not that complicated and probably not supposed to be the main plot, cause if you read the premise, the focus seemed to be on Kat's fiancé. Regardless of which one the story wanted to focus on, I still like them all.

Another thing that I like of this Harlan Coben's adaptation was the fact it was made into limited series. So there was no need to worry about having cliffhanger ending or if it was cancelled. Although it might seem a bit open end, but to me it was quite clear with the very final scene how it would go through. Btw, Coben himself was credited as one of the Executive Producers and this production was part of his multi-years deal to adapt 14 of his novels. So we would be seeing some more in Netflix in the near future. 

I read that the setting was actually changed from New York in the novel to Manchester, England in the series. So the cast obviously would be British. I was already quite familiar with Rosalind Eleazar (did pretty well in here) and Richard Armitage (sadly a bit under utilized) who was well known to me. Other than the names I mentioned above, there were also support characters such as Titus the owner of dog adopting home (Steve Pemberton - The League of Gentlemen TV series, Mr. Bean's Holiday etc), Kat's father Clint (Lenny Henry - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Witcher: Blood Origin TV series etc), another Kat's best friend Aqua (Mary Malone) and many others. 

Overall, for a 5 part mini series, this one was pretty enjoyable. It might not have a very big mystery to reveal, but the multiple plots that were somehow concluded in the limited time was a big plus for me, including the major twist in the final episode. The story telling was quite OK and did not make me feel bored and it was also having a nice theme song from 1984, Missing You sung by John Waite that I liked. So if you are fans of Harlan Coben and familiar with the quality of his works, then I think you would enjoy this even if critics were just so so. But if you prefer a much more intricate mystery series and awesome psychological thriller with various multiple twists, then this might not be that fulfilling. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars