![]() ![]() The aforementioned body has to be disposed of, and that subplot veers nearly into farce. The threat of a teacher-student affair is treated with Lifetime-style melodrama. Accent aside, Tom’s concern is straight-forwardly serious. Are these stumbles or clues? I’m curious. The party Jenny goes to is almost out of a John Hughes movie, and the young characters’ use of social media and texting is hopelessly antiquated. The show feels like somebody watched a “kids out of control” news report 10 years ago and did nothing to update their behavior. Might Tom turn out to be a Russian spy or a masquerading undercover American? Probably not. His British accent feels like it could almost be a sleight of hand, the distraction from the intensity of his concern and questions about what Tom was doing when it wife died. What keeps it watchable is the sense of unease or maybe inconsistency. It’s not overwhelmingly shocking, perceptive or funny. It’s a genre that can be freshened by the extremes of the secrets, by a perceptive sociological critique of some sort, by an exaggerated satirical bent. There’s also a burgeoning sex scandal at the local school, and then there’s a dead body.Ĭoben is the series’ credited creator, but the two episodes sent to critics were written by Danny Brocklehurst ( Shameless) and directed by Daniel Nettheim ( Dance Academy), and they all presumably recognize they’re not blazing fresh ground. Some of the secrets are small, like the couple avoiding telling their kids that they’re getting divorce after the school year. Helping in the investigation are Tom’s new girlfriend Sophie (Amanda Abbington), a local detective, and the unprepared force’s newest investigator Emma (Hannah Arterton), a transfer from the big city.Īgain, the conceit here is that Tom lives in an enclave built for the express purpose of safety, with cameras distributed throughout for both protection and to negate secrets, and yet everybody he comes in contact with is hiding a secret. When Jenny goes out to a raging party and never returns, Tom is forced to turn amateur gumshoe in a mystery in which everybody, including his best friend Pete (Marc Warren) and his various seemingly upstanding neighbors could be a suspect. Hall plays Tom, a pediatric surgeon still grieving the death of his wife and struggling to relate to his two daughters, particularly rebellious teen Jenny (Amy James-Kelly). ![]() In this case, it’s an enclosed community and, in the opening credits, the show’s title is written in the severe metal gate that offers residents the illusion of security. The eight-episode series, created by American novelist Harlan Coben, fits into several tried-and-true TV genres, starting with the story of a quiet suburb in which behind every carefully manicured hedge or pristinely skimmed swimming pool lurks a festering secret. Hall’s accent, reasonably consistent and yet rarely believable, is one of many things on Safe that are askew and, the more I think about it, the more I can’t tell if it’s intentional if not particularly satisfying, or merely bad. In Netflix’s upcoming thriller Safe, Hall is a primary selling point, and it’s impossible to listen to him say “privacy” or “uni” in a proper British accent without losing concentration for the next two or three lines of dialogue. ![]()
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