The Stranger is pretty good, but Harlan Coben? Meh.
Harlan Coben’s The Stranger is the firt indication than heis adaptations don’t have to be kind of limp and half-baked.. Maybe there’s hope.
Coben makes a few jillion dollars a year on his suspense novels (though ‘suspense’ seems like a pretty strong word for his stories. Maybe … “tension novels”?) Generally speaking, they have great premises, great hooks, but tend to fizzle out a bit in the final act. That was certainly the case with the Netflix adaptation of Safe, despite the strong effort of Michael C. Hall and company. The Stranger, however, manages to beat the odds just a bit. The writing is tighter than usual, the acting from top to bottom is top-drawer, the mid-season twist wtih Stephen Rea (Stephen friggin’ Rea!) is an actual shocker, while the reveal, in that last episode, is heartbreaking.
I think I know why …
Much of the credit should go to the actors, who give an intensity to the proceedings that sometimes transcends the been-there/done that plot itself (again, very Coben). And all of them, especially Richard Armitage and Hannah John-Kamen, are terrific. Armitage continues to show himself as a true force of nature, even in material like this. It was hard to stop watching..
And then there’s Anthony Head. Goddamn Anthony Head. Like so many increasingly elderly geeks, I have loved this guy since the Buffy days, and since then he’s made something of a name for himself by playing assholes, from kings to executives (wait, is there a difference these days?). He’s never been as loose and authentic and just plain shitty in other stuff as he is here. It’s like he’s really awful and just making it up as he goes along. Love it. And I’ve just discovered he and I are the same age — born about three weeks apart — so he gives hope to old farts like me that we can still be energetic, ruggedly handsome, and … you know, evil.
There is far too much good television out there right now, and I wouldn’t bump The Stranger to the top of your list. But if you’re looking for the Netflix equivalent of a good, solid read, you could do way worse.
Why doesI Am Not Okay With This feel so incestuous?
Seriously, who are they kidding? This moderately engaging I Am Not Okay With This is a Netflix mini-series that smells so strongly of Carrie and IT that it makes your nose twitch. So why are the producers claiming complete astonishment at the parallels?
Don’t get me wrong — it’s well done. Sophia Lillis is great, as always this time as a much more bitter (and in some ways more believable) teen than in IT. Wyatt Oleff as her (eventual) geeky boyfriend is cute as hell, and her best friend Dina, played by relative newcomer Sofia Bryant is equally charming. But do we really need another pastiche of Stephen King? Especially starring two of the IT kids?
And that’s one of the problems. These kids were way too memorable in their last movie to put them in entirely “new” roles. I mean, Beverly Marsh is not supposed to be messing around with Stanley Uris this way. That gives the whole production one whole, and entirely unnecessary, level of creep. Then you’ve got Sydney’s opening scene — spattered with blood (yeah, like we haven’t seen that before, Bev!), staggering down the street with fire and cops in the background, looking as wall-eyed and weird as Carrie on her first day. Only to flash back and find out that the whole story == effectively told — is about a trouble teenage girl reaching puberty and finding she has unexpected telekinetic powers. Which she can’t control. That hurt people. And since she’s a misfit, and harassed, she is confronted at the high school prom by the betrayed Bad Kid at school, which ends not all that differently than Carrie’s own fateful prom.
I could go on. I won’t. But you can’t get past the idea that you’ve seen pretty much all this before, though it’s less nostalgic and more cynical. And then the producers do us the ultimate disservice of ending the series with what is essentially the second act — a key turn that should lead to further revelations and resolutions. And the did this before they knew there would even be a second season (which, in fact, has yet to be announced). I mean, I love a cliff-hanger as much as the next guy, but there’s got to be some dramatically satisfying conclusion, some reason to have invested eight hours or more in this thing beyond, “Whaaa/ To be continued?)
Yes, I’ll watch it when it comes around again — if it does. But it’s still a cheat. And it’s still yet another Stephen King knock-off that should pay him royalties to even exist, no matter how many times the producers say, “Gosh! Wow! We had no idea!”
Right.
Making Funny Horror is Hard (but Snatchers did its damnedest)
One of the most interesting things about Snatchers is its wonderful history.
It began as a web series created by a bunch of newbies (as far as I can tell), and ended up as a feature-length film. It’s not going to change the course of mighty rivers, but it’s kind’a cute (and gory and gross) … and it’s amazing it ever got made at all.
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Slightly older but no less fascinating posts
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