18 February 2020
The Stranger: you’re going to need a conspiracy board for this one
The official trailer for The Stranger is brilliant and exciting. It’s also completely and utterly deceiving.
This is not to say the series isn’t good; only that this preview is misleading. Yes, there is a stranger, as the title suggests. Her MO is to pop up in people’s lives in possession of a potentially devastating and life-destroying secret.
Sometimes she asks for blackmail money to keep that confidence, sometimes she doesn’t, so her motives are not always entirely clear. The threat that these skeletons will be splashed all over the internet – which never goes away no matter how hard you try – is a very real fear in our time.
The trailer would have you believe there is a murder, perhaps related to Corinne Price (Dervla Kirwan) faking her pregnancy to her husband Adam (Richard Armitage, The Hobbit, Hannibal the TV series).
With all the spliced scenes showing glimpses of gory scenes and sound clips presented out of context, it doesn’t quite convey everything going on in these eight episodes – which is a lot.
The Stranger does keep the viewer guessing and wondering but without bogging things down too much, and reeling out just enough information, bit by bit, to maintain the suspense and mystery.
“Once you make peace with the fact that there are about 500 too many characters and interwoven plot lines, Netflix’s The Stranger makes for a pretty entertaining watch,” says Lauren Kranc from Esquire. “The … thriller series is based on Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name (the author also served as an executive producer on the show).
“Miraculously though, the final episode manages to tie up most of the show’s major loose ends—we know why the Stranger blackmails people with their secrets, as well as where Corinne disappeared to and why,” continues Kranc. “The problem is, though, that most of the ancillary plot lines could have been removed without changing the main story arc.”
This is accurate, with hindsight. While watching the preceding seven episodes, The Stranger does keep the viewer guessing and wondering but – successfully, thankfully – without bogging things down too much, and reeling out just enough information, bit by bit, to maintain the suspense and mystery.
There are a great many threads but they are all connected, so don’t allow your attention to waver. A conspiracy board could help.
Harlan Coben has been a bestselling mystery author for decades, but until a few years ago the only adaptation of his books was the acclaimed 2006 French feature film Tell No One, writes Pat Saperstein for Variety.
Perhaps the only contemporary author who could say he’s had a better deal is Stephen King.
“Fast-forward 14 years, and the New Jersey-based author has a 14-book deal with Netflix that’s already resulted in British-set series The Five, Safe and now The Stranger in partnership with Nicola Shindler’s Red Production Company. As writer and producer, he’s coming up with both original ideas and adapting his prolific output of novels, as well as getting involved in everything from casting to hairdos.”
Perhaps the only contemporary author who could say he’s had a better deal is Stephen King.
Coben’s daughter Charlotte wrote some of this adaptation, which transplants the story from the book’s America to England. This, says Coben, brought a unique teenage voice to the relevant story arc, and it works well.
The cast includes Anthony Head (Buffy The Vampire Slayer and dozens of series you’ve never heard of) and, surprisingly, Jennifer Saunders, who comes from an almost exclusively comedic background, like Absolutely Fabulous. “Comedian” is the very first word in her Wikipedia biography, and she gives an excellent dramatic performance. The only complaint about her appearance? It’s far too short.
