Harlan Coben’s Run Away is the New Year’s Day Netflix binge that will break your brain — especially the final mind-boggling twist
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Confirmed: The Fugue by Harlan Coben is the most fun you can have on New Year’s Day without leaving your couch. Truly, it wouldn’t be a festive vegetarian session if a new Harlan Coben mystery didn’t await us, with Fool me once taking Netflix by storm in 2024. I’m not a psychic, but I predict the same thing will happen with Run away.
For what? We return to the proven formula of book adaptations after that of Prime Video Lazarus by Harlan Coben in October. That’s both a plus and a minus depending on how you look at it, but when it comes to Coben’s signature craft, we’re in good hands.
Harlan Coben’s Run Away turns warring teen drama into a crime roller coaster you can’t look away from
Look on it
Coben gets to the point where his fictional story rivals that of the MCU or Lord of the RingsAnd Run away is no exception. If you watch all eight episodes in one go, not only will your brain break in two (like mine), but you might also need a police whiteboard just to keep up with the explosive secrecy and impenetrable subplots.
It’s this feeling of immersion that has always made Coben’s work the cream of the crop, and pairing his writing style with a stellar cast not afraid to get their hands dirty means you have some spreadable magic. James Nesbitt was born to play a distant but naive father in a British crime drama, with Minnie Driver getting the slightly easier task of lying mostly in a hospital bed.
It’s Ruth Jones as Elena Ravenscroft who is the most enjoyable addition here (even if her character seems like a Harry Potter additional). The United Kingdom took particular pains to classify Jones as nothing more than Nessa in Gavin and Staceyrarely paying attention to his varied body of work.
She may be a comedy queen, but Jones injects light relief into Run Away that perfectly offsets Nesbitt’s erratic chaos.
“Sexy asshole” DS Fagbenle (Alfred Enoch) is another intriguing layer of the puzzle. In his work he is incredibly distant, but the personal relationship he cultivates in secret makes you want to enter his mind and unravel the man we don’t really get to see. Even when we get answers to the big questions, it’s nice to have something hidden from us, especially when we don’t need to spell it out.
How willing are you to suspend your beliefs for a crime thriller?
The biggest problem with a mind-boggling mystery is when it starts to veer into ridiculous territory. For the first half of Run awaythe drama seems rooted in reality. It is incredibly possible for a teenage girl to lose her way in life because of an abusive partner, causing her family to break up.
But when you start associating seemingly unrelated murders with cult-like behavior, things become a little more far-fetched. I know fictional dramas don’t have to stay true to reality, but shows like this aren’t soap operas either. Between episodes 5 and 8, I imagine families around the world saying, “For God’s sake, enough is enough now.” »
For the most part, I think Coben gets away with it…until the surprising final twist. Not only does the reveal seem incredibly unnecessary, but it also changes the tone of the story in the final minutes. It’s the secret that gives advice Run away over the top into truly incredible, and perhaps a case of “less is more” would have made for a more effective ending.
On the other hand, the narrative beats of the overall story fit perfectly into Coben’s formula, and it’s either stoic and reliable or more of the same. It is probably important to remember that Run away fits into an existing collection of mysteries, so some level of uniformity is necessary. We’re dealing with an iconic Coben drama here, and while that might put off some viewers, I think enough people will find comfort in knowing what to expect – in the broadest sense of the word.
Or Lazarus hesitant, Run away shines. I truly believe that adapting the book to screen is a huge strength for Coben, tapping into a level of satisfaction that we lacked earlier in the year. I felt dizzy throughout the entire viewing, and it’s safe to say that I’ve never enjoyed following a grisly murder so much.
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