Who knew that Netflix would begin 2024 with an audience phenomenon as unquestionable, unpredictable and silent as Deceptions. The mystery about a widow trying to understand if, in fact, her husband is alive generated little conversation but a lot of consumption. It is the ninth most watched English-language series in the history of the platform with 581 million hours watched and a total of 90.6 million views, ahead of the first season of The Witcher, which was a big bet for Netflix. .
The secret has as much to do with its programming as its essence. It premiered on January 1, a moment of hangover and existential fatigue after so many celebrations, which allowed it to take off in its first days and generate a snowball effect in the catalog. The tone of a Saturday afternoon TV movie was ideal for a moment of such low television demand, especially with the ratio of suspicions and twists per episode.
In terms of plot, Deceit was based on a novel by American writer Harlan Coben, an expert in treacherous mysteries: his stories always have to do with crimes where nothing is what it seems, as if it were a criminal puzzle. And, luckily for those who enjoyed the inconsequential production, there is no shortage of substitutes to binge on corpses, missing people who leave no trace, and distrustful glances.
For Harlan Coben, the mystery is the family business. In Refugio, which adapts his own novel, he himself worked on the script with his daughter Charlotte. The protagonist is a teenager: Mickey Bolitar, who starts a new life in a town in New Jersey after the sudden death of his father. When a local student, Ashley Kent, disappears, she discovers an underworld in that community she thought was quiet. Constance Zimmer (Unreal) is the main incentive at the cast level, in addition to the fact that we are faced with a more youthful approach to the Coben essence.
This Polish adaptation, written by Agata Malesińska and Wojciech Miloszewski, focuses on an 18-year-old boy who disappears after the suicide of his best friend. The parents, when they start looking for him, discover that they know nothing about him. The series forces parents to think about how far they would be willing to go to protect a child. “Would I spy on him? Would he be able to keep him permanently located by the GPS of his cell phone? ”Proposed the cover of the Coben novel on which he is based.
Three people seem to lead a perfect life, but they hide dark secrets that not even those closest to them would ever suspect. When an old friend from the past arrives with some pretty shocking news, the three are affected in an atrocious way, threatening to ruin their lives and those around them. If we talk about British Cobenian miniseries, the cast of this one takes the cake: Cush Jumbo (The good fight), James Nesbitt (Jekyll), Eddie Izzard (Hannibal), Sarah Parish (Industry) or Richard Armitage (The Hobbit), now also known as Deception's shady husband.
Here, a French one. Guillaume believed he had overcome the tragedy where his first love and his brother died. A decade later, he has found love. But when his mistress disappears during Guillaume's mother's funeral, the man must face truths for which he was not prepared. Yes, here we have another missing person and relatives who have died in the past, and Coben thinks up new mysteries but he doesn't reinvent the wheel in each story either.
Now, a Spanish one with a cast that cannot go unnoticed: Mario Casas, Aura Garrido, Alexandra Jiménez, José Coronado, Juana Acosta, Miki Esparbé, Ana Wagener, Susi Sánchez, Gonzalo de Castro... Casas, like Mateo, is a former -convicted after a conviction for murder after interceding in a fight. He has rebuilt his life: his wife is pregnant, they have an ideal new house. But suddenly she disappears. Oriol Paulo (The Twisted Lines of God), Jordi Vallejo (You Will Not Kill) and Guillem Clua (Smiley) are responsible for the scripts of The Innocent.
Another adaptation that transfers the action from the United States to Poland based on a prosecutor who, after spending twenty years trying to overcome the disappearance of his sister, finds evidence that could indicate that she is alive.
Richard Armitage, as the viewer can see, has quite a resume in the Harlan Coben world. In this adaptation, released in January 2020, an unknown figure passes confidential information to anyone. When a well-placed man discovers a secret about his wife from this stranger, his life falls apart.
Michael C. Hall, the actor of Dexter and Six Feet Under, plays every father's nightmare: his daughter leaves at night to go to a party and never returns. He, of course, will try to figure out what happened by moving through a hermetic neighborhood that proves that even by shutting yourself off from the rest of society, you are safe.
What if your whole life was a lie? What if the man you married 15 years ago wasn't who you thought? For Eva Beaufils, it only took one look at an old photo to understand that her world was a farce. Suddenly, her husband disappears. Eva only thinks about finding him. Even if she awakens old wounds, she knows it's the only thing that can answer her. Can love overcome distrust?
On Prime Video, as you can see, there is also confidence in Harlan Coben with three productions in the catalog. In fact, they have a new miniseries underway with Sam Claflin (Everybody Loves Daisy Jones) and an eminence of British television like Bill Nighy (Love Actually). But in Last Chance, released in 2017, he recovers the theme of “a father desperate for the disappearance of his son.” A woman wakes up in a hospital, after being in a coma for 12 days, and she realizes that her husband has been murdered and her daughter kidnapped. She passed through La1 and was sold as the phenomenon that arrived from France.
