RUN AWAY

CONTAINS SPOILERS! The lives of Simon Greene (James Nesbitt) and his wife Ingrid (Minnie Driver) unravel after their daughter Paige (Ellie de Lange) starts using drugs and runs away from home to be with her abusive boyfriend. Simon, a desperate, hot-headed father who’s prone to jumping to the worst conclusions, begins digging around in the seedy drug underworld in a frantic attempt to find her. He crosses paths with Elena Ravenscroft (the fabulous Ruth Jones), a recently widowed former police officer turned private investigator. Though unconventional@in her methods, Elena is committed to helping her clients and soon discovers that Paige is linked to one of her assigned missing persons cases. To enjoy this series you need to suspend belief. Twists are layered on top of twists, some of which only exist as content filler. The plot quickly becomes crowded, weaving in a religious cult, an adoption agency scam, two unconvincing cold-blooded killers, literally every character keeping a gazillion secrets, no one communicating properly, a shoot out, and Simon deciding how far he will go to rescue his daughter. The police procedural elements fall flat, with lead investigator Isaac Fagbenle (Alfred Enoch) frequently ignoring protocol and using a condescending tone every time he speaks. There’s also a lack of chemistry between him and his colleague / love interest DC Ruby Todd (Amy Gledhill). I enjoyed this series up until episode 6 when I started to lose track of who was who and spent more time wondering what was going on than understanding the narrative. The finale is the most frustrating, as several characters decide to purge their backstories which feels like lazy, rushed writing. Based on Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name, the 8 total episodes come across as a fever-dream mashup of every idea he ever had. Sometimes keeping it simple works best. Fun fact, this is the 12th Harlan Corben book adapted into an original Netflix series.