Guardian critic ranks Harlan Coben TV adaptations from bad to worst

A Guardian critic has watched and rated every Harlan Coben television adaptation, finding they are broadly poor despite the novelist’s commercial success. The piece notes Coben is a No 1 New York Times bestseller who has written 35 novels and has had 11 adaptations (eight of them English language) into a nine-year, 14-book adaptation deal with Netflix.

The adaptations share a tone and recurring actors such as Richard Armitage, are often set in English suburbia and usually involve mysterious crimes and corrupt police; the critic also points out Coben’s daughter has written many of the scripts. The reviewer groups the shows from “bad” to “worst.” Examples in the “bad” camp include Stay Close (2021), with Cush Jumbo and a plotline involving assassins who dance to Radiohead’s Creep; Fool Me Once (2024), in which a nanny-cam appears to show a dead husband and features Joanna Lumley; Run Away (2026), a New Year’s Day release with Minnie Driver, James Nesbitt and Ruth Jones; and Safe (2018), criticised for Michael C.

Hall’s accent and a forgettable gated-community plot. In the “worse” category the critic cites The Stranger (2020) for gaping plot holes and an ill-judged murder scene, Shelter (2023) for piling on disparate plotlines including sex trafficking and a Holocaust subplot, and Missing You (2025) for shifting from a Bechdel-passing police drama to a gruesome rural horror sequence.

Key Topics

Culture, Harlan Coben, Netflix, Richard Armitage, Stay Close, Run Away