Harlan Coben’s latest Netflix’s thriller Missing You makes no sense – I love it

Ruth Lawes

Published December 28, 2024 7:00am

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I know I’m not alone in looking forward to Harlan Coben’s New Year thriller drop on Netflix more than seeing my family over the festive period.

This year we had Michelle Keegan and Dame Joanna Lumley’s brilliantly camp showdown in Fool Me Once and now we have Missing You. I got the entire six-episode series ahead of release and you can sure bet I binged it in one sitting. It was unhinged, maddening and nonsensical. But I loved it.

First off the cast. In case we’re in any doubt this is a Harlan Coben TV adaptation there’s Richard Armitage – so now we can at least be safe in the knowledge this is legit and not an imposter thriller.Then there are British acting classics, including Steve Pemberton, Sir Lenny Henry and James Nesbitt, while rising star and Slow Horses actor Rosalind Eleazar plays her first main role on Netflix.

So far, so normal. But this being Harlan Coben there’s even a twist in the cast – which is bafflingly also populated by what can only be described as the likely line-up of guests on a Thursday episode of This Morning: Matt Willis, GK Barry and Lisa Faulkner. But, hey, I’m not complaining.

The plot, though, will require you to suspend all your rational facilities and comprehension of human behaviour. If you do, the sheer unbridled entertainment is worth it – I promise.

Undated Handout Photo from Missing You. Pictured: Rosalind Eleazar as Kat Donovan and Ashley Walters as Josh Buchanan. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Missing You. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Missing You. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: Netflix. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Missing You. — Missing You may not be high-art but it offers sheer entertainment value (Picture: Netflix)

There are effectively two storylines in Missing You, both of which concern our heroine Detective Kat Donovan (Eleazar). At work, she’s investigating the disappearance of a middle-class mum who has gone on holiday to Costa Rica with a bloke she met off a dating app but her son isn’t buying it.

At home, Kat is still troubled by the murder of her dad (Sir Lenny). She believes the imprisoned hitman who confessed to killing him was put up to it, but by who? She’s also startled when her ex-fiancé Josh (Walters), who vanished into thin air with no prior warning some years back, reappears on a dating app.

I can say without spoiling any of the fun that it turns out Kat is investigating a serious crime when she pokes about the middle-class mum’s disappearance.

However, when said crime is unveiled (yes, you can expect a dramatic showdown), it is completely deranged and makes zero sense. To achieve the same outcome, the criminal(s) could have committed a much lesser crime. That route would have also required far less work and would have also made them less vulnerable as the target of a major police investigation. In short, the baddie (or baddies) must have flunked crime school.

Undated Handout Photo from Missing You. Pictured: Steve Pemberton as Titus. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Missing You. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Missing You. PA Photo. Picture credit should read: Netflix. NOTE TO EDITORS: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV Missing You. — The central plots make no sense but they are still fun to watch (Picture: Netflix)

I was also left completely baffled by Kat’s entire behaviour and relationship with former fiancé Josh. Literally every time they appeared on screen together, I screamed. Girl needs some better friends.

This is not to detract from the splendour of Missing You, mind you. I know critics love to bash Harlan Coben – The i sneered Fool Me Once was ‘junk food television’ – but God the twists are good. Unbelievable? Absolutely. But it takes a master to take viewers down so many dead ends to eventually land them at wildly imaginative conclusions.

The star of Missing You is undeniably Rosalind. She’s best known for playing likeable Slough House spy Louisa in Slow Horses and she once again brings that everywoman quality to Kat. Rosalind’s wonderfully restrained performance is the relatable anchor in the chaotic, ridiculous, madcap whirlwind world of the show. She totally could have veered down the hysterical shouting/crying/screaming route given what transpires – but she reigns it in, instead relying on subtle flickers of emotion. Rosalind’s Kat is (almost) the most believable part of Missing You.

Missing You is not the best TV, sure, but not everything on our screens has to be high-art. What the show does offer is sheer entertainment value with gripping twists and a pacey plot. And if your family are driving you mad over the New Year period, this will at least take you far, far away from reality.

Missing You is available to stream on Netflix from New Year’s Day.

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