6 Years Later, Harlan Coben's 6-Part Netflix Thriller Remains A Perfect One-Night Binge

One of the earliest Harlan Coben adaptations on Netflix remains an ideal one-night binge, and one of the streaming service’s stronger attempts to capture the writer’s unique style on the small screen. It is hard to believe that only 12 years ago, the prolific thriller writer Harlan Coben had only one screen adaptation to his name. In 2006, director Guillame Canet’s Tell No One was met with largely solid reviews, but nothing about the movie’s muted reception suggested that its original author was one of the biggest names in murder mysteries.

Since his first book was released back in 1990, Coben has emerged as one of the most prolific and successful mystery authors of his generation. His books have sold almost 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into over 40 languages, but successful screen adaptations eluded him for 25 years. Then, in 2015, the French series No Second Chance turned one of Coben’s books into a six-episode miniseries, and the success of acclaimed shows like True Detective and Sharp Objects led Netflix to take a chance on the writer’s back catalog.

What followed was what could only be called a historic run for the writer. In May 2018, Netflix released the eight-episode miniseries Safe, followed by The Stranger in 2020, The Woods the same year, The Innocent in 2021, and so many more in the years that followed. While Gone For Good, Stay Close, Hold Tight, Fool Me Once, Missing You, Run Away, and I Will Always Find You received a variety of critical reactions, The Woods remains a notably underrated effort among Netflix’s many Coben adaptations.

The Woods Is A Perfect Binge-Watch Thanks To Harlan Coben’s Twisty Thriller Plotting

Like the aforementioned Agatha Christie, Coben is most often undone by making his mystery plots just a little too convoluted to feel truly satisfying. As such, it might seem surprising that the 2020 Polish-language crime drama The Woods is among his most underrated adaptations. After all, the show immediately sets up a tough task for itself with a dual timeline story that takes place in both September 2019 and August 1994.

Admittedly, great thriller shows like True Detective season 1 and Cruel Summer have pulled off this approach with aplomb in recent years. However, it is a virtuoso writing style, and one that can easily end up feeling needlessly complicated, especially when The Woods had a mere six episodes to tell its story. The show begins when Grzegorz Damięcki’s Paweł Kopiński is asked to identify the body of a murder victim.

The victim’s death is connected to killings that took place at a summer camp in 1994. Since Paweł’s sister Kamila went missing at the camp that summer and has never been seen since, the show’s protagonist inevitably ends up becoming obsessed with the 2019 murder investigation and what it might reveal about his sister’s disappearance. Long written off as a cold case, the unsolved mystery now takes on a new urgency.

Netflix’s Harlan Coben Adaptations Have Been A Mixed Bag

Ruth Jones as Elena Ravenscroft in Run Away

The Woods is a must-watch for thriller fans, especially those who are tired of light-hearted murder mysteries like Knives Out and Death in Paradise and want to sate their appetite for something darker, grittier, and more poignant. However, the show’s success isn’t shared by all the streaming service’s subsequent adaptations of Coben’s work.

While The Stranger was adored by critics, Gone For Good was the streaming service’s first unambiguous flop when it came to adapting the legendary author’s work. Stay Close was a return to form, but Hold Tight was a new low, earning a mere 39% on Rotten Tomatoes. Since then, the fortunes of Harlan Coben’s Netflix adaptations have been mixed, but none of his shows have enjoyed the same success as The Woods.