Safe on TF1: How much is Harlan Coben’s series with Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Audrey Fleurot worth?

What is it about?

After a rather drunken evening with no news of his teenage daughter, surgeon Tom Delaney, trying to mourn his wife, decides to start looking for her, even if it disturbs the quiet English community in which he lives with his family. All his neighbors are gradually facing a real nightmare…

Thursdays 2 and 9 March at 21:10 on TF1. Watched 8 of 8 episodes.

who is he with

Comedian Michael S. Holly, who fans of the series will obviously recognize from her performances on Dexter and Six Feet Under.

In front of him, the audience will find Amanda Abington (Mary Watson in Sherlock), Mark Warren (Snatch), Hannah Arterton (Five, Peripherals, Flynn’s Worlds), Emmett J. Scanlan (Autumn, Peaky Blinders), Amy James-Kelly (Gentleman Jack), Freddie Thorpe (Fate: The Winx Saga) and protagonist Fiennes Tiffin (Next).

Not to forget Audrey Fleuro (HPI, Les Combattantes), who lends her qualities to Zoe Chahal, a French teacher who accuses herself of having an affair with one of her students.

Is it worth checking out?

Instead of Balthazar, which ended last Thursday after five seasons, TF1 decided to bet on a new thriller series… not so new, since Safe already aired in the spring of 2018 on C8 and is available on Netflix for a little over four. years now.

A somewhat odd choice of programming, which can of course be explained by the fact that Front Page has some unpublished French detective fiction on reserve that will run until the summer, apart from Prometheus, which airs on March 16th. and HPI Season 3, scheduled for May.

Therefore, the channel should “fill the holes” with other options – movies, TV movies or even “catalogue” series, as is the case here. And with a positive on Safe, TF1 is betting above all on the dual attraction of Audrey Fleurot, who is still as popular as ever, and Harlan Coben, whose name undoubtedly equates to a devilishly effective thriller for much of the public.

A co-production between the United Kingdom and France (hence the presence of Audrey Fleuro in the cast), Safe is Harlan Coben’s second original television creation, following The Five. And it clearly includes all the codes that made the writer successful and which we also find in the various adaptations of his bestsellers, from Tell No One Just Look, Through Bullying, Into the Woods and Gone Forever on Netflix. .

Namely mysterious disappearances, multiple false claims and deeply buried secrets waiting to be discovered.

Even if Michael C. Hall, doing his best to do his best with a fake British accent, isn’t at his best, and if most of the characters don’t escape clichés, Safe lives up to Harlan Coben’s previous work, and will no doubt appeal to fans of the screenwriter-turned-author.

This eight-episode miniseries, written primarily by Danny Brocklehurst, doesn’t reinvent the genre at all, far from it. It even misses out on good ideas, so it does little in its still-intriguing setting (a gated community from which the writers could create real atmosphere and plenty of narrative opportunities).

But with its characters all hiding dark secrets, Saif turns out to be a masterfully constructed thriller that doesn’t skimp on twists and surprises and thus manages to keep us hooked from start to finish.

Indeed, after the first episode aired, the audience will definitely want to know the end of this whole story and know what happened to Jenny, Tom’s daughter. The mark of an effective thriller, if not particularly original or well-written, that won’t blow your mind, but should provide two fairly enjoyable evenings for fans of the genre.