There’s a feeling particularly delightful of watching the first episode of a show and getting that feeling in your chest where you just know this is going to be a show you cannot stop watching. Unfortunately for me, that feeling more often than not ends up twisting into a bitter disappointment by the end, feeling as if you were robbed of the deserved ending. That was how I felt about the Netflix original series, The Stranger, adapted from Harlan Coben’s 2005 book of the same name.
Going into the series I felt incredibly excited, namely because I have an unsubtle obsession with anything that includes Richard Armitage and the show features him as the protagonist, Adam Price. A happily married lawyer, Price is approached in public by a woman he has never met (a stranger) who reveals a secret to him about his wife. A secret that could destroy his marriage. However, before he can get any concrete answers, his wife disappears, leaving him alone with their two sons. Entangled by a web of lies and secrets that slowly make themselves known, Price finds himself spinning out of control trying to understand the new normal of his life.
Within the first five minutes, I was hooked! The various story lines with the central connecting point was so wonderfully constructed. One of my favourite storylines included the younger members of the cast, Price’s teenage son and his friends. I tend to find that mystery and crime dramas rarely include adolescents without it feeling childish. Indeed, with a cast of exceptional actors that really all held up their own, the show was the perfect blend of mystery and drama that I love. So much so that I could forgive the occasional cliché writing and sensational language.
However, as the episodes went on (keep in mind this is only an eight part limited series) the writing became increasingly lazy. Plot points were brought in for the shock-factor and forgotten about just as fast. Problem is the audience did not forget about them, only the writers.
We have made a point before to avoid numeric or scale based rating systems. As writers and creators ourselves, we understand just how hard it is to create, and just how often the effort put in is under appreciated or underestimated. However, in the case of shows such as this, where the beginning is incredibly promising and the cast is immensely talented, it feels as if the lazy writing is a symptom not of bad writers or creators, but of an obvious preoccupation with ratings and number of views over plot.
Production companies such as Netflix base their media success rate based on the number of views rather than public opinion. Though the two can often go hand in hand such as when good reviews can bring more people to the box office, with straight to television shows and movies, the ‘binge-factor’, where you hear that people are bingeing the show and raving about being addicted from episode one, overshadows reviews. Indeed, how bingeable a show is is synonymous with a review these days. And I think production companies are clueing onto exactly that. So much so that the effort that is dedicated into the first few episodes with the later ones not matching the hype. In many ways it feels like the new version of pilot episodes being the measure for picking up a show or not.
I would not say that I did not enjoy the show, but the endings really do make a difference to me. It truly is about the bigger picture. Which is why it can be so much more disappointing when a show has so much promise compared to when it is average all the way through. So in some ways, it is a compliment that I feel so let down. But it really does have me wondering just what the priorities of producers are. And unfortunately, I am coming to the conclusion that it will never be quality over revenue.
~S~
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