“I ain’t missing you at all.”
Celebrated author Harlan Coben is known in the literary world for writing mystery novels with tantalizing characters and premises that challenge readers’ notions of reality. His books have been adapted for the small screen in recent years, mostly through Netflix, many of which have starred actor Richard Armitage in some capacity. His latest Netflix adaptation of which Coben executive produces, “Missing You,” follows a similar formula in a five-episode limited series that strives for quality but comes up short in the mystery department.
“Missing You” stars British actress Rosalind Eleazar as Detective Kat Donovan, a hard-nosed investigator with serious emotional baggage. Having lost her father to a gruesome murder years ago, Kat is determined to live out his legacy by throwing herself into police work. She’s focused on solving multiple cases at the same time, resulting in respect from colleagues and a department that still reveres her father’s work as a fellow police officer.
Desiring to move on with her personal life, Kat downloads a dating app and instantly connects with local single men. One of those matches, surprisingly, is Kat’s ex-boyfriend Josh (Ashley Walters). The kicker? Kat’s ex suspiciously disappeared from her life over a decade ago, leaving no trace of his whereabouts.
As her past begins to materialize into the present once again, Kat finds herself at a crossroads between her personal struggles and trying to impress her boss (Armitage). She confronts her father’s killer as he lies dying in prison, only to expose more puzzling elements to an ongoing saga. A murder that was thought to have been solved years ago may have been perpetrated by someone else.
But who could have actually killed her father? Why would her boyfriend ghost her for over 10 years? Is everyone involved in a massive cover-up? Who can she trust? And why is a creepy, uptight dog breeder (Steve Pemberton) surfacing from the fray with the key to solving all her riddles?
The answers to these questions, and more, come to light in “Missing You,” hardly ever in a satisfying manner. Harlan Coben’s latest television adaptation is a mess of subplots that focus on several disappearances simultaneously, while Kat discovers that the many men in her life constantly betray her. She’s on a crusade to uncover the truth about her father’s possible corrupt intentions and her ex-boyfriend’s potential involvement, all while investigating multiple cases involving other missing people.
Simply put, there are an absurd number of “disappearances” to keep track of, yet they might all somehow be related to one another.
“Missing You,” much like Coben’s other Netflix ventures “The Stranger” and “Safe,” involves convoluted storytelling that leaves the lead character with very little to work with in their pursuit for the truth. There always seems to be a final twist in the very last episode of these types of shows, and “Missing You” is no different. The twist-ending attempts to wrap everything up in a neat bow, but the gift is never as rewarding as the journey to unwrap it.
Rosalind Eleazar does a fantastic job with the material she’s given, providing enough space for Kat’s anguish and trips down memory lane in order to convey a troubled woman on the verge of opening Pandora’s crime-ridden box. The series understands the limitations of telling an absorbing story in five episodes, never filling it with fluff but rather getting straight to the point. This structure comes across as fearless in its approach to keeping the premise going quickly.
Still, some issues arise, like when Kat and Josh match on the dating app instantly after she downloads it — a truly remarkable turn of events that leads her to pursue the truths kept hidden from her.
Quick flashbacks of Kat and Josh to the same karaoke scene set to the tune of John Waite’s “Missing You” are no substitute for getting to the nitty gritty of their past love affair. The show, adapted from the 2014 novel of the same name, never lives up to the promise that this relationship was worth fighting for. In uncovering the truth about Josh’s whereabouts and her father’s murder, secrets are revealed to Kat in surprising, yet often forgettable ways, largely due to a lack of villains with concrete motives and a final twist ending that one could see coming from a mile away.
“Missing You” premieres Wednesday, Jan. 1, on Netflix.