Netflix: The Stranger. Utter crap!

[Yarboosucks]

I know there are other threads on MN about this programme, but everyone on there seem to love it, whereas I am cross with myself for watching it! My only excuse is that I am up at night on nursing duties for an elderly dog in his final days and needed something to help keep me awake.

Ridiculous, utter non-credible, flawed plot
Terrible, stilted script
Awful acting from some actors
Cliche-ridden characters
Big name actors just looked embarrassed and uncommitted

God it was awful.

Is there anyone else out there who feels the same or am I alone?

Not RTFT as DD2 and I are watching. Why do they all have funny eyes?!!

I’m watching Unbelievable. It’s really good so far.

I liked it because it was so bad if that makes sense. An enjoyable sort of cringe.

It was awful. DP and I watched the final episode last night and then breathed a huge sigh of relief. Well I say watched... I was playing backgammon on my phone and DP was posting on some music forum!

It was pretty much the plot of every Harlan Coben book ever. I don't know why I expected different.

I liked the woman who played Jo the cop, and Paul Kaye I thought was good but other than that it was really poor.

Most unbelievable of all was the so-called teenage boy (who looked about 25) standing outside Munchausens woman's house with an umbrella! The script writers have clearly never met a teenager before. Also, slightly less unbelievable, was the fact that teachers and police officers were living in million pound houses in green and leafy suburbs on one income. Just totally out of touch with any form of reality.

Oh thank you OP for starting this thread. I've looked on MN before to see if anyone had picked up on The Stranger.
I absolutely hated it. Everyone on my SM raves about it but I just thought it was awful.

I thought they all lived in very grand houses too for teachers, lawyers, detectives etc
On the flip side, the Stephen Rea character lived in a condemned terrace which I actually grew up near. (They featured on the £1 houses tv programme.) I couldn't suspend belief here because I know they are 2 up, 2 down. However, the interior of his home was much bigger. I was trying to concentrate on the plot but my brain was going, "those houses didn't have two living rooms and a hallway. There weren't any cellars" - totally sidetracked me. I lived just down the other end of the street and it wasn't a tardis! Like I say, absolutely sod all to do with the plot but niggled me as did the grand design homes.

God I totally agree but appear to be surrounded by people who LOVED it! I thought the whole plot was full of holes - a massive one being, why didn't the woman just tell her HB that the neighbour across the street stole the ££ and was blackmailing her? Instead she simply said "there's more to this" and was all cloaks and daggers. WTF? If pushed you'd just tell your HB wouldn't you? If she'd done that then none of the other crap would have happened! So many other issues with it too. But my main annoyance was that the acting was fucking awful!

Oh @waspie you got on to the houses too!!!

Siobhan Finneran was the only reason I stuck with it, tbh. She's great in everything she's in and l thought Paul Kaye was a good villain.
(Even though I kept wondering what had happened to my old Dennis Pennis videos).

I had no empathy with any other other character (I did warm to the sons towards the end) and I struggle to read/ watch when this happens because I don't care enough about them. I thought they were badly written. Fat bloke and fat son were unlikeable and unbelievable from the start. The kid in the coma's father seemed such a hippy yet their house was the most materialistic. I was waiting to find out if he was a famous pop star for no other reason than to match the house to the character.

It was an ok time pass as I had a sick child so was off work for a few days. I agree some of the acting was really bad and the plot was confusing at times. Safe, I found, much the same. Ok to pass the time but not my favourite

It was woeful

Not a patch on my favourites Happy Valley and Broadchurch.

Ha yes toffeeghirl, Siobhan Finneran (I am terrible with names!) she has been good in everything I've ever seen her in.

I totally agree about Stephen Rea's house - TARDIS! Plus, unless he'd built a fake wall he wouldn't have been able to store a body in the wall as it wouldn't have had the space. Also, why the hell didn't he do something with it when he knew his house was going to be demolished? Plus (I'm on a roll now) why didn't the Hobbit bloke and Stephen Rea's daughter know each other if they'd grown up on the same street?

There were also so many bits of plots that went nowhere - why bother with football bloke's son and the truly weird Alpaca murder/Dante coma sub-plot? As far as I could see it had nothing to do with anything. Ditto Munchausens woman and the poorly daughter. They were only in it to show that a detective constable can afford to own an enormous house plus a smaller semi-detached! (Back to houses again).

And if the Stranger was so keen on truths being outed why did she want £10k for each truth? Just publish and be damned!

Lastly (for now) no way could someone embezzle tens of thousands from a community children's football team run by volunteers without anyone noticing for years

Honestly, it was so far from reality they may as well have called it Sci-fi.

But why did she fake the pregnancy? She said there was more to it, but there really wasn't, was there?! She was tricking her husband, exactly like she thought. The other woman faking a pregnancy was a completely pointless side quest.

And WTF was the point of the alpaca or anything to do with the teenagers? That was all pointless as well!

Oh thank god! We thought it was us! I have to admit that we did roar with laughter through a lot of it, so we were entertained! Really not sure that was the effect that they were going for!

The teenagers were awfully scripted.

It was a mix of about 3 Harlan Coben novels. If they had just stuck to one it might have been quite good.

But why did she fake the pregnancy? She said there was more to it, but there really wasn't, was there?! She was tricking her husband, exactly like she thought. The other woman faking a pregnancy was a completely pointless side quest.

I'm guessing the "more to it"was about Tripp blackmailing her(or so she assumed) and her knowing that Adam was having/planning on having an affair which was what made her fake the pregnancy.

If you enjoy utter crap, you must watch Love is Blind on Netflix, new episodes every Thursday. It is the most ludicrous thing I've ever watched. I won't go into detail, would hate to ruin your viewing pleasure They showed a bit on Gogglebox and all the viewers had pretty much the same reaction to it as I did.

I love utter crap, will check that out @SilverySurfer

Safe was abysmal. The Stranger was better but the ending was absurd and had us laughing at it's ridiculousness - that's not a word is it? Never mind, you know what I mean.

@Yarboosucks

I was kind of hooked by it and enjoyed watching it. However, I have to agree that overall, it wasn't brilliant, because it was disjointed, and had too many plot holes. By the 3rd or 4th episode I would have rated it at 8 out of 10, but the end I would downgrade it to a 5.

I feel like it had the workings of a really gripping and amazing psychological thriller, but ended up a tiny bit shit. Not the worst I have ever seen, but not great no...

From the first episode I thought everything was going to meaningfully tie in together but it didn’t, a lot of stuff was just pointless (eg the whole alpaca thing) and used to fill time with no relevance to the plot.

@glitterstarshower

Yeah, what the hell was the alpaca stuff about? TOTALLY pointless plotline.

Have just remembered the garage cupboard stuffed full of embarrassing munchausen medicine and rat poison etc . In the detective 's garage Surprise! Try hiding that in any mans garage for longer than a couple of weeks. Thin, thin, storylines.

@longwayoff

Have just remembered the garage cupboard stuffed full of embarrassing munchausen medicine and rat poison etc In the detective 's garagegrin Surprise! Try hiding that in any mans garage for longer than a couple of weeks. Thin, thin, storylines.

Yeah that! ^

Also, I saw Corinne (who went missing after faking her pregnancy) jump off the viaduct (and kill herself,) and yet at the end the guy had buried her...........

Confused me that did.

Anyone know wtf actually happened?

The houses were nice though

I honestly don't understand threads like this. Of course its ok that you didn't like it, wouldn't it be odd if we all liked the same things?

Anyway, I am so sorry you are having a rough time with your dog, you sound such a lovely person staying by his sad. Thinking of you