Stay Close - new Harlen Coben on Netflix

[Violetroselily]

Anyone watching yet? I'm 3 episodes in, liking it so far but starting to get slightly confused by there being so many characters.

I love James Nesbitt

@MaryAndHerNet

Yes bald man from vipers went to see grandma.

Here in lies one of the stupidest plot points... As I recall it, I may be wrong.

Ok so.
Lorraine, vipers manager, goes to see Meghan / Cassie.
They meet in a cafe and Lorraine tells Meghan that "Stuart's back, I saw him in vipers..."
Dun dun dun...

That kicks off the whole story chain of events, way back in episode 1.

It's later revealed that who she saw was supposedly the bouncer of Vipers.

I mean, come on, the manager of Vipers doesn't recognise the bouncer of Vipers even from behind? Is every tall bald guy supposedly Stuart back from the dead?
Meghan should have told Lorraine to get to buggery and moved another 15 miles, she'd be hidden for another 17 years..

As Lorraine was the one that killed Stuart of course she didn't mistake him for the bouncer - she knew he was dead.

Lorraine told Cassie she had seen Stuart because she knew Cassie blamed herself for Stuart's death and had run away as a result of finding his body in the ruins. She was trying to give Cassie peace of mind about that but also a reason to stay away from Vipers so that she didn't run into Stuart, her violent ex.

@MaryAndHerNet

Yes bald man from vipers went to see grandma.

Here in lies one of the stupidest plot points... As I recall it, I may be wrong.

Ok so.
Lorraine, vipers manager, goes to see Meghan / Cassie.
They meet in a cafe and Lorraine tells Meghan that "Stuart's back, I saw him in vipers..."
Dun dun dun...

That kicks off the whole story chain of events, way back in episode 1.

It's later revealed that who she saw was supposedly the bouncer of Vipers.

I mean, come on, the manager of Vipers doesn't recognise the bouncer of Vipers even from behind? Is every tall bald guy supposedly Stuart back from the dead?
Meghan should have told Lorraine to get to buggery and moved another 15 miles, she'd be hidden for another 17 years..

Lorraine was lying. She said that to Cassie because she saw her in the club. She is dying so wanted to see her and to find what happened to the body (Lorraine thought Cassie had moved it).

Now that makes more sense.
I probably had turned my brain off by the time that was explained.

The most unbelievable part for me was that no one had clocked for years that a man went missing at every carnival.

Enjoyed it but it was filled with lots of holes. Coben said the main character lives in a town 1 hour + away hence why she’s always seen driving over the bridge. I can’t personally imagine running away and starting a whole new life an hour away. Perhaps this would work better in the US but in the UK there’s a strong chance you’d bump into someone at some point.

When Eddie Izzard’s character just showed up at the door and she said he was her old college tutor. The husband just bought that her old college tutor knew where she now lived and randomly turned up at the door? That was a major WTF moment.

Lots of points where DH and I were like ‘oh so nobody would have noticed that then in reality?’ but enjoyed it overall. The weird dancing was just odd, I wasn’t so keen on that. Didn’t like the fact the two main coppers used to be married, just totally unrealistic and unnecessary.

Oh and the fact it had a character called Fester who just so happened to be tall and bald was a teensy bit ridiculous too .

@rurbane

I struggled with the timescale. Cassia changed her identity 17 years earlier but her daughter's best friend had a car, so must have been at least 17 years old. Is that because they can drive at a younger age in America? Some other bits felt like they hadn't translated it into Britishness enough, like JN playing a cheesy love song on the piano.

I did really enjoy it despite the inconsistencies.

I said this too. DH said perhaps the DD is slightly younger than her friend so I just went along with that explanation but didn’t think about it perhaps being to do with US driving age being younger, that would make sense.

Spoilers if you’ve not seen it all.

Someone has already asked this, but I also want to know how Cassie/Megan and her daughter got out of the locked police room and why they didn’t say “oh bent copper locked us in” when they got out? I thought I’d accidentally skipped an episode or something.

Someone was asking about the muscle with Harry. I think they were actually dealers who had just dropped him off some new drugs and just took the opportunity to try and rob Cassie. Hence never seeing them again.

@Hemingwayscatz

Oh and the fact it had a character called Fester who just so happened to be tall and bald was a teensy bit ridiculous too .

I took it to be a nickname.

@StrychnineInTheSandwiches

The most unbelievable part for me was that no one had clocked for years that a man went missing at every carnival.

Yes to this. Surely the local paper would have worked that out?!

Someone has already asked this, but I also want to know how Cassie/Megan and her daughter got out of the locked police room and why they didn’t say “oh bent copper locked us in” when they got out? I thought I’d accidentally skipped an episode or something.

I thought I'd missed a bit too and watched the end of the previous episode again

Thank goodness for MN - just watched this and needed to hear others' viewpoints.

As discussed - so many plot holes but thank you for clearing up about the location. It was so weird and irritating that they just never mentioned any of the place names. I hadn't realised it was an American writer - but surely they could use English place names seeing as it was a British production??

Agree that a lot of it was badly acted and while I actually enjoyed the surrealism of Ken and Barbie, the bit where poor James Nesbitt had to sing Lorraine a song was excruciating! I bet he tried to get out of that one!

I really enjoyed this.

Definitely some quite a lot suspension of disbelief required. But I thought the acting was really good. James Nesbitt was excellent (usually he does that twinkly 'Norn Iron' act which is v annoying), but all the peripheral characters were really rounded, Fester for example, and how much he loved Ray. And Richard Armitage was so good.

I think the weakest character & acting was Cassie / Meghan / Cush Jumbo.

The impeccably styled & colourful coats aspect of her character, even when racing to deal with her kidnapped daughter, became v grating. She was unbelievable as a character & also her acting, I never bought her relationship with her partner.

While there were lots of plot gaps & silly situations, I was able to forgive them in the enjoyment of watching it.

I felt irritated that there was no plausible explanation given of hinted at as to how Cassie transformed into Meghan with the amazing house, monied life & high flying job.

Ken & Barbie were terrifying & a good plot device but I really hated the violence meted out to poor Tawny.

The final scene with Lorraine & Broome was very moving I thought.

@rurbane

I struggled with the timescale. Cassia changed her identity 17 years earlier but her daughter's best friend had a car, so must have been at least 17 years old. Is that because they can drive at a younger age in America? Some other bits felt like they hadn't translated it into Britishness enough, like JN playing a cheesy love song on the piano.

I did really enjoy it despite the inconsistencies.

Yes. They don’t translate fully into British reality. The colours always look too bright, too. Small subtleties of British life and class etc don’t fit. The interiors don’t look quite right.

Just finished episode 1. What a great big steaming pile of shite. Won't be bothering with the rest. The other adaptations are pretty average too. Will be steering clear of any future ones Netflix do.

@Dippydinosaurus - my home town too.
We spent the first episode saying how much vipers reminded us of shorrocks. Couldn't believe it actually was!

Someone was asking about the muscle with Harry. I think they were actually dealers who had just dropped him off some new drugs and just took the opportunity to try and rob Cassie. Hence never seeing them again.

Thank you for this.

I finished it last night, I thought it could have been a couple of episodes shorter.

Did anyone ever realise Tawny was dead??
How did cassie and her daughter get out of the locked room,?

Why did Ken not look fir them?

How did cassie take a large knife to the back yet be up and bd about withing hours?

So many questions. I enjoyed the last episode though.

That was so bad (But I had to watch until the end)

• the cops found the bent cop burner phone is his pad...how did he call Barbie right before he was killed without this phone? Whats the point of a burner phone if he uses another phone to call a pair of killers?
• speaking of him, no one seems to be looking for him for a long time
• When Cassie / Meghan was terrified for the truth to resurface, I was expecting something awful, not something like "I was a dancer in a bar" I mean I think my past is darker than that haha.
• who can seriously believe in Richard Armitage character? He's 15 years older than Meghan for a start, he looks like her grandad and no one in their right mind would like to mix their tong with THAT.
• meghan disappeared 17 years ago, a daughter seems to be minimum 16 (since her friend has to be 17). So she left and the next day started a relationship with Dave (who by the way isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer)
• Ken & Barbie. Don't even get me started that was utterly ridiculous.

I'm generally not the smartest person around and don't guess the killer early, but as soon as we knew that Lorraine lied about seeing stuart, it gave it away.

This is an american series set in Britain for american people.
A brick house, some kids in school uniform, undefined british accent and that's Britain in a nutshell. The Stranger last year was quite the same (and likewise, they tried to make us believe that Armitage is hot husband material, I wouldn't let him pet my dog)

Just goes to show that different people like different things! I didn't know Richard Armitage before this - I thought he was both attractive & a good actor here.

I enjoyed it but it was very strange! Lots of bits just didn't fit together, they just kept adding more and more characters and questions. Some of it didn't add up- there's no way Cassie/ Megan could be up and out of hospital so soon after being stabbed surely? Why did it take so long for people to realise the bent copper was missing? Why did so much of the police station, of all places, have no CCTV coverage? Time scales all wrong too.

Did anyone ever realise Tawny was dead??

I think she might have said something about leaving Vipers to start training as a nurse, so they wouldn't have been expecting her back at the club and would have assumed she had gone off to start her training.

@EarringsandLipstick

Ken & Barbie were terrifying & a good plot device but I really hated the violence meted out to poor Tawny.

The final scene with Lorraine & Broome was very moving I thought.

Yes I think the two actors did a brilliant job of that. I’m not usually a Nesbit fan but his face when he realised was excellent. Sarah Parish was good recounting her past. I found that very moving. Not easy with all the blood around!

@ImFree2doasiwant

I finished it last night, I thought it could have been a couple of episodes shorter.

Did anyone ever realise Tawny was dead??
How did cassie and her daughter get out of the locked room,?

Why did Ken not look fir them?

How did cassie take a large knife to the back yet be up and bd about withing hours?

So many questions. I enjoyed the last episode though.

Tawny had left her job at the club and not started her nursing course so no one missed her. Thought that was very sad and how people do go missing.