Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Based on the novel The Stranger by Harlen Coben

Broadcast: Netflix
Released: 30/01/2020
Logline: A man’s life is shattered when a stranger approaches him with a secret about his wife.
Cast: Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders, Hannah John-Kamen, Dervla Kirwan
Episodes: Eight

Adam Price (Richard Armitage)is more than happy with his life. He has two boys, a wife, Corrine (Dervla Kirwan) he loves and is a partner at a law firm. All of this is thrown into chaos when he is approached by a Stranger (Hannah John-Kamen) with a disturbing secret about his wife that turns out to be true.

Before long, the police are pulled into The Stranger’s orbit, as the Price family aren’t her only targets. Unbeknownst to The Stranger, her talent for unearthing lies and the occasional blackmail leaves a wave of irreparable destruction in her wake.

An automatic pull for me watching this series was one Richard Armitage who is just a fine looking man. I also feel like I haven’t seen him in ages (yes he was in Ocean’s 8 and The Hobbit trilogy but shhhhh) and have liked him since his days playing the villainous Guy of Gisbourne in the BBC’s Robin Hood (2006-2009).

Mr Armitage aside, The Stranger was a really enjoyable series that managed so keep you intrigued from episode to episode as new narratives spun, secrets were revealed and an increasing about of question marks kept being added the mystery. I honestly nearly made my own crazy whodunit red string board trying to work out how everyone connected: Corrine’s secret, the missing money, the dead alpaca, naked Dante.

I was also a big fan of the buddy cup duo that was DS Johanna Griffin (Siobhan Finneran) and DC Wesley Ross (Kadiff Kirwan). At first I thought they looked strange paired together but their personalities and the dynamic of their working relationship was one of the high points of the show for me.

Granted there were a few story arcs, mostly to do with Thomas Price (Jacob Dudman) and his friends that weren’t as interesting. What has meant to be a B story, ended up feeling like more of a C. We were never truly as invested in what the Mystery Gang were up to because it didn’t really inform the main beats, instead it was used as an excuse to segue certain characters into the main arc.

I’ve already expressed that everything came to a head quite nicely, with the police’s own investigations and Adam and Corrine Price, where The Stranger fit into it all etc. However what I respected was the ending. Something tells me that if The Stranger had been shown on BBC One or ITV then things might have finished up in a completely different way. You can literally see the point where the road forks in two different directions and I’m thankful for the ending we got as it was the one that was most true to the story and the journey.

As much as I enjoyed The Stranger, I worry about there being a second series – and more importantly how it’s done. Is it entirely possible to take The Stranger and the concept and move it to another location with a whole other cast and slue of secrets? Yes. Were there certain things left unexplained within this story that makes me think they may try to revive it on this end? Sadly, yes. I personally think that the show is too smart to have accidentally left certain questions unanswered…  a perfect excuse to have the Stranger knocking on our screens once more.

Trailer Below…