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The Stranger (Netflix Harlen Coben)

Started by kalowski, February 15, 2020, 09:29:44 PM

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kalowski

On episode 2 of this bizarre and ludicrous show. One of those badly plotted shows where there's around 5 characters who all know each other, live near each other, work in the same school, have children all in the same year at school who are all friends, a lawyer who is married to one of the teachers is fighting a case and finds the other lawyer is his father...I could go on.

My wife is enjoying it.

kalowski

Now Paul Kaye has appeared as a brilliant (note: not brilliant) gangster/cop who is threatening Jennifer Saunders.

kalowski

Fuck me, this is dreadful. Please don't make me suffer this alone.

kalowski

The scene on Stockport station ("Trains to Harpington") was brilliant. Like chasing Frog One in The French Connection.

Non Stop Dancer

Had to give up after 2 episodes. Just dog dirt writing.

kalowski

Quote from: Non Stop Dancer on February 15, 2020, 10:43:46 PM
Had to give up after 2 episodes. Just dog dirt writing.
That means you've not seen the utterly shite episode 4.

Bently Sheds

Oh, mate. There's discussion on this pile of bollocks in the Guilty Pleasures thread. The ending is unbelievable. Totally unbelievable.

What puzzles me most, which I said in the other thread, is how the fuck is this getting such positive reactions online? Have Netflix bought a Russian bot farm to fart out praise on social media?

Fucking pile of shit.

SteK

15 mins of Ep 1, had enough....

I'm fucking sure I could write better screen plays than this, how do half of these things get commissioned? Seriously, it's shit.

It's not who you know it's who you blow...

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

It is indeed naff, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it rather gripping. It's better than The Witcher anyway.

I don't know anything else of Harlen Coben but, based off this, I assume he's a sort of second rate Dennis Lehane.This was a bit like Gone Baby Gone transposed to the English suburbs: Gone Darling Gone.

kalowski

I said to my wife that this was just as ridiculous and badly made as the show I watched last year set in a gated community. Which I've just looked up. It was called Safe.
And it was created by Harlen Coben.


The guy is a talentless hack cunt.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

[tag]Lie on your arm until your hand goes numb[/tag]

mrfridge

This is the shittest thing I've watched in years. I can't recall the last time I saw something where I wanted every single character to die. The woman police officer was just about passable but the rest of them... grave. Fat kid especially.

The actor who played the Fat Ginger friend reminded me of a young James Cordon.

It was campy as hell, hilariously upper middle class.

holyzombiejesus

Watched the 6th episode last night and may watch the final two this evening. Yeah, it's so enjoyably shit. Last night featured that fat kid, off his head on a PCP laced spliff, with an alpaca's head in his hands, the 'rubble' of a demolished house comprising entirely of brand new bricks (with no mortar on them), and that escort/ girl talking about how that guy wanted to do something unmentionable to her. Weird how the locations jump from Stockport to Manchester too.

poo

absolute gash. Lastest 4 and a bit episodes. complete cunt rubble

kalowski

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 17, 2020, 11:03:24 AM
Watched the 6th episode last night and may watch the final two this evening. Yeah, it's so enjoyably shit. Last night featured that fat kid, off his head on a PCP laced spliff, with an alpaca's head in his hands, the 'rubble' of a demolished house comprising entirely of brand new bricks (with no mortar on them), and that escort/ girl talking about how that guy wanted to do something unmentionable to her. Weird how the locations jump from Stockport to Manchester too.
I've just remembered that the last shit one, Safe, was filmed in Altrincham amongst other places. Someone lives in South Manchester who's making this crap.

Blinder Data

Quote from: kalowski on February 17, 2020, 12:24:24 PM
I've just remembered that the last shit one, Safe, was filmed in Altrincham amongst other places. Someone lives in South Manchester who's making this crap.

It was filmed in Liverpool as well. I think they mixed footage of Dexter using the Metrolink and Merseyrail as if it was the same mode of transport, which was the moment my disbelief could be suspended no longer.

My wife watched The Stranger, it looks like total rubbish. She knew it was rubbish but enjoyed it all the same. I bet there are millions in the same boat as her so they must be doing something right.

kalowski

What I do like is how each episode jumps the shark a bit more than the previous one. It's the worst thing ever made.

holyzombiejesus

Finished it last night. Fuck me, that was bad. Those chains that the main man was tied to the table with and then when he whipped the bad cop's hand with them! I keep thinking of different scenes, like when the woman cop jumped out of the bathroom window and hurt her leg and hid behind a bush, and laughing. Favourite bit is still the escort girl talking about the unmentionable sex act that the client was after. There's another Coben adaptation on Channel 4 at the moment, I might watch that next.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: kalowski on February 17, 2020, 09:37:56 PM
What I do like is how each episode jumps the shark a bit more than the previous one. It's the worst thing ever made.
Is it as bad as "The Following", that show about a cult where almost every episode was given an F by the AV Club reviewer? Wow, was that show terrible.

Ja'moke

Am I wrong for kind of enjoying this? Because it was so ridiculous. I also think it knew it was ridiculous. I mean, the whole alpaca thing.

Maybe I've just lost my mind, but I dunno, in the past year or so I've found myself enjoying this ridiculous type of show more than gritty SERIOUS dramas.


kalowski

I can only give my own opinion, but having now seen all 8 I am happy to say it's the worst thing ever, and that includes cancer.

flotemysost

This really feels like someone was tasked specifically with commissioning a loopy suburban domestic thriller in the vein of Doctor Foster and Broadchurch, where everyone has massive houses and several cars and affairs all the time.

Also seems like they're maybe aiming for a slight Killing Eve angle, with the beautiful young elusive female criminal/s. Anyway, I haven't finished it yet but on episode 7 and finding it enjoyably compelling in its awfulness. I reckon it was all the alpaca.

I haven't read any of Harlan Coben's books but they seem to sell pretty solidly, so presumably after this he now also has massive houses and several cars and affairs all the time.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: Ja'moke on February 18, 2020, 04:32:38 PM
Am I wrong for kind of enjoying this? Because it was so ridiculous. I also think it knew it was ridiculous. I mean, the whole alpaca thing.

Maybe I've just lost my mind, but I dunno, in the past year or so I've found myself enjoying this ridiculous type of show more than gritty SERIOUS dramas.
I enjoyed it. I hated it and thought it was like a broken toilet with all brown water and lumps of stuff coming up out of it, but I also enjoyed it.

Anyone else notice how it had three separate women accidentally murdered by men during arguments?

holyzombiejesus

Who was the third? There was main bloke's wife, the body in the wall and ...?

Just thinking about how stupid it was of fat man friend to go to the effort of getting a train all the way to that viaduct to hide the missing wife's phone. Didn't the tracker on her phone show that she was staying at a nearby house? Surely they'd have noticed him at the station too? It's almost as if this risible piece of shit didn't make any sense.

ersatz99

Lots of gratuitous arriving and leaving in his black Volvo XC90.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 19, 2020, 01:15:36 PM
Who was the third? There was main bloke's wife, the body in the wall and ...?
Jennifer Saunders. Bit of a stretch but I don't think Dennis Pennis went in there with the intention of killing her.

holyzombiejesus

I was going to argue that point with you but then I realised we'd be debating The fucking Stranger.

mrfridge

Am I right in thinking absolutely fuck all of the kids' storyline had any bearing on the main narrative arc? Like they could have all been edited out and it would make no difference whatsoever to the final outcome?

I'm genuinely angry at having wasted six hours of my life on this. Mother fuckers.

oy vey

Quote from: kalowski on February 18, 2020, 05:15:21 PM
I can only give my own opinion, but having now seen all 8 I am happy to say it's the worst thing ever, and that includes cancer.

After 9 posts I'm still hooked. The Netflix series is a piece of shit, but keep this thread going.