Safe
NETFLIX, FROM TODAY
For the man who played serial-killing forensics expert Dexter and funeral director David in Six Feet Under, it’s fitting that we first encounter Michael C Hall’s latest deeply flawed antihero, Tom Delaney, by his wife’s grave in this opening set-piece of his new drama.
This Uk-set eight-parter then skips forward six years, with Tom (Hall’s English accent is pretty passable) managing two teenage daughters, his work as a paediatric surgeon and life in a “safe” gated community. What becomes rapidly clear is that his neighbours are also nursing guilty secrets and haunted by past failures: from best mate Marc Warren and Amanda Abbingdon’s dogged detective to Nigel Lindsay’s jovial life-andsoul type. Then Tom’s oldest daughter goes missing during a house party, and skeletons tumble out of closets in an enjoyably twistriddled affair.
The first collaboration between Safe’s co-creators, bestselling novelist Harlan Coben and screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst (Accused; Ordinary Lies; Come Home), marries the former’s love of a cliffhanger and skill with fast-paced narrative with the latter’s facility for character and emotional insight.