Netflix plays it Safe
The channel’s latest series is glossy, gripping, yet decidedly homespun
The opening credits of Safe have all the hallmarks of a Netflix classic. Plumes of smoke unfurl across a screen, revealing glimpses of scenery and objects that are likely to be crucial to twists to come — a ball discarded in the grass, a white picket fence, the edge of a swimming pool — while a gritty blues-rock number plays over the top.
Then the first cast name comes up — yes, Michael C Hall, star of Dexter, sounds about right — followed by some less familiar names, including French actress Audrey Fleurot, and
Hannah Arterton, who you think is probably the sister of Gemma (she is). But wait, don’t these houses look mock-Tudor? Isn’t it all a bit less Laurel Canyon and more Surrey Hills?
Because, despite being the brainchild of New Jerseyborn writer Harlan Coben,
Safe is a decidedly British affair. The script comes from Bafta and Emmy-winning screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst and the whole thing is made by the production company behind BBC hit Happy Valley.
Michael C Hall is actually playing a Brit, Tom Delaney, a paediatric surgeon who is trying to uphold his late wife’s dying wish of keeping their two teenage daughters out of harm (and other than an early wobble, where he appears to say he’s “got uh fing” to go to, his accent is pretty watertight).
When 17-year-old Jenny (Emma James-Kelly) goes missing with her older boyfriend Chris (Freddie Thorp) at a house party, Tom hacks into her mobile phone and discovers messages that make him fearful that something heavy is about to go down, or perhaps already has.
So far so Liam-Neesoncomeback-vehicle, but where
Safe gets good is in how it subverts genre expectations. It’s all very well protecting your kids, but what if they aren’t the victims of brutality, but possibly its cause? As one character has it: “The facts are these: parties, drugs, and someone winds up dead.” But who? And by whom? And why? In private housing estates like the one in which Safe is set, the gates of which form the final image of those opening credits, far from locking danger out, they could well be keeping it in. —
Safe launches on 10 May