Missing You

If there's one thing Missing You doesn't juggle quite as skillfully, it's the story's villains. .... Despite this struggle, Missing You is an extremely bingeable series that offers good answers to its mysteries if you stick with it. Before that happens, however, you'll be on a rollercoaster of twists and seemingly random events that pay off sooner rather than later.

The plot gets so dense you practically need a road map to follow its many paths, but that is part of the fun of a mystery-thriller that hits you with surprise after surprise.

Missing You is a solid thriller that may have you shaking your head at some of its twists. But good performances and an intriguing premise will make some of those silly twists easier to take.

After the first weirdly repetitive opening episodes, the mission finds its feet and matters begin to twist, turn and improve. Mysteries deepen, nasty secrets are uncovered, treachery (or apparent treachery) and revelations abound and you’re wholly addicted once more. You won’t remember a thing about it 10 minutes after the credits roll, but that’s OK.

It’s only in the climactic final episode that the characters get room to breathe and, making the most of scenes that don’t involve convoluted plot points, Eleazar and Ashley Walters give Kat and Josh’s back-story some emotional depth in scenes that pack an emotional punch. So much so that you wish Missing You had found room for them to delve a little deeper.

While Missing You does connect Kat’s case to her investigations into Josh tangentially, it often feels like watching two different television shows unfold. Where the series succeeds is in its performances, which are strongest among the older and more experienced cast members.

Missing You falls short of the caliber of the usual Coben/Netflix fare. Despite Eleazar delivering a great performance, it’s tough to say this is worth your time. The potential is clearly there, but the execution doesn’t come close to living up to it.

I was interested in the outcome of the age-inappropriate romance between Charlie the police tech genius (Charlie Hamblett) and detective Nia Emine (Catherine Ayers), which seems like a teaser for a sequel. But so does much of “Missing You,” which leaves a tangle of loose threads as it stumbles toward a conclusion that doesn’t quite feel like one.

Secrets are revealed to Kat in surprising, yet often forgettable ways, largely due to a lack of villains with concrete motives and a final twist ending that one could see coming from a mile away.

Missing You is solid enough if your expectations are as low as your attention span in the sleepy lull after New Year’s. Coben fans will know exactly what they're letting themselves in for.

The cast do their best with what they’ve got, but I found the plot-twist laden script and story as hard to digest as the week-old turkey still lurking in my fridge.

While there is something efficient about the delivery of thrills in Missing You, it is too stupid and too manipulative to be encouraged. .... Missing You is not as bad as it could have been – but not half as good as it really ought to be.