The Stranger: Season 1

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Ratings

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4.7

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4.7	Your Score
4.7	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Ratings

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The Stranger

Now Playing: The Stranger

Season Details & Credits

Netflix | Season Premiere Date: January 30, 2020

Summary: Adam Price's (Richard Armitage) happy life is changed when a stranger (Hannah John-Kamen) approaches him and tells him a secret about his wife (Dervla Kirwan) in the psychological thriller based on the Harlan Coben novel of the same name.

Creator: Harlan Coben

Genre(s): Drama, Suspense

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E8. Episode 08
Air Date: January 30, 2020
tbd
S1:E7. Episode 07
Air Date: January 30, 2020
tbd
S1:E6. Episode 06
Air Date: January 30, 2020

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

Melanie McFarland

Jan 30, 2020

Labyrinthine as its multiple cases – with details muddied by well-concealed deceptions or good old fashioned controlled substances – the performances are enough of an attractant to keep a person engaged initially, ensnaring them eventually. ... In elevating the emotional stakes to the same level as the conspiracy, Brocklehurst imbues "The Stranger" with a weight that stays with the viewer more effectively than all the other weekend crimetime options parading across TV schedules. Read full review

The Guardian Tim Dowling

Jan 30, 2020

A strong and sprawling cast (Stephen Rea is also in it, as is Jennifer Saunders) work hard to keep all the balls in the air, and you will feel a strong urge to watch the second episode immediately, if only to clear up a few things. Without wishing to spoil anything, I can tell you that the second episode only muddies the waters further, and the third episode further still. Read full review

The Independent Ed Cumming

Jan 30, 2020

The bigger question is whether you care enough to wait for the answers. The Stranger is a curious beast, an almost-pure mystery, which shows its machinery so nakedly that it almost defies you to switch off. Whether you binge the entire series in an afternoon or hurl the controller out of the window in frustration will depend mainly on your tolerance for being mucked around. Read full review

The Telegraph Anita Singh

Jan 30, 2020

Plots pile on top of one another, leaving us to work out how or if they’re linked. ... Not dark enough to be great, but highly bingeable. Read full review

Joel Keller

Jan 31, 2020

It’s your typical Coben yarn, with multiple and seemingly unrelated threads going on at once, characters who have dark secrets that are alluded to but not mentioned outright until enough tension is drawn out, and mysteries upon mysteries. Read full review

User Score

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4.7

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User Reviews

ralph812

Feb 12, 2020

I binged this. I didn't plan to but there were so many surprises and twists that I just couldn't stop. There are about a dozen different story lines that seem unconnected but in some way affect each other. The ending ties them all together and does not disappoint.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

macdavid

Feb 8, 2020

Very good. Suspense untill the last episode. And it's true: everyone has a secret.

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

ExTexan

Feb 4, 2020

Why all the hate? This series threw in everything but the kitchen sink, but that’s what I liked about it. There was a new twist about every five minutes, making this the least predictable series I’ve watched in a long time. I appreciate that. Thought it was a fun watch.

4 of 4 users found this helpful40

truerock

Feb 10, 2022

The Stranger is a British mystery thriller mini-series based on the 2015 Harlan Coben novel of the same title.
The casting and acting were good - except for 2 lead roles: Siobhan Finneran as Detective Sergeant Johanna Griffin and Kadiff Kirwan as Detective Constable Wesley Ross, who assistsThe Stranger is a British mystery thriller mini-series based on the 2015 Harlan Coben novel of the same title.
The casting and acting were good - except for 2 lead roles: Siobhan Finneran as Detective Sergeant Johanna Griffin and Kadiff Kirwan as Detective Constable Wesley Ross, who assists Johanna Griffin. They were an unfortunate weakness of the series.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

podaddy

Feb 19, 2020

My instinct was to bail on this show after two episodes, but I eventually chose to muddle my way thru over a couple of days. Wish I stuck with my instincts. The series was laughably ridiculous in so many ways. Competent acting was to be had here and there but definitely not everywhere. Can'tMy instinct was to bail on this show after two episodes, but I eventually chose to muddle my way thru over a couple of days. Wish I stuck with my instincts. The series was laughably ridiculous in so many ways. Competent acting was to be had here and there but definitely not everywhere. Can't say the same for the writing - putrid at every turn. The plot line involving the high school characters was definitely far worse than the central characters. Completely dumb and unnecessary, but I guess it served a purpose in making the adult character plotline seem better than it was. Perhaps I'm being overly harsh due to having wasted so much time on this tripe when they are so many more worthy shows to dedicate my time to, but this show shouldn't be worth anyone's time.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Jayss

Apr 7, 2020

I stopped when some old guy sitting in his lazy boy offered to 'hack' the "black box monitoring system of a rental car". What year is this?? Cops shooting randoms and getting away with using his service arm?? Victims in the middle of a conversation would just storm off from, I don't know, aI stopped when some old guy sitting in his lazy boy offered to 'hack' the "black box monitoring system of a rental car". What year is this?? Cops shooting randoms and getting away with using his service arm?? Victims in the middle of a conversation would just storm off from, I don't know, a call from their dry cleaner to leave the protagonist hanging. To be honest it's my fault, just from the intro music you can tell the quality of this show. Uncreative, lazy, rip off of all the tropes there is in a crime drama. Jesus Christ mate.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

Angel_Sigh

Feb 15, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. One of the single most idiotic, ridiculous TV dramas I've ever seen. Every character has a huge secret that connects them to every other character in the most comically silly way, everyone speaks in an intentionally cryptic fashion so that the completely nonsensical plot isn't revealed all in one go, no-one behaves normally, no-one has a brain, no-one is funny, or human, or loving or interesting. They're all just props, there to propel the plot along at its both-too-slow-and-too-fast pace. There isn't a single second where you think of any of these lurching, frowning, derpy on-screen shapes as actual human beings. They're just gormless gears in a machine made by a madman.

I've given it an extra mark because(SPOILER) Jennifer Saunders gets murdered in cold-blood quite early on. Obviously that's been the highlight so far, although a fat teenage character ran face-first into a tree trunk at one point too, and the collision made a satisfying 'thunk-crack' noise in the process.

It's an utterly deranged show: like some AI researchers fed a hundred of the most mind-numbing crime dramas into an AI program and asked it to come up with a script. And halfway through, the AI program attained a kind of confused, inchoate level of sentience, and developed a childlike fascination with alpacas.
Tonal lurches, terrible attempts at humour, Alpaca attacks.... To be honest, even though it's terrible, I am at least bothering to review it; because there's something fascinating about it.
it's SO awful and stupid and ridiculous it lurches into the realm of the absurd, and while - when you first start watching - you'll think it's just a bit rubbish, as the episodes go by you begin to realise it's more than that: it's uniquely bad, in a kind of hallucinogenic, free-form, mildly terrifying way. And it becomes so bad around the third or fourth episode(time began to break down for me during my binge-watch, I'm not sure how many episodes I actually ended up sitting through) that you begin to wonder what other people might think about it, and begin to want to get their opinions on it too. And that's...sort of a recommendation....

So...its terrible plot regularly made me think I'd fallen asleep and was lucid dreaming...but at the same time, if you're like me and you like noting cliches and plot holes and stupid narrative details, you really should watch the first two or three episodes just to get a taste of one of the most unbelievably awful TV dramas ever made.

I promise, give it time and it'll win you under.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

SEE ALL 9 REVIEWS

Seasons & Episodes

62

Series Overview
Season 1

62
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E8. Episode 08
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E7. Episode 07
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E6. Episode 06
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E5. Episode 05
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E4. Episode 04
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E3. Episode 03
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E2. Episode 02
  Air Date: January 30, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E1. Episode 01
  Air Date: January 30, 2020