[Harlan Coben’s Shelter Review Prime] Many aspects of Harlan Coben’s series deviate from the norm significantly..

Harlan Coben’s Shelter The 8-episode series on Prime Video, based on a popular novel by Harlan Coben, is along with his daughter, Charlotte Coben. They previously collaborated on the series ‘Stay Close’ for Netflix, but now both have moved to Prime for their first project. The series revolves around a group of children investigating their father’s death in an accident before uncovering the mysteries of missing children in their town

Harlan Coben’s Shelter Review (No Spolers)

The writer is a longtime fan of Harlan Coben’s series, and while Netflix may not have consistently delivered in every series, possibly due to the multiple international teams working on different projects, resulting in varying standards, the novels themselves have a consistent narrative structure. They often start with a disappearance, involve an investigation, expand into a larger mystery, and conclude with a plot twist ending (typically within one season). They don’t always end with a happily ever after, There was hope that this series would maintain the established standards, but unfortunately, it deviated from the norm and even undermined the previous standards that were set.

The story begins much like before, with a tragic accident happening to a family. This led to the father’s demise, and the mother being hospitalized. However, the surviving son returned to encounter a mysterious town figure, who claimed that his father was still alive. He set out on a quest to unravel this mystery, accompanied by new friends from school and a recently arrived teenage girl who soon vanished. It was possible that these two events were connected in some way, and the plot of the story was quite intriguing. In the early stages, various mysteries were introduced, leaving the viewers curious. There was a lot to follow and investigate, as references to Nazi and Jew were involved. There was also a mysterious house reminiscent of the town’s haunted mansion, which had connections to a disappearance of children several decades ago. The mysteries in this story were abundant, and it was worth following to see how they all intertwined and were eventually resolved.

However, the main problem with the series is that it did not conclude in a single season, which meant that it took a long time to unravel the various mysteries in the story. Moreover, it left many unresolved issues in the first season, rather than providing a clear resolution to all the important plot threads and starting a new mystery in the typical series fashion. This forced the story to create mundane teenage life problems to extend the narrative, often veering away from the main investigative storyline. This resulted in the story frequently meandering off track and becoming somewhat tedious.

What keeps it interesting to follow is the intriguing mysteries that keep you engaged until the end. It was discovered that not all questions were answered comprehensively, even in the last episode of this season, as it continued to revolve around the same life problems as before. This was a significant storytelling mistake.

Another downside of this is that the survival of various characters in challenging situations often seems illogical to children. Sometimes, even life-threatening situations result in these kids coming through unscathed, almost like a stroke of luck. It goes to the extent of them being seriously hurt one day but miraculously recovering and returning to normal the next day. Typically, Harlan Coben’s works don’t make it appear so amateurish like this

One of the good aspects of the story is definitely the casting of the actors. The entire group of children has distinctive qualities that suit their roles well, even though some of them may come across as annoying at times, like the best friend of emo girl and the nerd. However, they also have subtle charm hidden within them, which helps elevate the overall mood of the story.

With the series not concluding and leaving many mysteries unsolved, coupled with the drawn-out storyline that delves extensively into the lives of normal teenagers, it can become rather monotonous when compared to the investigative segments. Hence, this is a series by Harlan Coben that you might want to skip, especially given its relatively low popularity, which might even lead Prime to decide not to continue it.

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