New Netflix Mystery Thriller Show Is Coming This Month
Mystery fans are in for a treat this month on Netflix. The streamer has a new series premiering called Stay Close – an adaptation of a novel by the same name, written by Harlan Coben. This is the fourth Netflix original series produced under Coben's massive deal with the company, and anticipation is high.
Stay Close is based on a crime drama book published in 2012, and Coben is credited as a writer alongside screenwriters Daniel Brocklehurst and Lawrence Kasdan. He is also an executive producer alongside Brocklehurst, Nicola Shindler and Richard Fee, while directors include Daniel O'Hara and Lindy Heymann. The show stars Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, Richard Armitage, Eddie Izzard, Jo Joyner, Youssef Kerkour, Sarah Parish, Daniel Francis, Dylan Francis, Andi Osho, Bethany Antonia, Rachel Andrews, Poppy Gilbert and Hyoie O'Grady.
The show is about a normal suburban family uncovering its own dark secrets, including a past criminal entanglement that may not be buried as deeply as they hope. It will be a limited series with just 8 episodes, and it will air exclusively on Netflix on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.
Coben has a remarkable deal with Netflix which signal's the streamer's intent to go after the crime drama genre harder than ever, and to secure its own exclusive intellectual property wherever possible. In August of 2018, Deadline reported on Coben's 5-year overall deal with Netflix, which included plans to adapt 14 of the author's novels into series. The contract stipulates that Coben will be a producer on all of the shows.
The deal was preceded by the premiere of Safe, an 8-episode adaptation of Coben's novel which premiered in the spring of 2018. It starred Michael C. Hall and featured much of the same talent behind the camera, including Brocklehurst and O'Hara. It originally aired on Canal+ in France and caught Netflix's attention. After signing the overall deal, the company got right to work on The Stranger, which was the next Coben series to air in January of 2020.
The Stranger notably starred Armitage, who is back again for Stay Close. Brocklehurst and O'Hara worked on this one as well, but not on the follow-up, The Woods, which premiered in June of 2020. Since The Woods was originally in Polish, writers Agata Malesińska and Wojciech Miłoszewski handled the adaptation. Finally, the most recent Coben series was The Innocent, which premiered on Netflix on April 30, 2021.
These series are all independent and do not need to be watched in any particular order, but there's no doubt that Coben's fans – new and old – are awaiting each installment eagerly. Stay Close premieres on Thursday, Dec. 31 on Netflix.