Stay Close has been another mystery thriller hit for Netflix since it was released on New Year’s Eve. The eight-episode limited series was based on the novel of the same name by Harlan Coben, who also scripted the show and is an executive producer. The show has been remaining in the Netflix Top 10 global charts since its premiere and climbing week after week.
Although Stay Close was released on Dec. 31, the U.K. show debuted at number five on Netflix’s Top 10 global chart, with 31.29 million hours logged by subscribers, during the week of Dec. 27-Jan. 2. In its second week, Jan. 3-9, Stay Close climbed to number two, with 91.18 million hours watched. The series also held the second spot on the U.S. chart, just behind Cobra Kai Season 4.
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Stay Close stars Cush Jumbo, who is best known for playing Lucca Quinn on The Good Wife and The Good Fight. She plays Megan Pierce, a suburban mother running for a difficult past. She lives with her soulmate, Dave (Daniel Francis), and their three children. Her life is thrown into chaos when police detective Michael Broome (James Nesbitt) begins investigating a cold case. The cast also includes Richard Armitage, Sarah Parish, Eddie Izzard, Jo Joyner, and Youssef Kerkour. All eight episodes are now available.
Coben’s original novel was set in Atlantic City, but Stay Close was moved to Blackpool, England for the series. In an interview with Deadline, Coben defended making changes to his own source material for the screen adaptation. “It’s really fun to change things around,” Coben said. “The worst adaptations are the ones slavishly devoted to the [original] text. I like to work with the cast of characters to move a story along.”
The project is the latest from Coben’s deal with Netflix. In 2018, he signed a five-year deal with the streamer to develop shows based on 14 of his novels. So far, Netflix has already turned , The Stranger (2020), The Woods (2020), The Innocent (2021), and Gone for Good (2021) into series. The shows are produced by Red Production Company. Coben has two more adaptations already in the works, and he plans to continue working with Netflix when his deal is up.
“They’ve been great collaborators and give me freedom to work with others if I want to,” Coben told Deadline. “On December 31, I love the idea that someone in L.A. will push a button and 200M people in 190 countries will be able to watch my show.”
