Photo Credit: Netflix Tudum
“It’s meticulous, it’s complicated, it’s diabolical,” says crime kingpin Nicky Fisher (Clancy Brown) to wanted fugitive David Burroughs (Sam Worthington), describing the conspiracy behind David’s wrongful conviction in the new Netflix series I Will Find You. Nicky could easily be describing the philosophy behind Netflix’s entire Harlan Coben canon, which has been one of the streaming service’s most popular offerings since the premiere of Safe in 2018. It’s no surprise that I Will Find You hit the top of Netflix’s TV charts almost immediately after premiering on June 18.
It’s also no surprise that I Will Find You stringently follows the Coben formula, even as it represents a minor milestone for Coben’s Netflix series: It’s the first to be set in the U.S., where all of Coben’s novels take place. Returning the story to its native land only proves further how durable the Coben template has become, though, because the only real difference is the American accents (and Australian actor Worthington struggles with his, as he always does). Coben’s twist-filled mysteries can easily be transported to any location as they remix his familiar elements in a way that could be described as comfortably shocking.
As Coben stories often do, I Will Find You begins with the discovery of an image of someone who is presumed either dead or missing. Here, it’s David’s son Matthew, who was supposedly found beaten to death in his bed five years earlier. David was convicted of the murder that he is adamant he did not commit, and he’s kept himself isolated in prison, refusing all visitors. That is, until his former sister-in-law Rachel Mills (Britt Lower) arrives, showing David a photo taken at an amusement park that appears to shows a very much alive Matthew standing in the background.
Even when Coben and series creator Robert Hull throw in the most contrived, far-fetched explanations for characters’ actions, I Will Find You remains compulsively watchable, like nearly every other Coben adaptation.The emergence of AI and deepfakes is going to wreak havoc on one of Coben’s favorite plot devices — already last year’s Just One Look had to go to awkward lengths to explain why the main character was still getting pictures developed on film — but for now, no one questions the presence of Matthew in the photo once they see it. That picture is the catalyst for David and Rachel to embark on a labyrinthine quest to find out the truth, beginning with David’s impromptu prison break.
Coben stories are now a genre unto themselves, but the main non-Coben influence on I Will Find You is The Fugitive, with David as Richard Kimble and a pair of pursuing FBI agents as the equivalent of U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard. Chi McBride channels some Tommy Lee Jones-level grumpiness as Special Agent Max Williams, with Logan Browning as his more compassionate partner Special Agent Sarah Greer. It’s not hard to imagine David telling Agent Williams that he didn’t kill his son, and Williams responding, “I don’t care!”
Except in a Coben series, everyone eventually does care. There are no such thing as supporting characters in these shows, only suspects or accomplices, and that holds true for everyone David encounters. Some characters are both, appearing to be helpful until revealing a secret sinister motivation, often as a cliffhanger leading into the next episode.
Coben is a master of the red herring, and those episode-closing reveals frequently turn out to be relatively innocuous when further context is provided in the following episode, but they do the job of enticing viewers to keep going. There’s at least one fake-out that would be a major front-page scandal in real life, but is instead just brushed aside once its relevance to the central narrative is discounted.
Even when Coben and series creator Robert Hull throw in the most contrived, far-fetched explanations for characters’ actions, I Will Find You remains compulsively watchable, like nearly every other Coben adaptation. Hull has clearly learned from TV’s greatest Coben whisperer, British writer-producer Danny Brocklehurst, who has spearheaded some of the most entertainingly ridiculous Coben productions, going back to Coben’s pre-Netflix days. Brocklehurst has honed Coben’s stories into the perfect rhythms for bingeable streaming TV, and his Coben shows are some of the biggest hits in Netflix history, including Stay Close, Fool Me Once and Run Away.
Brocklehurst has contributed nearly as much as Coben in shaping this particular subgenre, and Hull follows his lead while delivering punchier, more compact episodes, many with running times barely over 30 minutes. That makes I Will Find You feel even more like fast food, best consumed in a rush without too much reflection. At the same time, Hull brings some artistry to this unabashed absurdity, recruiting reliable journeyman filmmaker Brad Anderson (The Machinist, Transsiberian, Beirut) to set the tone by directing the first two episodes. There are some impressive action sequences in later episodes, including a rooftop pursuit on foot and a car chase at an airfield.
Worthington remains a wet blanket, but Lower brings depth to Rachel, who becomes just as invested in finding Matthew as David is. It can be difficult for some actors to find the emotional truth in Coben’s patented plot twists, but Lower conveys Rachel’s urgent desire to help David, her regret over the mistake that cost her a prestigious job at the Boston Globe, and her love for her family. The fact that the two FBI agents are actually father and daughter is pointlessly concealed for an entire episode, but McBride and Browning compensate with a nicely spiky parent-child dynamic.
Brown makes the most of his brief appearance as Boston mobster Nicky Fisher, but the real villainous delight is Madeleine Stowe as glamorously evil old-money magnate Gertrude Payne, recalling her fantastic work on underrated ABC nighttime soap Revenge. Coben would have thrived in the golden age of nighttime soaps, and his shows are only a slight degree removed from the lurid brilliance of series like Revenge, Melrose Place and Desperate Housewives. Stowe clearly understands the assignment, delivering every ludicrous line with a perfectly acid tongue, and slapping her smug failson Hayden (Milo Ventimiglia) with diva-like precision. She’s a worthy successor to Joanna Lumley’s similarly glorious rich-bitch matriarch in Fool Me Once.
Archetypes like that repeat throughout Coben shows, and will undoubtedly repeat again, as Coben’s long-term deal with Netflix keeps getting extended. There’s a seemingly endless appetite for his meticulous, complicated and diabolical stories, and consuming just one can make you understand why, even if you’ll still feel slightly hungry afterward.
