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Harlan Coben‘s novels have been good source material for Netflix, mainly because the novels are sturdy and universal enough to move their locales from Coben’s usual New Jersey setting to different places around the world. In Gone For Good, based on Coben’s 2002 novel of the same name, the story takes place in Nice, France, along the French Riviera. But the mystery more or less remains the same as in the book. Read on for more.

GONE FOR GOOD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A bucolic shot of boats docked on the French Riviera. As we pan to a large pool overlooking the shore, a graphic says “Nice, June, 2010.” Two sisters, one in her 20s and one that’s elementary school age, are dancing in the yard while wearing formal dresses.

The Gist: Next door, Guillaume Lucchesi (Finnegan Oldfield) is in his room at his parents’ estate, looking at the older girl, Sonia (Garance Marillier), with some longing. His older brother Fred (Nicolas Duvauchelle), tells him to forget about Sonia, because she’s an idiot for breaking up with him. That night, in his room, Guillaume hears gunshots. He runs out and sees Fred being chased by a man shooting at him; he goes to the pool behind Sonia’s house to see her lifeless body floating there. We also see Fred being chased by the gunman, who finally gets him when Fred reaches a tall jetty on the coast; Fred falls in the water.

In the present day, Guillaume is in bed in a beautiful apartment overlooking Nice. It’s late at night, and his girlfriend Judith (Nailia Harzoune) comes in, mud on her jeans. They both work as case workers in an organization that helps at-risk youth, and she said she was working late and fell down as she tried to cut through the park. Guillaume has other things to worry about though: His mother’s funeral is the next day.

At the funeral, Judith is called away on a case. Before she leaves, he asks her to marry him, and she says, “I’m already yours.” She drives away in tears and texts him “I will always love you.” He thinks nothing of it, until he comes back to his flat the next day and sees most of her stuff is gone. He’s perplexed; she said she loved him. Why would she leave?

When he goes to the youth center to ask his friend and boss Da Costa (Guillaume Gouix) about it, Costa tells him that no such case came up. Guillaume flashes back to 2017, Judith’s first day on the job and the day they met. Costa wants her to shadow Guillaume on his cases, but he doubts that this well put-together woman has the mental toughness to work with kids whose lives are pretty messed up. In her attempt to prove to him that she can take it, she ends up getting the two of them arrested. At the police station, she has what looks like a severe asthma attack that ends up resolving on its own.

Back in the present, Guillaume and Costa find out that Judith actually went to meet someone the day before the funeral, then fell to the ground as she ran, spilling money that was in her bag. At this point, Guillaume has no idea where Judith is or what she’s into. Then the police show up at his door with shocking news.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? If we were to stay within the Harlan Coben filmography (Gone For Good is adapted from his 2002 novel of the same name), we’d peg Gone For Good as a bit of a combination of The Innocent and The Stranger. There are also elements of Safe, a Coben series that isn’t based on one of his novels.

Our Take: For this adaptation of Gone For Good, creators Vincent Poymiro and Pauline Guéna placed the action in Nice instead of a different French city, and we think that was likely for a couple of reasons.

One, the scenery on the Riviera is amazing. But Nice also has a crime problem where institutional racism against people of color is not at all hidden. Adding those two elements to what is a pretty solid Coben mystery makes for a thriller that could go in a bunch of different directions.

Where this show diverges from the usual streaming mystery series — and even some of Coben’s other adaptations — is that there are really two mysteries going on here at once. One is what happened to Judith and what does Guillaume find out about the life she had before they started dating? And, two, what really happened to his brother Fred? At some point. those two mysteries will come together. Given that the limited series is only 5 episodes, we’re thinking the two will connect sooner rather than later.

The first episode, though, gives us mostly an introduction to Guillaume and Judith’s relationship. The time jumps were generally well-handled, but it also seems that there will also be jumps back to the 2010 incident as well as other time periods. How the show manages to keep them straight without confusing viewers will be something to keep an eye on.

But for now, it’s so far, so good, from the solid performances of Oldfield and Harzoune to a story that gets really interesting, really quickly.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: When the police inform them of the information they have on Judith, a shocked Guillaume looks in the distance, and we cut to a shot of Judith on the first day they met.

Sleeper Star: Guillaume Gouix as Costa is that friend who seems to always have his friends’ backs. But he also has a monologue where he talks to Guillaume about why he doesn’t want to have kids that shows how good Gouix is as an actor.

Most Pilot-y Line: We get why Guillaume is dressing in a series of jogging suits, to make him blend in more with the kids he’s helping. But they just make him look silly. What’s wrong with a t-shirt and jeans?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Gone For Good has a solid mystery, good acting, and quality writing. It’s about as sturdy a show as Netflix’ other Coben adaptations, and in this case sturdy is a fine thing to be.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Gone For Good On Netflix

Tags

• Gone For Good
• Harlan Coben
• Netflix
• Stream It Or Skip It

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