''Safe'' is a British television drama series created by crime author

Harlan Coben Harlan Coben is an American writer of mystery novels and thrillers. The plots of his novels often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past, murders, or fatal accidents and have multiple twists. Among his novels a ...

and written primarily by screenwriter

Danny Brocklehurst Danny Brocklehurst (born June 1971 in Hyde, Cheshire) is an English screenwriter and playwright. He has won both BAFTA and Royal Television Society writing awards. He was featured in the writers' section of the ''Broadcast magazine'' Hot 100 ...

. Set in England, the series is a production by

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

, with C8 airing the show in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

streaming the show internationally outside France. The series began filming in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

in July 2017. It consists of eight episodes that premiered in 190 countries on 10 May 2018.

Plot

''Safe'' focuses on Briton Tom Delaney (Hall), a pediatric surgeon and widowed father of two teenage daughters. He is struggling to connect with his daughters as they still grieve the loss of his wife from cancer one year prior. After his 16-year-old daughter Jenny goes missing, Tom uncovers a web of secrets as he frantically searches for her.

Cast and characters

Michael C. Hall Michael Carlyle Hall (born February 1, 1971) is an American actor and singer best known for his roles as Dexter Morgan, the titular character in the Showtime series ''Dexter,'' and David Fisher in the HBO drama series '' Six Feet Under.'' Thes ...

as Tom Delaney, widower of wife Rachel, surgeon *

Amanda Abbington Amanda Abbington (born Amanda Jane Smith; 28 February 1974) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Miss Mardle in ''Mr Selfridge'' and Mary Watson in '' Sherlock'', the BBC adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stor ...

as Sophie Mason, Detective Sergeant partnered to Emma, Tom's girlfriend and neighbour *

Amy James-Kelly Amy James-Kelly (born 15 November 1995) is a British actress. She gained prominence through her role as Maddie Heath in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2013–2015). She has since starred in the Netflix series ''Safe'' (2018) and t ...

as Jenny Delaney, 16, Tom's elder daughter, girlfriend to Chris *

Isabelle Allen Isabelle Lucy Allen (born 16 March 2002) is an English stage and screen actress known for her role as the young Cosette in the 2012 film adaptation of ''Les Misérables''. The role earned her critical acclaim and various film cast awards such a ...

as Carrie Delaney, Tom's younger daughter *

Marc Warren Marc Warren (born 20 March 1967) is an English actor, known for his British television roles. His roles have included Albert Blithe in '' Band of Brothers'', Danny Blue in '' Hustle'', Dougie Raymond in ''The Vice'', Dominic Foy in '' State ...

as Pete Mayfield, Tom's best friend and fellow doctor *

Hannah Arterton Hannah Jane Arterton (born 26 January 1989) is an English actress. She attended Gravesend Grammar School for Girls and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2011. She has most notably appeared in the television series '' The Five' ...

as Emma Castle, Detective Constable relocated from the big city *

Emmett J. Scanlan Emmett John Scanlan (born 31 January 1979) is an Irish actor. He is best known for playing Brendan Brady in '' Hollyoaks''. He appeared in the BBC Two drama ''The Fall'' in 2013 and 2014, Peaky Blinders Series 5 and Series 6, and '' Breakdown' ...

as Josh Mason, Sophie's ex-husband who lives in a trailer-camper parked in her driveway *India Fowler as Ellen Mason, Sophie's daughter *

Louis Greatorex Louis Greatorex (born 30 December 1996) is a British actor from Duffield, Derbyshire. His television credits include the BBC1 drama series ''Last Tango in Halifax'', in which he has played Lawrence Elliot since 2012. Life and career Greatorex i ...

as Henry Mason, Sophie's teenage son *

Freddie Thorp Frederick Nicholas Thorp (born 7 March 1994) is a British actor. He starred in the action film ''Overdrive'' (2017), as well as the Netflix series ''Safe'' (2018) and '' Fate: The Winx Saga'' (2021–2022). Early life Thorp was born in Kensing ...

as Chris Chahal, Zoé and Neil's son, and Jenny's 19-year-old boyfriend * Audrey Fleurot as Zoé Chahal, mother of Chris, French teacher accused of impropriety * Joplin Sibtain as Neil Chahal, Zoé's husband * Imogen Gurney as Tilly Chahal, Zoé and Neil's daughter *

Amy-Leigh Hickman Amy-Leigh Hickman (born 16 September 1997) is an English actress. Hickman made her television debut as Carmen Howle in the CBBC series '' Tracy Beaker Returns'', a role she reprised in the sequel series '' The Dumping Ground''. She then went on ...

as Sia Marshall, Jenny's drug-dealing classmate *

Nigel Lindsay Nigel Lindsay (born 17 January 1969) is an English actor. He is best known on television for his roles as Sir Robert Peel in the first two seasons of ''Victoria'', Jo Jo Marshall in the Netflix series '' Safe'' and as Barry in the BAFTA-winnin ...

as Jojo Marshall, Sia's father *

Laila Rouass Laila Rouass (née Abdesselam) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayals of Amber Gates in ''Footballers' Wives'' (2004–2006) and Sahira Shah in '' Holby City'' (2011–2012, 2021). She has also starred in '' Primeval'' and ...

as Lauren Marshall, Sia's mother * Milo Twomey as Archie "Bobby" Roberts, owner of a 1980s-themed bar called Heaven *

Hero Fiennes Tiffin Hero Beauregard Faulkner Fiennes Tiffin (born 6 November 1997) is an English actor, model and film producer. He is known for his starring role as Hardin Scott in the ''After'' film series. He portrayed 11-year-old Tom Riddle, the young versio ...

as Ioan Fuller, a teenager who may know something about Jenny's disappearance * Karen Bryson as Helen Crowthorne, next-door neighbour to the Delaney family

Episodes

Critical response

''Safe'' has received positive reviews. It has a 71% approval rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 24 reviews. While British newspapers ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' found Hall's "odd" English accent to be a metaphor of overall peculiarities with the series, they both found many elements of the show to be entertaining. Ed Power wrote in ''The Daily Telegraph'' that Harlan Coben "makes every one of his characters feel plausibly sinister and throws in plenty of skilfully crafted cliff-hangers. Netflix's latest can be hackneyed and is written to formula, but the central mystery is assembled with a watchmaker's eye and the entire fandango whirrs by with ruthless efficiency." ''The Guardian''s Sam Wollaston wrote, "What looked at one point like it might be Netflix's ''

Broadchurch ''Broadchurch'' is a British crime drama television series broadcast on ITV for three series between 2013 and 2017. It was created by Chris Chibnall, who acted as an executive producer and wrote all 24 episodes and produced by Kudos in assoc ...

'' – the disappearance of a teenager, a parent's anguish, the effect on a community, the police investigation – soon starts to look more like ''

Desperate Housewives ''Desperate Housewives'' is an American comedy-drama soap opera television series created by Marc Cherry and produced by ABC Studios and Marc Cherry, Cherry Productions. It aired for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Octobe ...

''. I'm very much enjoying these people, without really caring about them."

Maureen Ryan Maureen "Mo" Ryan (born in 1966) is an American film and television critic, writer and reporter. From 2000 to 2018, she was a TV critic at the ''Huffington Post'' and the ''Chicago Tribune''. From 2015 to 2018, Ryan was the chief TV critic for ''V ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' praised the series, writing, "It's a highly watchable, semi-pulpy serial loaded with reveals, clues and cliffhangers, and the core cast is generally quite good." Ben Travers of ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' found the series entertaining and graded it a B, writing, "''Safe'' leans into most of its increasingly preposterous moments, including Hall's accent. It's not that the show or its star’s elocution are bad, per se; they just don’t overwork themselves trying to convince you of their grand importance. ''Safe'' is a soap, and it's a fun diversion as such." Daniel Fienberg of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'', who based his review on the first two episodes sent to critics, criticised Hall's accent and performance, the depiction of teens and other elements of the series as all off-tone. Fienberg wrote, "It could take watching the six additional episodes to know if there's a cliché-upending payoff or if ''Safe'' is just a muddle."

References

External links

* {{Netflix original ended series (2012–2018) French-language Netflix original programming English-language Netflix original programming Canal+ original programming 2018 French television series debuts 2018 American television series debuts 2018 British television series debuts 2010s British crime drama television series 2010s British mystery television series 2018 French television series endings 2018 American television series endings 2018 British television series endings British thriller television series Crime thriller television series Serial drama television series Television series about dysfunctional families Television series by Red Production Company Television series by StudioCanal