Fun
Safe
Dear Kay,
I am going to do something here that is unprecedented in the annals of Lazy Sunday: I’m going to give a British crime series a mediocre review.
I do this in the interest of completeness. We need to watch every British crime series. Even the ones that aren’t great. As my art history teacher said to me, “To know a great Greek vase, you have to look at a lot of bad ones.”
Wellllll, a couple of weeks ago, my dad and I started watching the Netflix series Safe. It was kind of comical. It took us two hours to watch the first episode—so many characters looked alike, talked impenetrably, had to crank up the closed captioning, gah. None of that had to do with the actual show, but it did make me feel like it was going to be a bit of a project to get through Safe.
This is no Happy Valley, no Broadchurch, no River. I mean, it has elements of all these brilliant shows: detectives, weirdos, villain/heroes. But in Safe, you get a character saying something like, “Why would he disappear like that?”
And the other character says, “Because maybe he has … something … to hide.”
We’re taken to a gated community in a leafy suburb where pretty much everybody’s got something murky going on.
Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under) turns British in his role as a surgeon with a missing daughter. I’m told his accent is variable and off, but I can’t really tell (see above need for closed captioning).
Should you watch Safe? I’m almost done, and still curious to see how it pans out. There are strong performances in here, and I think that’s why I’m hanging on. Marc Warren, who plays the surgeon’s troubled Army mate, is awfully good. And Nigel Lindsay (Sir Robert Peel in Victoria) is over the top and comical as the party girl’s dad.
I will say that Safe uses Extreme Close Ups like no other show I’ve seen. I’m all up in Michael C. Hall’s corneas as he thinks hard about what his daughter must be up to.
Has anybody else seen this show? Am I missing something here?
Love,
Ann
Hello! We are watching this at the moment. It’s bizarre but gripping. I think we’re on episode 6 of 8 and will watch it to the end. There’s so much going on in it but it’s realky quite odd. Anyway, we’re committed now so will see it through. I thought maybe we were the only people watching so I’m glad to see you’re review.
You’re missing nothing. Michael C Hall’s attempt at an accent was almost enough on its own to stop me watching this. And the true mark of a bad series? I don’t miss it now I’ve finished or even remember it. I’m certainly not looking forward to a second series the way I normally do.
Have you tried Midsomer Murders? I’m full-onobsessed and kind of wishTom Nettles was my friend in real life.
Love this series.
Great knitting watching
Haha. It was an odd one, wasn’t it. All In all, I’m going to say I liked it. I love Michael C. Hall. And as for the accent, I’ve only recently begun to discern the difference between a Georgian and a South Carolinian accent so you can totally fool me with the whole British thing! I did get sick of it mid-way but then thought it got interesting again. I likes that I didn’t figure out the ending too early.
I liked it too. Middle may have been weird but the ending was pretty good 🙂
Ugh. I need an edit button for when I miss a wacky auto-fill.
I am a bonafide British mystery addict. I liked Safe a lot but not quite as much as Harlan Conan’s other British mystery, The Five.
2nd vote for the five – Safe meh just ok
Loved The Five!
Have you folks seen Unforgotten? Just starting its third series on British TV this week. Brilliant!
Is it on Britbox? I may have to get that just for the new season of Shetland. I don’t think I can wait for it to get to Netflix!
Unforgotten was brilliant!
Couldn’t get through the first episode of Safe….switched over to a French series called The Forest. New police captain in town (handsome and divorced no less) investigates the murder of a high school girl whose two friends end up disappearing as well. One of the friends is the daughter of the police lieutenant. Some of the lieutenants actions are questionable and why the captain doesn’t remove her from the case is too, but enjoyed it nonetheless.
Have any of you watched “Single Handed”? It’s an Irish detective series from about 10 years ago which recently appeared on Amazon Prime. I was interested because it stars Owen McDonnell, who I loved in “My Mother and Other Strangers”. While not as great as the very best of UK crime drama, it caught my interest and kept me watching. A HUGE plus for me was that it was filmed in rural areas of Galway County, so the scenery is spectacular. It’s slow paced, thoughtful, and focuses on the corruption in the small town police station, with father & son pitted against each other. The acting is terrific. Perfect knitting show, imho.
Thanks! I have Prime and do not have Netflix so I appreciate the heads up.
I think it’s worth watching ’til the end. I do love most of the British mysteries; right now I’m binging “Vera”, but let me recommend a non-British, non-mystery series “800 Words” set in New Zealand.
I’m loving 800 words right now!!
Don’t think you’re missing anything. I started watching this, Brit-drama fan that I am, and found it convoluted and unbelievable. I got to the last installment and gave it a rest. Started watching it again and it’s taken me three times to get to what are probably the last 10 minutes of the show and I’m not sure I even care how it ends. The weirdness and unbelievable plot twists are annoying. The only pleasure I get is watching the Audis and being nostalgic about my days in London when we were riding around in an Audi too.
I’m pretty much hooked on all things “British mystery” – recently signed up for Britbox and loving it! But this one definitely was not my favorite. I love Michael C. Hall, but I just could not get past that accent. Why did he have to be British? He could have been am American doctor who moved to Britain – plus not his best acting job. I’d definitely give this one a so-so rating. Right now now I’m hooked on “Waking the Dead” – a group of forensic detectives trying to solve cold cases – enjoying it so far 🙂
I am also a Brit crime-drama junkie, found “Safe” to be watchable, but not top shelf. Try any of The Tunnel series – on our PBS channel, currently following Endeavour. This is a British-French collaboration with interesting and flawed characters and dark crime. What’s not to love, but only garter stitch while viewing.
New way to rate shows…garter stitch, lace, tink,etc
I tried but never could into Safe. Weird plot, so-so acting, lame script, at least to me. I just finished watching The Last Post which is about the British occupation of Yemen when it was a colony and the rebellion. Not a mystery, but very well done, good script, great acting, it surprised me. It’s on Amazon, free for Prime members.
The Five was much better. Also, this is the first I’m realizing that the main character was played by Dexter — so much for my detective skills, though I never watched Dexter. I did at one point think to myself — is he supposed to be American? So I guess the accent was bad.
Watching this to the bitter end. Need to see the ending.
Ahhhh, this is a wonderful thread of comments! I’ve watched Broadchurch and Hinterland and loved them! Going to keep a list of the series mentioned here, so I know what to watch next. Probably, won’t start with Safe. lol
We loved it. Had none of the issues you mention. Loved Shetland, too, though the accents were much harder to understand.
We watched Safe, and all I can say is that if you are having some trouble now, wait until you get to the end. I was still glad I watched it because of the very two performances by the actors mentioned in your post— Marc Warren and Nigel Lindsay. And I was able to guess the murderer.
Unforgotten is a lot better. Now we are watching The Tunnel, a French/English crime show, but it is awfully grim. I’m not sure we will make it to the end, but Stephen Dillane is great. Nigel Lindsay appears in all three series. That man gets around.
The Tunnel is the Brit version of The Bridge from Denmark/Sweden. The Bridge is terrific, but because it is subtitled, not the most knit-worthy watching. We were able to watch The Bridge on Netflix while in Europe two years ago, but had to pay on Amazon, I think, in the States. I think there’s an American version called The Border (US/Mexico). All of them deal with heinous and grisly crimes with political overtones in two jurisdictions.
Oh, The Tunnel is fantastic! The last season just started on PBS and I’m going to be sad when it’s done. As for the grimness, I can always tell when the worst parts are coming so I look away.
Has anyone watched The Split with Nicola Walker? So, so good.
Loved it! Brilliant characters and good plot…
Yes, loved The Split! I can’t wait until season 2. I like Nicola Walker in anything.
I put Safe in the “meh” category, but it kind of filled a time void when my husband was out of town for a weekend. I put it in the category of movies and books where someone who has seemingly led a perfectly sensibile if unremarkable life suddenly does one thing wrong after another, and this one really piled on the mistakes. Never the less, i watched it through to the end. It is, at least, the sort of mystery that you can watch with one eye while following a chart with the other, unlike The Tunnel which requires every minute of your attention (and usually I need to watch it a second time to be sure I know what is going on!)
Haven’t watched this one yet, but we have loved, Hinterland, and Marcella.
I am quirky in my British mystery tastes, and am willing to give a number of them mediocre reviews! When I love them, I really love them, like Scott and Bailey, Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour, both Tennisons, and Sherlock, though that’s been getting weirder and weirder as the seasons go by. The next tier down for me are ones that I very much look forward to, like Vera, Inspector Lynley, Wallander, or the Jackson Brodie series. Oh, and Granchester and Doctor Blake (Australian, I know) are watchable, as are the old Agatha Christies and New Tricks. Then there are the ones that, perhaps inexplicably, are only meh to me. Shetland is probably first on the list, as they mucked around with Ann Cleeves excellent books, changing plots and characters. Finally, there are others that just don’t grab me, like The Tunnel, and Hinterland. It will be interesting to see where Safe lands!
Yup. A disappointing slog.
As a Brit and a knitter visiting friends in Texas, I did watch the whole series of Safe the other night. I loved Michael C. Hall in Dexter. This was not such a treat.
I would like to recommend Top of the Lake, set in Australia/New Zealand, starring Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale), and Top of the Lake, China Girl, with Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones). Both series are quirky to say the least, but fascinating.
Another couple of series, starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, is the Fall, set in Northern Ireland. I enjoyed these immensely.
I am now going to watch Five, to see if it’s better than Safe.
I live not far from where they shot Top of the Lake. Great series, and it makes our scenery look awesome. Jane Campion was in charge so it was always going to be good (been a fan of hers since An Angel at My Table and The Piano).
I thought “Safe” got easier to follow as I went along (I think I had to rewatch the first episode to get it).
I’ll have to try it, the fact that they imported an American actor to play a British character always galls me a bit. Or a lot. However, before going to the mediocre (I have no problem with mediocre-I like mediocre, it’s easier to knit to) you really need to try New Tricks, which is a great show, one of the ones that can do heart-wrenching sadness and laugh-till-you-cry hysteria in the same five minutes.
I haven’t heard of New Tricks! Is it on Prime or Netflix?
It’s on hulu and amazon prime. Such great characters.
I have not seen it, but will watch, just for the fun of it. I love British detective shows, and even the mediocre ones have their moments. Thanks.
Are those of you who are struggling with Michael C Hall’s accent British? I’m curious because I’m English and usually I hate American trying to do a British accent but I thought this one was okay. So did all my friends. I’ve just rewatched the trailer with your opinions in mind and I still don’t see the problem.
I thought Safe was middling – my main issue with it was that a police officer living in a gated community would never be allowed to investigate a crime in that gated community. It was set in a city, not Broadchurch or Midsomer where our hero might be the only copper for miles, and might have to investigate their neighbours..
I fully admit to being “I won’t watch if there’s no closed-captioning” years old.
I generally love any member of the “British People Solving Things” genre, but Safe was meh.
I think I am just about closed-captioning years old. And definitely also a member of the British People Solving Things club.
Have any of you seen Tin Star? It’s Canadian. I too was looking for something to knit to- I thought this might fit the bill. Yeah! Up to the end of the first episode! Agree with your thoughts re: most of these shows. Love my Acorn channel on Roku.
Yep, it’s good. Tim Roth is really good in the lead as a sheriff with issues.
Agree it is mediocre. We forced ourselves to finish watching it, not even sure why. Hated Michael c hall’s accent and the thin plot. Also having a hard time with the second season of Marcela…
I do recommend Condor (with Jeremy Irons’ son Max).
Appreciate all the suggestions on this thread!
Loved Broadchurch but you must watch Hinterland!
OK, I’ll skip Safe! But DO NOT MISS “No Offence,” on Prime. Talk about unintelligible dialogue, but when you do understand it, it sizzles!! And all the leads are female.
I liked it. Agree that it was a little weird/slow/confusing in the middle, and wasn’t sold on his accent either, but you gotta watch it to the end. The last episode was good and suddenly everything makes sense. Kinda bummed actually that it seems as though it’s unlikely there’ll be a 2nd season.
Actually, it’s a bit of a coincidence cuz my son & I *just* finished it the night before you posted this. ….I somehow get notifications in my Google feed on my Android phone, even though I haven’t been following knitting blogs for a while. You may remember my blog – it was Oliewogs Blog … Waaaaaay back in 2002-ish. It’s been ages! I miss those days, and it’s good to get your updates! xoxo
I’m with you, except not. I settled in, ready for my usual pleasure watching a British crime drama. I watched for about 10 minutes. Michael Hall was a disaster. I was watching alone and thought there must be something wrong with ME! Then I thought maybe I just imagined the show. It was terrible.
Wow thanks for the great review of Safe, and a great bunch of leads for Brit shows. As a Ready For Closed Captioning years old person myself, Apple TV can close caption anything, but I find it hard to garter stitch I when read and watch. A non-mystery Brit show, As Time Goes By, is slow-TV, old fashioned and sweet. Mysteries not mentioned yet are Rosemary & Thyme about 2 gardening detectives. The Coroner, set in Devon with lovely scenery. Death in Paradise, a comedy-murder mystery set on an island in the Caribbean. My all time favorite is Midsomer. We’ve actually seen the entire series, and have started over. PS Rain Shadow is about 2 vets in the Outback. Good TV.
Just finished Keeping Faith, Brit/Welsh séries on Acorn. Mystery, beautiful scenery and realistic depiction of motherhood.