Harlan Coben's Shelter

Interesting plot and characters. I always enjoy the mysteries that have a historical element to them. Cold cases, unsolved disappearances, wrongful convictions. I have to say though - the language in the thing is exaggeratedly foul. Gratuitous use of the f-bomb. Coben didn't write that way. He didn't need to throw in excess bad language in order to make his point or create the mood of the scene. To me - not an informed critic - just an avid reader and viewer - it takes a LOT away from the show. The screenwriters make it sound like they can't write a sentence without using the word f--. Pretty disappointing.

Not sure why people aren't liking it. It's hard to please the masses these days. They expect far too much too soon, some need to have a break from watching anything if that's how they treat new shows. However the show started off well, the mystery is intriguing especially with episode 3. Hope the momentum carries on. I don't see the issues with the profanity, it goes back to not being able to please the masses and the whiney cancel culture that has been nurtured in the last 15 years. Peoples just need to enjoy tv for what it is and if they don't like it, don't watch it because there are plenty of people out there who do and will like it.

Really enjoying this show. Usually I get lost with Harlen Coben's series but this one I can follow. Maybe because I'm actually watching it and not on my phone. Trust me you DO NOT want to be distracted during this show. Something big happens in every scene, and the series moves very fast. The acting is great, with lots of fun characters. (The nerdy kid with glasses is really funny, and all the main actors are very good.) Can't wait to see what future episodes bring! If you want more, hey, hit pause and Amazon will even sell you the book! I have to write 600 characters so here you go Internet Movie Database.

As some others have said, there were drastic changes from the book adaption and they weren't good changes! The book doesn't even have an Aunt Shira so that threw me off immediately. Then there's a whole separate storyline of her becoming a lesbian? I guess they felt they needed to diversify the characters, but it felt really unnecessary to me and didn't add anything of value to the story. On a positive note some of the episodes were very suspenseful and there were some good twists. Another thing mentioned by other reviewers was the foul language. The cursing was really excessive which surprises me because it was supposed to be targeting young teens so I thought it would be a bit more family friendly. I have enjoyed the adaptation of other Coben books, but this one was overall a big disappointment. Read or listen to the book instead! Not sure if there's going to be a season two, but if there is, I hope they clean it up! So much potential from the book for the screen adaptation to be good. Such a waste.

The series on whole for story telling is average and surprisingly enough for Harlan Coban very predictable.

That said though I think the hype around the writer is why other reviews are negative as people expect brilliance from this type of show.

It's a good show and with obvious flaws, it has two fantastic positives in Adrian Greensmith (Spoon) and Abi Corrigan (Ema). I found the pair of them so interesting, funny and lovable. They carried the show from start to finish by pulling on your every emotion during the journey.

Don't be put off by the negativity but instead go into without expectation and just enjoy the show.