‘Harlan Coben’s Shelter’ Is A Surprisingly Wild YA Thriller

Prime Video

Welcome to Up Subsequent, a recurring column maintaining a tally of what’s new in TV. This week, TV critic Valerie Ettenhofer checks in with a assessment of Prime Video’s new thriller Harlan Coben’s Shelter.

A decade into its foray into authentic programming, Prime Video hasn’t precisely made itself recognized for reveals that shake up the streaming world. Positive, the platform sometimes brings audiences one thing wonderful and bold – your Fleabags, your Underground Railroads – however for essentially the most half, its bread and butter appears to be the identical now because it was when Bosch hit the airwaves again in 2014. Prime Video is, firstly, a bestselling procedural thriller adaptation manufacturing unit.

These variations are various in high quality however homogenized regardless of themselves, headed up by powerful white guys like Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher, and, sure, Harry Bosch. Detectives, particular brokers, and army males cops appear to be the protagonists of alternative for Prime Movies’ flagship sequence. At first look, Harlan Coben’s Shelter sounds just like the title of a present that may promise extra of the identical – an adaptation of successful thriller ebook that has the potential to develop into a significant sequence. It’s all of that, however fortunately for bored or adventurous Prime Video viewers, Harlan Coben’s Shelter can be fairly freaking bizarre.

The sequence begins with a thriller that quickly splits right into a dozen completely different fragments. Teenager Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael)’s father makes a mysterious telephone name, and the household leads to a deadly accident quickly after. Mickey finally ends up again in his dad’s suburban hometown, the place his aunt Shira (Constance Zimmer, at all times a spotlight) takes him in. On the primary day of college, Mickey meets a lady who disappears quickly after. He additionally hears an city legend a few creepy outdated home in his neighborhood and the girl who lives there. Earlier than the pilot’s finish, the present throws in a mysterious man in a swimsuit, a second lacking child, a secretly important track, an insidious butterfly tattoo, and several other extra pointed twists.

It doesn’t cease there. The sequence balances mysterious components like Jenga items, stacking clues on clues all through its first few episodes till it threatens to topple below the burden of so many intriguing components. At a sure level, although, its conspiracy net reaches an virtually Riverdale-level ludicrousness (Nazis! A man with an octopus tattoo on his face!) that permits the present to circle again from melodrama into an satisfying, quasi-camp journey. Shelter can be able to pulling off some severe moments, because it does nicely when it addresses Mickey’s mom’s psychological well being and, later, a case of terrible youngster abuse.

Shelter is certainly a sometimes-silly present, nevertheless it’s held collectively by a handful of profitable performances and writing that doesn’t pander to a YA viewers. Mickey himself is likely to be the least compelling a part of the present (Michael is barely picket right here, however the character can be simply uninteresting), however his sidekicks, wide-eyed goth Ema (Abby Corrigan) and charmingly geeky Arthur, AKA Spoon (Adrian Greensmith), are each charming. Greensmith is a breakout star, imbuing a personality who may simply fall on the fallacious facet of the witty/unbearable scale with coronary heart and sweetness along with some actually humorous humor. Zimmer additionally will get an important plot, taking part in a no-nonsense lady whose established life is shaken up by the return of her highschool finest buddy (Missi Pyle) who as soon as stole her boyfriend.

The present takes mysteries that briefly attain CW Channel-level ludicrousness and delivers them in bite-sized items that make them troublesome to withstand, doling out twists usually to maintain audiences hooked. It additionally lands in a way more emotionally reasonable place by season 1’s finish. Shelter might not pull off each foolish pink herring it makes an attempt, however the majority of its items finally come collectively to disclose a shocking and significant (if nonetheless unbelievable) storyline. Followers of minor thriller reveals will doubtless dig Shelter, which doesn’t at all times really feel like a YA sequence. The characters drop as many F-bombs as real-life teenagers (which is to say, quite a bit), and the grownup characters’ plots are as absolutely fleshed out as the children’ are.

Sadly, Shelter follows within the vein of many a Prime Video present in that it’s visually slightly artless. Cornily stylized flashbacks abound, nevertheless it’s what’s lacking that’s as irritating as what’s not: in the suitable fingers, the present may’ve sustained its convoluted thriller with a sheen of status TV aesthetics. Its precocious, dynamic youngsters think of the teenagers in Mike Flanagan reveals like The Midnight Membership, however the sequence doesn’t appear notably caught up in framing, cinematography, or different components that might’ve pushed the sequence to that degree. If Prime Video has a generic thriller present home model, Shelter largely matches proper into it. The one exception is the compelling pilot, directed by Actual Ladies Have Curves filmmaker Patricia Cardoso.

General, Shelter is a blended bag, however at the very least it’s an extremely fascinating one. Followers of the Mickey Bolitar ebook sequence will discover loads to like right here (although Mickey’s uncle Myron is absent, reportedly because of a Netflix rights deal), and newcomers to the saga will on the very least discover the present’s twists propulsive and its characters entertaining. It’s value watching the present via to the tip if solely to see how excessive that Jenga tower of untamed clues can go with out toppling.

Harlan Coben’s Shelter is at present streaming on Prime Video. Watch the sequence trailer right here.

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Valerie Ettenhofer is a Los Angeles-based freelance author, TV-lover, and mac and cheese fanatic. As a Senior Contributor at Movie College Rejects, she covers tv via common opinions and her recurring column, Episodes. She can be a voting member of the Critics Selection Affiliation’s tv and documentary branches. Twitter: @aandeandval (She/her)