Hold Tight review: A gripping Harlan Coben adaptation, ruined by a nonsensical secondary plot

3/5

Story:

After the apparent suicide of his best friend Igor, Adam (Krzysztof Oleksyn) begins to exhibit strange behaviour, much to the worry of his mother Anna (Magdalena Boczarska) who decides to install spyware on Adam’s phone to keep track of his activities. When Adam suddenly goes missing, Anna takes it upon herself to try and figure out his whereabouts. As she realises that she doesn’t know as much about her son as she had thought, more people start to go missing.

Review:

Hold Tight has all the elements that have made Harlan Coben adaptations so popular among audiences. A picture perfect family with a devastating secret, a loved one gone missing, murders and of course, normal people channeling their inner darkness to protect their family. But there is always something as ‘too much of a good thing’ and while trying to pack in another storyline to add to the drama, the writers have ended up weighing the riveting primary plot down with the unnecessary secondary plot.

Hold Tight pulls you in from the very first episode as Adam’s mysterious disappearance in the aftermath of his friend’s death pulls his family into a dangerous set of circumstances. His mother Anna turns detective, leading her down a tumultuous path where she realises that her son was keeping his fair share of secrets. The way viewers are taken through the investigation into Adam’s disappearance is gripping to say the least. Each discovery made as the series progresses thickens the plot further and the writers have done a terrific job at peeling back the layers of the story in a way that adds more intrigue with each episode. It is obvious that the writers have done their homework when it comes to research as each development happens in a way that is realistic and believable, never rushing through any of it. Credit is also due to the way the writers steered clear of overcomplicating things, which tends to be a pitfall many thriller shows fall into. The result is a storyline that is simple to follow and makes sense with the route it takes.

But one of the main drawbacks of the show comes from the fact that there are two clearly distinctive plots that it follows. Adam’s disappearance is the main one, and the second involves the other people who start to go missing in the aftermath. Viewers wait till the end for a connection or some kind of explanation to connect them both, which ultimately never happens, save for a few wayward connections that hold no weight. Ultimately, the secondary plot turns out to be weak and nonsensical in its ending, although it started off in a very promising way indeed. The way the secondary plot wrapped up, in particular, seems to be rushed and highly unsatisfactory, leaving viewers with more questions than the writers cared to answer. The few answers it did give are disappointingly bland. Jasmina’s inane feud with her teacher is just one among the unnecessary additions that made the secondary plot such a disappointment.

The film’s lead cast, however, give very strong performances despite some of the weak premises they are given to work with. And to the writer’s credit, they did manage to weave very layered and well fleshed out characters for the whole show, even though some of them were stuck with an unfortunate plot.

Verdict:

Hold Tight can easily be divided into two distinct parts - a riveting primary plot that starts and ends on a strong note; and a nonsensical secondary storyline that serves no purpose other than to bring the whole show down. Both of them do, however, feature strong performances by the series’ lead cast.