Thoroughly enjoyed The Five. This is the second Harlan Coben story that I've watched and both were amazing. The other was Safe. If you enjoy and good mystery, then this story will keep you guessing until the very end. There are a few plots intertwined, but at the end of the day, it is about a group of childhood friends and how they come together to solve a mystery. It is entertaining and thought provoking and I adore English accents. I can't say enough about this mini series but i won't say any more because you need to watch it without any hints about what takes place in this interesting story.

Could not make it to the end of the 2nd episode, was bored to tears. I kept waiting for a jump or a spark but nothing sparked. It was all just flat and confusing. I found myself checking Twitter and e-mail. What was up with the finding of the battered black girl just by chance by this group? Makes no sense unless it was a set-up or something.

I have now watched a few different mystery shows created/written by Harlan Coben and they all seem to be somewhat formulaic. Without giving the story away, the formula is to keep information from the audience and reveal it in parts episode after episode in order to somewhat mislead them into guessing people's motives. This format is followed in many shows/movies but I feel like overusing this can ruin the fun and also make it feel a little cheap. Suppose I'm in a circus and you show me a big hole in the wall and bring out three animals - a horse, a lion, and a monkey, then ask me to guess which animal made the big hole, I'd perhaps guess lion. But then you bring an elephant from the back and say, actually it's none of these, it's the elephant. All of Harlam Coben's shows I've watched feel exactly like that. Part of the fun in watching a mystery is that it keeps you guessing and keeps you captivated. After about half way through the season, there's so many twists and turns that I am past captivation, finding it hard to maintain interest. I think the writer/creators are too focused on not letting you guess the right people involved in certain incidents and in the process ruin the fun a bit. I'm giving it 7 starts because it's still a decent show and has a grip over you for a few episodes. Like with most British shows, the drama element is quite good. But the end is kinda clumsy to be honest, like the writer ran out of ideas and this was best he could come up with. This is also true for his other show - Safe. Not meaning to pick on the person, but lately I've been binging on mystery shows and came across a few of his.

I gave this series a shot after absolutely loving Harlan Corbon's Safe on Netflix. I didn't regret it for a minute. Nothing is as it seems and everyone has their secrets. After twenty years, four friends are suddenly thrown back together after the long-thought murdered brother of one of them is potentially alive: His DNA shows up at a seemingly unrelated crime scene, and from that moment forward this story is so captivating and so brialliantly told that at the end of episode 10 you have nothing left but tears.If you love investigation, watch CSI. The Five is more than a crime thriller series: it'd a story about hope, suffering, pain and redemption. Expect to be blown away.