The new British thriller is not titled just Lazarus, it has the bestselling writer Harlan Coben’s name prefixed to it. Several of Coben’s novels have been adapted into web series; this one (on Amazon Prime Video) was written for the screen by him and Danny Brocklehurst.
It starts with the chills right away as a teenage boy discovers the dead body of his twin sister. Terrified, he runs in blood-soaked clothes, to inform his father. A quarter of a century later, he is Dr Joel ‘Laz’ Lazarus (Sam Claflin), a forensic psychologist, still haunted by the unsolved murder of his sister. When he is seeing a creepy-looking patient in a mental health institution, the man glares at him and says that God will punish him. Just then he gets a call from his other sister, Jenna (Alexandria Roach), that their father, Dr Jonathan Lazarus (Bill Nighy)– also a psychiatrist– has taken his own life.
A shattered Laz returns to his hometown, connects with Jenna and his old buddy, Seth (David Fynn), who is now a cop. He also runs into his ex-wife, Bella (Karla Crome), who has since remarried and has a son. A patient of his father’s rushes into his consulting rooms one day, overlooks the fact that Laz is not her doctor, talks about her issues with an abusive boyfriend, and vanishes. When Laz traces her address, he discovers she has been dead for years.
That kicks off a series of strange experiences and hallucinatory visions that Laz sees, which may also somehow be connected to his sister’s murder. The show, directed by Daniel O’Hara, Nicole Volavka and Wayne Che Yip, injects an element of the supernatural into the classic Coben mystery plot. The result is an intriguing, often disturbing psychological thriller that is about memories, trauma, and terrible family secrets.
Against the warning of Seth, Laz finds himself embroiled in an investigation that connects his father’s death, his sister’s cold case, and a series of seemingly linked, long-unsolved murders. The unsettling encounters Laz has, serve as clues, to guiding the grief-stricken man through his father’s archives and uncovering dark secrets that suggest the reputed Dr. Lazarus was involved in far more than just conventional therapy. Bella’s brooding and troubled son Aiden (Curtis Tennant) adds to the spiralling confusion Laz is going through. There is a terrifying twist at the end, and to get there, the series builds up an eerie mood and atmosphere, with its background music, dark, gothic production design.
There are many twists, and the show does tend to get too convoluted, but it is also visually appealing and well-acted. Mainly, it makes the viewer curious about where the story will lead the beleaguered Laz, and Sam Claflin delivers a fine performance as the tormented protagonist.
Lazarus
Created by Harlan Coben and Danny Brocklehurst
Cast: Bill Nighy, Alexandra Roach, Sam Claflin and others
On Amazon Prime Video
