REVIEW: ‘Harlan Coben’s Lazarus’ Is A Must-Watch Crime Ghost Story

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus is a Prime Video Original series that takes the markings of a supernatural psychological thriller but centers it all on one emotion: grief. Starring Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy, Alexandra Roach, and David Flynn, the series isn’t an adaptation of Harlan Coben’s best-selling work. Instead, it’s an original story written by Coben for the screen and Danny Brocklehurst.  

Over six episodes, we follow Dr. Joel Lazarus, a forensic psychologist who has spent his life as a black sheep of his successful family. When his father, Dr. Jonathan Lazarus, dies from a reported suicide, Joel returns to his childhood home and all the tragedy that he had tried to escape. 

As Joel tries to settle his father’s estate with very little help from his sister, Joel begins to have increasingly disturbing and supernatural experiences, which all make him question his father’s death. The gimmick of the series, no negative connotation intended, is that Joel, well, sees dead people. 

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus brings prestige TV to Prime Video’s mystery offerings.

When Joel visits his father’s office, a patient shows up for an appointment and doesn’t seem to view Joel any differently than his father. Of course, they are both Dr. Lazarus, so there is some validity to the miscommunication. Then, Joel follows up on the visit out of concern for the woman’s safety, only to realize that she’s been dead for some time. Add in that he’s now seeing his dead father, and it’s off to the supernatural races. 

However, this genre-bending series delves deeper than just conversing with the dead. The discovery that the patient is dead leads Joel to look into more of his father’s old patients, many of whom have wound up dead. As he looks through his files, a string of cold case murders emerges, and he’s forced to confront his father’s legacy and the mystery behind it all.

But as his father continues to visit him and the tragic murder of his sister 25 years ago comes into focus, this ghost story turns into a grief story. And it’s that part that makes Harlan Coben’s Lazarus must-watch television. Taking a near-case-of-the-week structure, Claflin’s Joel is forced to look in the mirror and confront his past, no matter how much he tries to look away. 

Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy propel Harlan Coben’s Lazarus to great heights.

While both the mystery and Joel’s processing of his trauma have unique characteristics that keep them from melding entirely together, they coalesce in a way that captures their impact on each other. Jole is inherently connected to the murders around him, and they all begin with his sister. As he sinks deeper into this realization, solving the cold cases becomes tantamount to understanding how his family is broken. 

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus picks at the seams of Joel’s life and starts to reveal pieces of himself that he had tried to repress. More importantly, each conversation he has with his father serves to both hurt and heal Joel. In one of the series’ most emotional sequences, Joel, angrily, talks to his father about the blame he had to carry for his sister’s murder.

He didn’t walk her home from the dance, and so, the blame for it all fell on him. He could have stopped it. And for much of the past 25 years, Joel buried that guilt deep within himself. And to him, he did so because of his father. As the two of them talk, Joel screams that the Lazarus patriarch blamed him and fed his guilt, and Jonathan says that he didn’t. That his own pain from losing a child was so great that he detached from both Joel and his sister. 

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus is a ghost story and a grief story.

It’s a moment where both Nighy and Claflin deliver their best performances. The pain they both feel is dripping in their voice and visible in their faces. But it’s how Joel’s grief bubbles up through his guilt that makes it all so powerful. And his father’s tender response of regret calls to the building tragedy that for everything Joel can repair through death, like always, his father’s ghost will just be gone. 

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus’s main point of issue is its pacing. While many of the visual choices are made to replicate the sense of unease and confusion that Joel is going through, too often, the unfolding mysteries start to muddy at the edges instead of coming together easily.

The series’ genres flow seamlessly into each other, but mapping out the different cold cases themselves isn’t as neatly packed together. However, that is at the beginning of the season. While the awkward pacing in the first half of Harlan Coben’s Lazarus has to be noted, how it brings everything home is near perfection. 

As is to be expected from a Harlan Coben story, Lazarus completes its grief story by tying off every loose thread and offering Joel a satisfying closure. The tragedy of his life still stings, but where we end is why we love mysteries. Or rather, why we love solving them. 

Even with some pacing stumbles, Harlan Coben’s Lazarus offers a great ending.

Driven by two emotional performances from Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy as father and son, it is astounding. But more importantly, Claflin’s performance as Joel Lazarus isn’t just thoughtful, but a visceral one. In every scene, Joel is driven by his emotion, his heartbreak, his grief, or even his pride. Claflin plays it all using every part of himself. His voice work in times of anxiety or rage cracks so specifically that it adds to his portrayal.

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus wants you to question Joel from start to finish. Are these ghosts visiting from beyond the grave to have their cold cases solved? Or are they hallucinations that he has concocted to deal with the death of a man he always saw as too proud to kill himself?

The audience is supposed to question Joel, and that tension ramps up the more sure he becomes with his assertion. The final episode of the series is a roller coaster. Doubt hangs over Joel, but at the same time, we understand him. And this is where Bill Nighy’s ability to bring to life both cold, intimidating, and emotive comes through it all. 

With a unique visual style and stand-out performances, Harlan Coben’s Lazarus switches up Prime Video’s approach to mysteries, shifting the focus from a procedural drama to a prestige ghost story with all of the great psychological twists and tension to drive it all home. If this is the streak that the streamer stays on, well, it’ll become better for it. 

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus is streaming now, exclusively on Prime Video.