Major companies like Apple and Nike must stop consuming resources and instead focus on repurposing the abundant products they have already put out into the world, writes David Recchia.No tech giant can be sure to last forever. Even seemingly bulletproof, sector-dominating household-name companies are never infallible.Take Kodak. Once a name synonymous with photography itself, its business centred on physical film. It invented the digital camera but decided not to pursue it, and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2021.It was a similar story with Nokia. In the early days of mobile phones, when their functionality was largely a trinity of texting, calling, and playing Snake, Nokia was the only brand many of us could name. As smartphone technology emerged, Apple rapidly superseded Nokia, which eventually sold its mobile-phone business to Microsoft in 2014.Instead of reducing emissions, why not stop making new products altogether?But now, the days of giant tech brands might be numbered for a different, literally existential reason: their components, taken from natural resources, are finite, and their manufacturing processes are simply unsustainable.Countless brands and businesses publicly state their moves towards "carbon neutrality" and "net zero". But these phrases distract from the most fundamental change that's needed: instead of reducing emissions, why not stop making new products altogether, and repurpose the raft of products that already exist, but aren't being used?Big brands need to focus on circularity, not commodities. And they need to instil that in consumers, too.Sure, that's not easy when historically sales have been driven by brands pushing the idea that newer is better, that old means outdated, unfashionable, unuseful. The default has been "make more stuff, make more profit".Read: Is a plastic-free future possible?This is true for all sectors, not just tech. Take Lego, an icon of play that's almost a century old but doing better now than ever. The company's success has hinged on the fact that its bricks are universal: wherever you are in the world, whatever set you buy, whenever you bought it, those little modular bricks will fit together perfectly. Yet there must be millions of bricks sitting around unused, or worse, languishing in landfills.In terms of both its physical product and its brand platform, Lego couldn't be better suited to re-use: it states its mission is to "inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through creative play and learning". As such, it could pivot to become a facilitator of play and learning using its existing products, rather than producing new ones: after all, sustainability is inherently baked into the concept of the "builders of tomorrow", since they can't build anything if we continue to plunder the earth's resources.Lego could launch a "new" product line perhaps a "cities of the future" kit composed entirely of reused bricks and with instructions that subtly introduce the concepts and practices of building and living sustainability.There's huge potential for brands to genuinely make a differenceConsider skincare brand Dove, too, which alongside parent company Unilever has been under intense scrutiny from the likes of Greenpeace especially in light of recent news that its profits have risen, while its sustainability credentials have fallen.With the vast financial and technical resources at its fingertips, Dove could easily revolutionise its physical packaging and pivot towards refillables and product sharing systems. Its recent "Let's Change Beauty" slogan should focus on change for the planet itself as much as individual users.Huge companies have the chance to act now. They could set a world-leading, radical example by publicly stating that they've exceeded their quotas of natural resources, promising to stop extracting more, refocusing their immense resources on recycling what they already have. And maintain a sustainably profitable business model to boot.Read: "Design as we know it is doomed, but that's a good thing for designers"Such sweeping positive changes would transform their business models to become truly sustainable and could catalyse huge shifts in the way businesses operate the world over. There's no doubt this would impact the relationship we all have with the Earth, driving home a fact that's hard to confront we've taken everything we can from our planet.This might all seem like idealism, but it isn't: there's huge potential for brands to genuinely make a difference without ever straying from their core ethos and what makes them so desirable and successful.Consider the famous (now-retired) Apple slogan "think different'': the company has always been about innovation, progression it has long staked its claim as the brand that moves us forward.We need to stop using "innovation" as a shorthand for "new"And Apple is already starting to "think different": its 2024 Environmental Progress Report clearly demonstrates its mission to remain the global innovation brand of the 21st century not least through focusing on making "durable, long-lasting products" and "enhanc[ing] material recovery".It needs to go further and become the first tech company to declare a resource ceiling, no longer extracting new natural resources and instead relying entirely on recycling and reusing existing materials.The tech brands of the future need to stop making new hardware, reuse and repurpose the abundance of physical products already out there and focus instead on innovating through software alone.We need to stop using "innovation" as a shorthand for "new" and take its dictionary definition as "a new idea or method" more literally pivoting from a production and consumption model towards bold, genuinely sustainable, precedent-setting sustainability.Read: Recycled materials will give Nike "biggest impact" on sustainability says chief design officerNike could do the exact same with "Just Do It", and has started to make some (albeit small) steps in the right direction with initiatives such as its Re-Creation programme, which uses vintage and deadstock pieces to create new locally designed and manufactured products.Brands must work towards collective reinterpretations of how they view their audiences and what their core values mean and they can easily do that without ever losing ground on their position in the market.They must redirect their energies to use what they already have influence, profits, millions of loyal fans, world leadership of their markets. Business leaders have an opportunity to change the course of human history.David Recchia is executive creative director at brand consultancy The Team.The photo is by Alexandar Todov via Unsplash.The post "Companies could set a radical example by stating that they've exceeded their quotas of natural resources" appeared first on Dezeen.

The colours and style of the 1970s influenced this renovation of a compact Paris apartment, designed by New York-based The House Special Studio.It is the first completed project by The House Special Studio, a collaboration between Greek architect and designer Kiki Goti and her partner, French filmmaker Vincent Staropoli.The blue-toned bedroom features a headboard of beige tiles and aluminium scones designed by GotiThe one-bedroom apartment serves as the pied--terre for a client who works for an international NGO and spends much of his time living abroad.He asked the duo to transform his formerly white-walled flat into a more characterful home, taking cues from the furniture, objects and artworks he has collected from his travels.The same tiles feature in the kitchen, alongside black cabinets"Given Stephan's peripatetic nature, never spending more than a week or two in Paris between assignments, he wanted his Parisian home to be a place of respite and familiarity, akin to a hotel suite where comfort and facility are readily available," said Goti.The designers looked to the 1970s, the decade of their client's childhood, as a starting point.This led them to develop a palette that includes nostalgic shades of deep blue, burgundy, terracotta and soft brown.The brown-toned lounge area centres around a vintage 1970s coffee table"The challenge of this project was to make a compact functional space that, despite its small size, has areas with different character," Goti told Dezeen."Sometimes people think that uniform white is more appropriate for small spaces, but here we argue that a small space can feel bigger if colour is used strategically to frame different areas and create distinct zones."Chevron parquet flooring was restored in the bedroom and living spaceThe first step in the renovation was to restore the chevron-patterned parquet flooring that runs through most of the home.In the bedroom, the designers used a beige tile from Portuguese brand Barro to form a headboard for the bed. This creates a pattern of repeating circles that contrasts with the zigzagging lines of the flooring.Read: Hauvette & Madani restores Haussmann-era Paris apartment to its "former glory"Above it, a blue-painted wall provides a contrasting backdrop to the Strand pendant lamp from Danish brand Muuto and aluminium sconces designed by Goti herself.Goti first unveiled these scones as part of the Alcova exhibition in Milan in 2024, alongside a matching chair.The aim in this room, she said, was to "exude an earthy and nocturnal ambience".An orange-painted corner provides a small dining areaFor the main living space, the designers created four distinct zones: a lounge area with a brown backdrop, a workspace set against an orange-painted bookcase, a similarly orange-toned dining space, and a galley-style kitchen.The lounge centres around a 1970s glass and rosewood coffee table from Brazil, found in a Paris flea market, in a nod to a country where the client lived for four years.This sits alongside a vintage leather sofa, upholstered swivel chairs, a pair of vintage 1960s wall lights and a blue ceramic mirror from artist duo Arrarka.A floating desk is built into a wall niche in the same orange toneThe desk was built into an existing wall recess, with bespoke stainless-steel details adding extra character.The designers displayed some of the owner's existing objects on the shelves, includinga series of wooden monk statues from Myanmar and an antique clock from Russia.Burgundy tiles line the walls of the bathroomThe kitchen features the same tiles as the bedroom a controversial choice, according to Goti paired with black cabinets and metallic details.A burgundy tile was selected for the bathroom, lining the walls and side of the built-in bath."A large mirror covering a big portion of the wall above the sink subtly doubles the space," said Goti.A blue ceramic mirror from Arrarka hangs beside the entranceThe designers describe the revamped home as "uncluttered, relaxing and inspiring"."What I am sure we have achieved is to create an authentic atmosphere in the space, an atmosphere that is faithful to our vision as well as true to our client's universe," added Staopoli.Another Parisian project recently featured on Dezeen saw design studio Policronica create a hotel interior using "invasive wood".The photography is by the designers.The post The House Special Studio brings 1970s nostalgia to Paris pied--terre appeared first on Dezeen.

Specks latest speaker takes the term trance music to another level. The only speaker with a built-in infinity mirror, the Gemtones from Speck is supposed to be a speaker that lets you get lost, both visually as well as lost in the music. The team at Speck jokingly refers to it as a mullet speakerbusiness in the front, party in the back. And honestly, the description fits. Its a bookshelf speaker for your cozy afternoons and a party speaker when the lights go down and the energy ramps up.This speaker doesnt beg for attention in the way many party speakers do, which is kind of the point. With its soft gray finish and an earthy leatherette strap, the Gemtones Infinity fits naturally into a living room, blending in like it belongs there. But the mirrored front panel? Thats where things start getting interesting. While it reflects its surroundings in a way that helps it stay low-key in daylight, it doubles as a hidden canvas for an LED light show when the party starts. Flip the speaker into its infinity mode, and the lights behind the mirror come alive, bouncing between layers of glass for an otherworldly effect. Its like your playlist unlocked a portal to another dimension.Designer: SpeckSpeck didnt stop at cool visuals, either. They packed the Gemtones Infinity with plenty of functionality to back up the theatrics. The speaker comes in three sizes, so whether youre outfitting a bedroom or filling a backyard, theres an option for you. Each one is built with two active drivers and a passive radiator tucked into the back, giving the sound a satisfying punch. While the exact wattage wasnt shared, you can expect this setup to deliver a solid, balanced performance that doesnt lose its footing when the bass kicks in.The infinity mirror is easily the icing on this cake. Mostly relegated to DIY craft projects or bachelor-pads, infinity mirrors are exceptionally cool, given how they look like portals into another world. The trick behind them is simple a two-way mirror and a regular mirror are kept facing each other. Add lights between and they reflect almost endlessly, creating a tunnel or portal. By putting this on a Bluetooth speaker, Specks managed to create an audio device that doesnt just sound incredible, it looks incredible too.Thanks to True Wireless Stereo (TWS) tech, you can link two speakers of the same size for stereo sound. But if youre feeling ambitiousor just really want to make an impressionyou can pair up to 50 speakers in a mix-and-match setup. Imagine starting with a single speaker on a bookshelf, then adding satellites all over your house or yard. Its a modular sound system with room to grow.The companion app lets you work all the features. Not only can you toggle between six different LED light effects, but you also get access to six EQ presets to tweak the sound for whatever youre listening to. Want bass-heavy EDM one minute and balanced acoustics the next? A few taps, and youre there. For those who like to micromanage their audio setup, this is the kind of customization that goes a long way.Battery life clocks in at a respectable 15 hours, which should keep things going long past bedtime. Whether its an all-day playlist or a late-night dance session, the Gemtones Infinity isnt going to bail on you early. Its practical enough to use every day, but its that ability to shift gears when needed that makes it feel special.Speck has pulled off something clever with the Gemtones Infinity. It combines optical illusions, home decor, and audio into one package that instantly feels very different from anything youve seen. The speakers come in 3 sizes, priced starting at $79 going up to $129 for the largest. Its the closest thing to owning a miniature disco, honestly. Audio, check, trippy lights, check, vibe check.The post Speck Gemtones Infinity Hands-On at CES 2025: A Speaker + Infinity Mirror That Dazzles and Delivers first appeared on Yanko Design.

We know it's exciting, but make sure your device is secure and set up correctly before you start tinkering with it.

Treatments for rare diseases are hard to create and expensive to deliver, but there is new hope for editing the software of the genome.

Two eyes in the sky are now trained on Earth, locating the worst offenders for releasing methane, wherever they may be.

Visual Concepts has announced WWE 2K25, the next iteration of 2Ks yearly wrestling series. Its launching for Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and PC, with more information on its Superstars and features coming on January 28th. A release window has not been confirmed, but the title is due to launch this year.Aside from the announcement teasing the series return in bigger, bolder, and better than ever fashion, there arent many gameplay details. However, the first screenshots on Steam showcase Superstars like Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Liv Morgan, Bayley and Damian Priest.The announcement comes a day after 2K shut down servers for WWE 2K23, rendering its multiplayer and community creations unavailable. Current owners can enjoy the single-player component, but its been delisted from storefronts alongside its DLC. WWE 2K24 remains the only title with multiplayer, though 2K has yet to clarify its server timeline (especially in the wake of WWE 2K25s announcement). Stay tuned for more details on the sequel in the coming weeks.https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1876470368027783583

On This Day in HistoryOn This Day in 1785, Two Men Braved Death When They Flew Across the English Channel in a BalloonJean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries harrowing journey was the first aerial crossing between France and Britain Jean-Pierre Blanchard ascends in his gas balloon on July 12, 1785, six months after he and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a similar flying machine Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsOn this day in 1785, a hydrogen-filled balloon was floating across the English Channel when it began to sink. In desperation, the two passengers began throwing possessions overboard, including their food, a pair of silk-wrapped oars theyd planned to use to row through the airand finally, the clothes on their backs. Remarkably, the balloon lifted, then landed safely in France, marking the first aerial crossing of the English Channel.The men in the basket were French exhibition balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries, an American doctor.The flying balloon had only been invented a couple years before, by French brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-tienne Montgolfier. On June 4, 1783, the Montgolfiers had launched a silk balloon lined with paper. Carrying a dangling basket equipped with a fire that inflated the balloon with hot air, the craft rose up to 6,600 feet above Annonay, France. In ten minutes of flight, it traveled over a mile. A few months later, the brothers launched the same balloon, this time carrying passengers: a sheep, a duck and a rooster. On November 21, two men drifted over five miles in 25 minutes in the balloon: mankinds first flight. An illustration of the Montgolfier brothers' September 1783 balloon flight Bathasar Friedrich Leizel via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0As Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm, wrote of balloonings first year, Among all our circle of friends, at all our meals, in the antechambers of our lovely women, as in the academic schools, all one hears is talk of experiments, atmospheric air, inflammable gas, flying cars, journeys in the sky.Blanchard was inspired by the Montgolfiers contraption. He had been designing his own flying machines since the 1770s, theorizing that one might sail upon winds in a boat-like craft equipped with a rudder and oars. Once described as an unpleasant creaturea petulant little fellow, Blanchard was also courageous to the bone, according to the Smithsonians National Air and Space Museum. He flew his first hydrogen gas balloon in Paris in March 1784. Later that year, he arrived in England, preparing for a risky journey across the 20-mile Strait of Dover between England and France.Jeffries, a Boston physician, had emigrated to Britain during the American Revolution. Interested in the science behind balloon flying, he offered to fund young Blanchards work, provided he could ascend with him to conduct atmospheric research. In November 1784, the two men flew a balloon above London; a few months later, they were set to cross the English Channel.The balloon dropped in altitude twice during their journey. It was the second descent that caused the pilots to panic. Jeffries later described the journey to John Quincy Adams, who journaled, He related his voyage, in which his intrepidity had well nigh been fatal to him. He and Mr. Blanchard were both of them obliged to throw almost all their clothes in the water. At one time they were not more than 20 yards above the surface. An illustration of Blanchard and Jeffries' crossing of the English Channel in January 1785 Public domain via Wikimedia CommonsIndeed, the pilots threw nearly everything from the balloon, including Blanchards trousers, into the ocean below before rising to safety. After reaching the mainland, the men discharged five or six pounds of secretions of their kidneys over the forest below, allowing the balloon to stay aloft until Calais.After urinating for their lives, the pair reached the French port city, then traveled on to Paris, where they were met with celebration. Blanchard went on to perform the first crewed balloon flight in North America, flying from Philadelphia to New Jersey in 1793.Aerial travel had long been birds-only. As two of balloonings pioneers, Blanchard and Jeffries set out on flights that were part of an exciting era of innovation and public curiosity in Europe and the United Statesthe beginning of aviation.As one observer wrote of a balloon launch in France, It is impossible to describe that moment the women in tears; the common people raising their hands to the sky in deep silence; the passengers leaning out of the gallery, waving and crying out in joy the feeling of fright gives way to wonder.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Ghost of Tsushima to get anime adaptationSeries will focus on the game's multiplayer mode Legends, will premiere on Crunchyroll in 2027Image credit: Crunchyroll News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on Jan. 7, 2025 An anime adaptation of Ghost of Tsushima is in the works, based on its Legends multiplayer mode.Announced yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the series will be directed by Takanobu Mizuno and produced by anime studio Kamikaze Douga in collaboration with Aniplex.The series will premiere on the Sony-owned anime streaming service Crunchyroll in 2027."Ghost of Tsushima's rich, immersive world and its fantastical Legends mode based on Japanese mythology provide the perfect canvas for this project," said PlayStation Productions head Asad Qizilbash."Aniplex is the perfect partner to translate Sucker Punch Productions' hit video game into a stunning new anime."Ghost of Tsushima is also being adapted into a feature film, with John Wick director Chad Stahelski at the helm. Sucker Punch Productions will serve as an executive producer on the movie.A sequel to the 2020 action-adventure game is currently in development. Announced at the Game Awards last month, Ghost of Yōtei will launch on PS5 sometime in 2025.

The immediate flaw in any attempt to stack the 13 extant Harlan Coben TV thrillers in order of greatness is that none of them are exactly great. Pretty much all of them though, are compulsive viewing and will pull you through a bucking and twisting story at the speed of a beagle on the scent of a nearby sausage. Theyre packed with incident and revelations, and are generally performed by a charismatic cast so big that youll never quite meet them all, let alone tire of their company. Binge-watches par excellence, each one of these series is precision-designed to be gulped down in very few bites.As these stories all shop for plot in the same aisle, chances are that if you enjoy one Harlan Coben thriller, youll enjoy the others. Theyre all filled with cliff-hangers, twists, secret identities, surprise resurrections, flashback wigs, and oh-no-it-was-you-all-along reveals. Theyre largely very fun, is the point, despite an over-reliance on unlikely coincidence and a tendency to unravel come the finale. The European adaptations (so far there have been six British, three French, one Spanish, two Polish, and one US, with more on the way) tend to be less fun than the UK-set series, which lean into their high-colour absurdity with more gleeful abandon. If youre watching with subtitles then, expect more nudity and sexual violence, and fewer comedy alpacas.Here then, are all 13 Harlan Coben series so far listed in order from least to most enjoyable, along with details of where they can be streamed.13. Disparu Jamais/Gone for Good (2021)Watch on: NetflixThe coastal city of Nice makes a trs beau backdrop for this French adaptation of Cobens 2002 New Jersey-set novel Gone for Good, but thats more or less all this five-part thriller has going for it. Its the story of Guillaume, a young man who suffers a dreadful loss in 2010, but then repairs his life just in time for it all to fall apart again in 2020 with the disappearance of his girlfriend. So unravels a complicated crime story with a needlessly repetitive structure.The dialogue veers between perfunctory exposition (Remember, we have to get up early for your mums funeral, like anybody could forget) and melodrama, the characters are bland or cliched, the performances uncharismatic and the story sadly lacks any convincing surprises. And while Harlan Coben thrillers almost all include flashbacks to decades earlier (sometimes relying on a wig to de-age an actor by 20 years, with variable results), here, the time jumps between 2010, 2017 and 2020 confuse rather than engage. What it lacks in charm, it makes up for in gunfire and shootouts with preposterous villains. Nice looks nice though.12. The Five (2016)Watch on: NOW (UK), Fubo/Directv (US)This was the first of the UK Coben adaptations by Reds Nicola Schindler, Richard Fee and writer-producer Danny Brocklehurst, and while it laid down a basis for what was to follow, the formula wasnt quite there yet. Its about the disappearance of a five-year-old boy in the 1990s, and the winding path to finding out what really happened 20 years later when a group of grown-up childhood friends including the missing boys brother reunite to discover the truth.At 10 episodes, The Five is over-long and feels convoluted, but its main issue is character. The lead cast of Tom Cullen, Lee Ingleby, Sarah Solemani and O-T Fagbenle are individually strong, but have very little chemistry with each other, making them unconvincing as a group of lifelong friends who were supposedly inseparable as children. Add to that some nasty sexual abuse plot threads, an ending that involves an enormous coincidence and a major suspension of disbelief, and The Five doesnt really add up to much. Its still very watchable, with all the hooks and tricks in place to pull you through the plot, but is ultimately too ruled by contrivance to be properly satisfying. That said, it is perhaps the only crime drama to feature a high-speed foot chase involving a detective leaping over multiple caravans, so there is that.11. Juste Un Regard/Just One Look (2017)Watch on: All4 (UK), not currently available to stream in the US.This is the classic Coben story of a comfortable middle-class existence shaken by long-buried secrets. It starts well, and has a great lead in Virginie Ledoyen playing Eva the most improbably beautiful forest ranger France has ever seen but the finale is pure Scooby Doo nonsense. Prepare yourself for that, and this six-episode French mystery will fill your time well enough. Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!Its the story of Eva and Bastien, a happily married couple with two kids whose life is turned upside down when Bastien disappears one day. So begins a series of twists involving gangsters, psychopathic killers, car chases and the uncovering of decades-old secrets. To be frank, its all a waste of a great lead in Ledoyen, and not only pivots on a preposterous coincidence but also relies upon some faintly ridiculous flashbacks of men in their 40s trying to pass as their 20-year-old selves (think Joey from Friends trying to audition for teen roles in his beanie hat). Look out for novelist and screenwriter Harlan Coben making one of his many Alfred Hitchcock-style cameos as a hospital doctor in the finale.10. Hold Tight (2022)Watch on: NetflixThis is the second Polish Harlan Coben adaptation after 2020s The Woods (see below) and purists should technically watch that one first, because Hold Tight continues the characters of Pawel, Laura and Kaja from the earlier series. However, you wont be at a disadvantage if you come in completely cold as those three are just supporting characters and to be honest, theres plenty about Hold TightIts the story of dead teenage boy Igor and the secrets his friends are keeping about the circumstances of his accidental death. There are drug dealers, revenge porn, assassins, and Bushido stick fighting. Thematically, its about the love a parent has for their child, and the perennial Coben theme of the secrets our loved ones keep from us. Its overstuffed with plot and finale twists that, once prodded, fall apart under scrutiny. Its very much not the tightest, or the most entertaining Harlan Coben adaptation, hence only landing at this point in our list.9. Missing You (2025)A very decent lead in Slow Horses Rosalind Eleazar is basically squandered in this overly compressed story that hinges on the preposterous notion that a kickass, intelligent woman who was cruelly abandoned by her fianc without a word of explanation, would be moon-eyed and ready to reconnect the second he turns up again over a decade later. Missing You is the story of DI Kat Donovan (Eleazar), a detective investigating missing persons and who discovers that everything about her fathers historical murder isnt as it seems.Eleazar is solid as Kat, and Steve Pemberton makes a suitably grim villain as dog-breeder Titus, but with just five episodes to tell this story, theres not enough room to develop the supporting characters, or to include the usual oddball humour that make these British Harlan Coben adaptations stand out from the crowd. 8. The Stranger (2020)Watch on: NetflixThe Danny Brocklehurst/Red Productions adaptations get into their stride with The Stranger, which combines the classic multiple-murders-multiple-secrets stuff of the Coben novel with an emerging bizarre sense of humour. The Hobbit and Hannibals Richard Armitage stars as Adam, a man approached by the titular stranger and told a disturbing allegation about his wife. And Adams not the only one. The same young woman (Killjoys Hannah John-Kamen, gender-swapped from a male character in the original book) is going around town spilling secrets and setting off figurative bombs in the lives of comfortable middle class families. In the end, its all connected in a series of implausible yet neat ways, and the eight episodes conclude with a decent finale that sees the various plot threads accounted for. Highlights are Siobhan Finneran and Kadiff Kirwan as cops Joanna and Wes, and a very welcome appearance by Jennifer Saunders. Look out for Coben playing a police computer analyst in the back of an episode two shot. See also: alpacas.Read more 7. Harlan Cobens Shelter (2023)Watch on: Prime VideoThe first Harlan Coben TV adaptation to stay in the US is the story of Mickey Bolitar, a New Jersey high schooler who investigates the disappearance of a fellow student and discovers the truth about his father along the way. It streams on Prime Video, who nabbed the rights to the Young Adult spin-off character, while Netflix scored the rights to bring his more famous uncle Myron Bolitar to the screen.This one is a mixed bag. Its the expected cocktail of gripping cliff-hangers and ridiculous plot twists, and bounces along on the charm of its teen mystery Scooby Gang vibe, with fun, bouncy dialogue and charismatic young actors. Think Stranger Things, but instead of kids fighting monsters from other realms, theyre fighting conscienceless crime bosses and hitmen with tattooed faces. And then theres the other stuff, which is mind-blowingly tasteless, and a spoiler to say why. The tone veers wildly between deadly serious and comically silly, and never quite settles in a comfortable place, but as ever with these stories, you might be baffled, but theres very little chance youll be bored.6. The Woods (2020)Watch on: NetflixThe first Polish-language Coben adaptation (followed by Hold Tight see above) on Netflix is the story of a boy and a girl who went missing from a summer camp as teenagers in 1994. Grzegotz Damiecki plays the brother of the missing girl 25 years later, as he investigates what happened that night. Its part mystery, part romance, and part critique of the difference between natural justice and that offered by the legal system.The Woods demands that you pay attention, not least because of the frequent jumps between the past and present, in which the same characters are played by more than one actor. (For non-Polish speakers, the subtitles are a boon in that area, and useful for staying oriented.) Its a dense and compelling story that, while stretching credulity in the way these things tend to, nonetheless keeps you engaged. The chief positive is the cast, with strong performances from Damiecki and his on-screen partner Agnieszka Grochowska, and a great choice of young actors in the before sections.5. Stay Close (2021)Watch on: NetflixThis UK Coben thriller is an extremely watchable eight-episode story revolving around Megan Pierce (The Good Fights Cush Jumbo), a charity worker and mother of three whose life is tipped upside down when (you guessed it) secrets from her past start to bleed into her present. When a young man goes missing from a nightclub, his wealthy father sends two psychopathic assassins to find him, while local cops Broome and Cartwright believe theyre on the trail of a serial killer.Stay Close may have some grisly revelations in store (the weak-stomached, be warned), but its also where Coben thrillers really make peace with their natural absurdity. Thats seen in the characters of killers-for-hire/musical theatre nerds Barbie and Ken, who tap dance and jazz hands their way through torture and knife-fights as the twisting plot builds. Theres a very decent cast in this one, which also features James Nesbitt, Sarah Parish, Richard Armitage (again) and Eddie Izzard. 4. Une Chance de Trop/No Second Chance (2015)Watch on: All4 (UK), PBS Masterpiece (US)Anuzzer French sirees de Arlan Coh-ban ere, and the best of the bunch so far. No Second Chance aired in the UK as part of Channel 4s Walter Presents strand of quality non-English language drama, and its a good pick, if not quite the season of Spiral it would perhaps like to be. Alexandra Lamy plays Alice, a doctor who suffers a brutal attack in which her baby daughter is kidnapped. So begins a race to find the girl while trying to solve the mystery of who broke into Alices family home.What Alice discovers as she searches for baby Tara is a tragic family history, and a complicated international operation. After a tense and eventful opener, a solemn story unfurls thats not quite done justice to by a slightly cheesy conclusion, but at only six episodes, No Second Chance doesnt outstay its welcome. The real star of the series is Hippolyte Girardot as grouchy detective Tessier, part of the team tasked with tracing Alices missing daughter. Alices character was originally a man in the US novel, and the change was worth making if only to set this six-part series apart from others in the find my daughter revenge genre. 3. Safe (2018)Watch on: NetflixAll anyone likes to talk about with Safe is Dexter star Michael C. Halls British accent (which is uncanny in every sense of the word) but this eight-part thriller has more to offer than that. Hall plays Tom, a widower and father of two ex-army surgeon who lives in a gated community among a bunch of wealthy neighbours under the illusion that their money has made their families safe. Safe from what? Abduction, murder, drugs, scandal, their own troubled and long-buried secret pasts You name it, this lot have done it. Whats really right about this one is the cast, which balances Hall on a fulcrum of Amanda Abbington and Marc Warren playing Toms two closest friends, and then tips that balance in the right direction with the always-unforgettable Nigel Lindsay as the flash dad of a tearaway teen. The plot is rightly ludicrous (there are 19th century morality novels with fewer hidden relations and terrible secrets), but it all rips along enjoyably, without leaving a moment to consider quite how unlikely it all is. A proper old-fashioned thrill ride.2. Fool Me Once (2023)Watch on: NetflixTwo words: Adeel Akhtar. Playing detective Sami Kierce, an expectant father with a traumatic past and secrets of his own, Akhtar steals the show in Fool Me Once, which is that rare thing a Harlan Coben thriller that doesnt fall apart by its final episode. This is the story of Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan), a helicopter pilot and captain who left the military after a scandal, and who loses her husband (Richard Armitage) and sister in close succession. Are their murders connected, and if so, can Kierce find out how? Moreover, can Maya discover why her supposedly dead husband has just shown up alive on their daughters nanny cam? Fool Me Once has all the twists, cliffhangers and secrets-buried-25-years-ago of any of these stories, with the addition of some ever-popular working class outsider v the one percent conflict, plus Akhtar acting up a storm (not having apparently received the memo that hes in a big, silly, thriller so A-games arent necessarily a cast requirement). All that, plus a finite ending (major finale spoilers in our exploration here) that properly closes the book. Its highly watchable stuff and a great place to start with these shows.1. The Innocent (2021)Watch on: NetflixWhether The Innocent would take your personal top spot in this list depends on whether you prefer your Harlan Coben series fizzy and bizarre, or earnest and straight down the line. This Spanish adaptation is the latter, a serious thriller filled with prison, guns, sex cults, blackmail, murders and voice-over narration. (Personally, the nasty sexual violence made me long for the alpaca oddness of the British strand, but theres no debating that this is a seriously good thriller with one of the most satisfying endings of any on this list.) The Innocent, largely set in Barcelona, is the story of Mat, an ex-convict lawyer whose wife goes missing, setting him on a complicated journey themed around revenge where the twists keep coming. Its about the notion of second chances, and would probably have been called that had Harlan Coben not already published No Second Chance (see above) in 2003.