THE WOODS: A Polish Adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Thriller

There is no doubt that I am not a binge-watcher of series—in the course of a year I watch only a few to a dozen or so titles—but I try to keep up with series premieres. In the age of streaming platforms, episodic productions have surpassed feature films in popularity, so it is good to know what is happening in the world of series. Netflix makes sure to publicize its productions, so I heard about The Woods quite early and immediately knew that I would want to watch this miniseries—after all, it is not every day that Poles adapt Harlan Coben for the screen!

Behind the camera are two talented representatives of the younger generation of Polish directors, Leszek Dawid and Bartek Konopka; in the leading roles, Grzegorz Damiecki and Agnieszka Grochowska; and above all, source material from one of the world’s most widely read thriller authors.

All of this meant that The Woods could be counted from the outset among the year’s most anticipated Polish series—especially since it was produced by Netflix, which knows miniseries like few others.

The length also looked promising—six episodes is an ideal distance for viewers like me, who are not fans of soap-like series. Of course, only on the condition that the script provides the right level of engagement: in the case of The Woods, the intrigue was handled by the not very experienced Agata Malesinska and Wojciech Miloszewski, the younger brother of the famous writer Zygmunt, who has written scripts for successful series such as The Border and Signs.

One could therefore expect at least respectable screenwriting work.

The first contact with W głębi lasu, however, raises some concerns. Clunky, roughly hewn dialogue and the overly star-like portrayal of prosecutor Pawel Kopinski (Grzegorz Damiecki) may put one off in the premiere episode, but when the intrigue gives more space to the flashback sequences, things get more interesting and the action thickens considerably. The Woods tells of a certain mysterious and tragic event that took place in 1994 at a summer camp where the then-teenage Pawel was a counselor for—quite puzzlingly—his peers. Two and a half decades later, the police find the body of a man who may be connected to the events of years past…

The plot of the Netflix series is the very essence of literary crime fiction—a mystery from the past, the reopening of nearly healed wounds, clues scattered thickly, including of course many red herrings. Dawid and Konopka offer very solid direction, the editing between present-day and retrospective scenes is fluid and justified by the story, and the narrative—though not very groundbreaking—grips the throat. Admittedly, one would like to get to know the characters better, to bond with them so as to root for them more strongly, but the accumulation of threads—including contemporary ones, some entirely unnecessary—means that the action moves briskly and there is simply no time left to delve into the histories of individual characters.

A major strength of The Woods is that it does not reveal all its cards for a long time—the final solution of the mystery will likely surprise more than a few viewers, also because the creators do not drop too many clues foreshadowing such an ending. There is no shortage of minor plot holes and sizable stretches (a counselor the same age as the wards was not, after all, the standard at camps even in the 1990s…), but they do not spoil the fun of watching The Woods. It is a pleasure to watch Agnieszka Grochowska and her classically nonchalant acting—I cannot shake the feeling that Ms.

Agnieszka and the character of Laura could have been used a bit better, less objectifyingly, but I am still glad we were able to get to know this heroine.

She is the perfect counterweight to the somewhat chaotic prosecutor Kopinski, flailing about in his investigation. Grzegorz Damiecki is an actor with great potential, but he clearly needs a director who will work with him on the role in detail.

The Woods fits into the trend for the 1980s and 1990s, as the Polish slasher Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight did recently (what is it with them and the forest…?), but the series based on Coben’s prose is, of course, a somewhat more ambitious proposal than Bartosz M. Kowalski’s horror.

Thanks to a coherent narrative, solid direction, and convincing acting (especially from the younger cast, Hubert Milkowski and Wiktoria Filus), spending a few hours with The Woods turns out to be a highly satisfying experience. And the positive reviews from abroad suggest that this may be the first Polish Netflix production to gain international recognition. That is probably reason enough to call The Woods a successful endeavor.