Parents' Guide to

Safe

By Martin Brown, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Cliche-free British crime drama is great grown-up mystery.

TV Netflix Drama 2018
Safe Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 6 parent reviews

Jay9014
Jay9014 Adult
December 4, 2021
age 17+

Not really sure what age to rate this on

Honestly, Show was ok, had a nice twist (no spoilers) Gotta give it the fact, Not nearly as bad as The Witcher as far as sex and nudity goes. There are sex scenes but very few that I remember, Sexual References are heard for example one of the characters is a drug dealer they tell a delivery guy that he looked at her naked in the shower (which didn't happen) and that he wanted to sleep with her. Partial nude is scene in photo. Not much else to say about it, Thanks for reading, I guess 17 and up will do.

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much sex
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Meganolia
Meganolia Parent
July 1, 2018
age 15+

All good (2 things stood out)

They show graphics of naked woman.. and one F word stood out and the MILF used. Great great attention keeper! A lot of drinking and drugs. Entitlement all over the place but I'd say 15 years old and up. I didn't see any sex scenes. There was pictures during an interrogation.

This title has:

Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 6 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In SAFE, Tom Delaney (Michael C. Hall), a surgeon living in a gated community, is trying to hold his family together after the death of his wife. He's also having a secret romance with Sophie (Amanda Abbington), a local detective. When Tom's older daughter, Jenny, doesn't come home one night, he enlists his best friend and fellow doctor, Pete (Marc Warren), to help find her. At the same time, Sophie and her new partner (Hannah Arterton) are investigating accusations that high school teacher Zoe Chahal (Audrey Fleurot) is sleeping with one of her students. Zoe is also the mother of Jenny's boyfriend, Chris, who is also missing. As Tom and Sophie conduct their separate investigations, it becomes clear that the mysteries might be intertwined.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6):
Kids say (6):

For a show that's content to stay within its genre, this does a lot of subtle things extremely well, and always moves fast enough to stay one step ahead of the audience. When a question gets raised (a character caught in a lie, for example), Safe will address it quickly, only for many other questions to bloom from the answer. It also uses a lot of dramatic irony to great effect. We know what happens to a certain character early on, but then get to watch as the other characters find out one-by-one, and their responses fuel the mystery.

Living somewhere between Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, Safe's characters are also strongly realized. Like a good noir, characters seem tough on the surface, but contain hidden depths that come out as their secrets are revealed. More importantly, the show does an incredible job of avoiding cliches and obvious plot turns. The two main police detectives are women, which is a rare thing itself, but that doesn't factor into the plot at all. One of the main characters is gay and, similarly, his sexuality doesn't factor into the plot or become a topic of conversation -- it just is. And more subtly, there are a handful of adult relationships that could easily be depicted as abusive, but turn out to be much more complex, and Safe finds unique ways of depicting unhealthy communication between couples. These are subtle but crucial things that allow Safe to focus on the actual story at the heart of the show. The result: one of the best TV crime dramas of the past decade.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about coping with loss. When we meet Tom Delaney (Michael C. Hall) in Safe, he and his daughters are mourning the death of his wife. How does this affect their relationships with one another? How successful are they at helping each other heal? What could they do better?

  • Families can talk about healthy partnerships. Many (if not all) of the adult couples in Safe have some sort of strain on their relationship. How do each of the couples in Safe treat one another? How do they talk to each other, and how does that affect their relationship? What are the habits that are healthy? Unhealthy?

  • Families can try to solve the mystery! One of the strengths of Safe is that it presents a compelling and intriguing murder mystery -- something that is more rare than you might think, given the amount of crime shows on television. Families can talk through the events, unravel the different story threads, and try to predict what is going to happen.

TV Details

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