Safe has received positive reviews. It has a 71% approval rating on review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews. While British newspapers
The Daily Telegraph and
The Guardian found Hall's "odd" English accent to be a metaphor of overall peculiarities with the series, they both found many elements of the show to be entertaining. Ed Power wrote in
The Daily Telegraph that Harlan Coben "makes every one of his characters feel plausibly sinister and throws in plenty of skilfully crafted cliff-hangers. Netflix's latest can be hackneyed and is written to formula, but the central mystery is assembled with a watchmaker's eye and the entire fandango whirrs by with ruthless efficiency."
The Guardians Sam Wollaston wrote, "What looked at one point like it might be Netflix's
Broadchurch – the disappearance of a teenager, a parent's anguish, the effect on a community, the police investigation – soon starts to look more like
Desperate Housewives. I'm very much enjoying these people, without really caring about them."
Maureen Ryan of
Variety praised the series, writing, "It's a highly watchable, semi-pulpy serial loaded with reveals, clues and cliffhangers, and the core cast is generally quite good." Ben Travers of
IndieWire found the series entertaining and graded it a B, writing, "
Safe leans into most of its increasingly preposterous moments, including Hall's accent. It's not that the show or its star's elocution are bad, per se; they just don't overwork themselves trying to convince you of their grand importance.
Safe is a soap, and it's a fun diversion as such." Daniel Fienberg of
The Hollywood Reporter, who based his review on the first two episodes sent to critics, criticised Hall's accent and performance, the depiction of teens and other elements of the series as all off-tone. Fienberg wrote, "It could take watching the six additional episodes to know if there's a cliché-upending payoff or if
Safe is just a muddle." ==References==