It has been a minute since Michael C. Hall was the star of his own series, but the former TV serial killer is finally set to return in Netflix’s upcoming mystery thriller, Safe. Hall is no stranger to the streaming service after making a brief appearance on season 2 of The Crown as John F. Kennedy, but now he’s back as a father in search of his missing daughter after she goes missing following a neighborhood party. As an added bonus, and perhaps an effort to distance himself from Dexter Morgan and his Dark Passenger, Hall comes complete with a snazzy British accent to spice things up.

Though the premise of Safe seems fairly straightforward — widower searches for his daughter who may or may not have been kidnapped — the eight-episode series looks to also be an intense paranoid thriller as Hall’s Tom begins to uncover some dark secrets among his neighbors in an affluent gated community. Those secrets could well be connected to the disappearance of his daughter but, as the trailer points out, they may also hide something far more sinister.

The trailer for the series is actually rather short, which could be construed as a good sign and an indication the series doesn’t need much in the way explanation. It might also be an indication Netflix is aware it has a known commodity on its hands with Hall. The actor’s return to television (streaming platform notwithstanding) is certainly a big deal in and of itself, and his decision to focus his efforts on a joint production between Netflix and Canal+ is an interesting one.


Another point of interest is that Safe consists of an eight-episode season that may very well have a closed ending — presuming Tom finds his daughter, of course. While there could certainly be any number of ways the series might continue, it looks as though this is aiming to be a solid one-and-done, which could leave Hall available for all sorts of future projects.

Questions about Hall’s next steps aside, Safe makes for a relatively safe (sorry) return to television. After all, this is the guy who made a serial killer into a likable guy who also fancied himself something of a vigilante. With a role like that under his belt it doesn’t take much for the actor to cut a heroic figure out of a father desperately trying to find his child and discovering his neighbors are harboring some dark secrets of their own along the way.

Safe will be available to stream on May 10 only on Netflix.