Critic’s Rating: 3.25 / 5.0
3.25
Vanished doesn’t waste time pretending it’s something it’s not, and that’s a good thing.
This is a sleek, four-episode mystery built around a familiar hook — a man disappears, and the woman who loves him realizes she may not have known him at all — and it commits fully to that premise.
There’s no padding or false profundity. It’s just a tight, internationally set thriller that understands its job and does it competently.
That job begins when Alice (Kaley Cuoco) and Tom (Sam Claflin) are traveling through France, casually discussing their future, when Tom steps away during a train ride to take a phone call and never comes back.
What initially feels like an accident or misunderstanding quickly curdles into something far more unsettling, leaving Alice stranded in a foreign country with no clear answers and even fewer people she can trust.
The series remains smartly focused throughout.
Alice’s search for Tom pulls her into an investigation already in progress, led by journalist Hélène (Karin Viard), who has been digging into Tom’s work long before he vanished.
What Alice believed was charitable, humanitarian work begins to look far more complicated — and potentially criminal — and the show lets that uncertainty linger just long enough to be uncomfortable.
To the show’s credit, Vanished doesn’t rush to clarify who Tom really is.
Instead, it allows Alice to experience him in fragments: the man she loves, the man others fear, and the man who may be playing a much deeper game than anyone realizes.
That tension is where the series finds most of its momentum, particularly as Alice is forced to adapt quickly when her own safety comes into question.
Cuoco carries the series with ease. Alice isn’t written as an action hero or an investigative savant; she’s reactive, emotional, and occasionally reckless, which has always been Cuoco’s hot spot.
She balances vulnerability and stubborn determination well, never losing sight of the fact that Alice’s motivation isn’t heroism — it’s love, confusion, and a growing need for the truth.
Claflin, meanwhile, walks a careful line.
There’s just enough warmth in his early scenes to make Alice’s attachment believable, and just enough edge later on to keep viewers guessing about where his loyalties truly lie.
If nothing else, Vanished benefits from the chemistry between its leads, even when the story intentionally destabilizes that connection.
Tonally, the series is darker than it initially appears, exploring themes of exploitation, trafficking, and moral compromise without fully wallowing in them.
That restraint works in its favor.
Even at its bleakest, Vanished never feels oppressive, and there’s an underlying lightness in how Alice navigates the chaos — a reminder that this is meant to be engaging entertainment, not endurance viewing.
If there’s one drawback, it’s the release strategy.
Spread across four weeks, the series feels like it’s begging to be binged — and if you know me at all, you know that’s not something I say lightly.
The momentum for a binge-watch is there. The episodes are lean, and the twists land best when watched in close succession. Still, the pacing within each hour is brisk enough to keep things moving week to week.
Vanished won’t redefine the genre, but it doesn’t need to.
It’s a polished, watchable mystery anchored by two likable leads and a central question that’s compelling enough to carry it to the end.
If you enjoy relationship-driven thrillers with an international backdrop and a steady drip of intrigue, this one earns a spot on your watchlist — even if the answers come with a few complications along the way.
Vanished premieres on MGM+ on Sunday, February 1 at 9/8c.
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